gnal from the central office network elements to the destination customer. From a cable infrastructure point of view, in copper-based access, every user has a dedi- cated copper pair, SO that no multiplexing between signals from different users happens. In the case of fiber-based access, in order to exploit at best the huge capacity of the optical fiber, signals from different users are multiplexed over part of the fiber infrastructure. This multiplexing is always operated via passive multiplexers/demultiplexers where passive in this case means that they do not need power feeding and no monitoring by the manage- ment software is carried out. Where a mixed copper-fiber infrastructure is adopted, in the location where the optical fiber leaves the place to copper cables, a network element that adapts the signal modula- tion to the different transmission media is needed. As for signal modulation, in the traditional telephone network, an analog signal was transmitted from the access telephone switch located in the central office to the terminal in the user house via a user-dedicated copper pair. In the broadband network, this is not possible since the signal to be delivered is digital. In order to deliver a broadband digital signal, carriers deploy at every user location (in offices for business users and in homes for residential users) a network element, gener- ally called home gateway (or office gateway). Generally, the home gateway is a part of the carrier network; thus, even if it is deployed in a private house, it is controlled and configured by the carrier via a remote management software. The role of the home gateway is both to multiplex all the signals coming from the users appliances (PCs, televisions with set-top-boxes, game consoles, and SO on) to transmit it to the network and to mark the separation between the home networking area that is within the customer responsibility, and the public network area that is within the carrier responsibility. The home gateway has to implement all the functionalities need