Edge routers (ERs) 30-32 operate at the borders of aggregation network 24 and, responsive to controller 55, apply network services, such as authorization, policy provisioning, and network connectivity, to network traffic associated with subscriber devices 18 in communication with edge routers 30-32. Edge routers 30-32 may include one or more processors (not shown in FIG. 1 and which may include a central processing unit—CPU) that execute software instructions, such as those used to define a software or computer program, stored to a computer-readable storage medium (again, not shown in FIG. 1), such as non-transitory computer-readable mediums including a storage device (e.g., a disk drive, or an optical drive) or a memory (such as Flash memory or random access memory (RAM)) or any other type of volatile or non-volatile memory, that stores instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform the techniques described herein. In some examples, edge routers 30-32 may comprise a processor in the form of dedicated hardware, such as one or more integrated circuits, one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), one or more Application Specific Special Processors (ASSPs), one or more Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), or any combination of one or more of the foregoing examples of dedicated hardware, for performing the techniques described herein. Although FIG. 1 illustrates one edge router 30, as discussed further in FIG. 2, edge router 30 may represent any quantity of edge routers. Similarly, edge router 31 may represent any quantity of edge routers.
