A method, system, and apparatus for managing customer premise equipment according to one embodiment includes establishing a secure connection between a first transport unit and a second transport unit. The secure connection includes an embedded operations channel and is operable to isolate a management plane from a data plane. The method further includes the first transport unit receiving a request for access to the first transport unit from the second transport unit. The method further includes establishing a secure terminal session between the first transport unit and the second transport unit using the embedded operations channel in response to receiving the request for access. The first transport unit then receives a management command from the second transport unit and the first transport unit performs at least one management function in response to receiving the management command.