Cisco Systems A9014CFD manual Link Monitoring, 10-34

Chapter 10 Configuring Ethernet OAM

Discovery includes an optional phase in which the local station can accept or reject the configuration of the peer OAM entity. For example, a node may require that its partner support loopback capability to be accepted into the management network. These policy decisions may be implemented as vendor-specific extensions.

Link Monitoring

Link monitoring in Ethernet OAM detects and indicates link faults under a variety of conditions. Link monitoring uses the event notification OAM PDU and sends events to the remote OAM entity when there are problems detected on the link. The error events include the following:

•Error Symbol Period (error symbols per second)—The number of symbol errors that occurred during a specified period exceeded a threshold. These errors are coding symbol errors.

•Error Frame (error frames per second)—The number of frame errors detected during a specified period exceeded a threshold.

•Error Frame Period (error frames per n frames)—The number of frame errors within the last n frames has exceeded a threshold.

•Error Frame Seconds Summary (error seconds per m seconds)—The number of error seconds (1-second intervals with at least one frame error) within the last m seconds has exceeded a threshold.

Since IEEE 802.3ah OAM does not provide a guaranteed delivery of any OAM PDU, the event notification OAM PDU may be sent multiple times to reduce the probability of a lost notification. A sequence number is used to recognize duplicate events.

Remote Failure Indication

Faults in Ethernet connectivity that are caused by slowly deteriorating quality are difficult to detect. Ethernet OAM provides a mechanism for an OAM entity to convey these failure conditions to its peer via specific flags in the OAM PDU. The following failure conditions can be communicated:

•Link Fault—Loss of signal is detected by the receiver; for instance, the peer's laser is malfunctioning. A link fault is sent once per second in the information OAM PDU. Link fault applies only when the physical sublayer is capable of independently transmitting and receiving signals.

•Dying Gasp—This notification is sent for power failure, link down, router reload and link administratively down conditions. This type of condition is vendor specific. A notification about the condition may be sent immediately and continuously.

•Critical Event—An unspecified critical event occurs. This type of event is vendor specific. A critical event may be sent immediately and continuously.

Remote Loopback

An OAM entity can put its remote peer into loopback mode using the loopback control OAM PDU. Loopback mode helps an administrator ensure the quality of links during installation or when troubleshooting. In loopback mode, every frame received is transmitted back on the same port except for OAM PDUs and pause frames. The periodic exchange of OAM PDUs must continue during the loopback state to maintain the OAM session.

The loopback command is acknowledged by responding with an information OAM PDU with the loopback state indicated in the state field. This acknowledgement allows an administrator, for example, to estimate if a network segment can satisfy a service-level agreement. Acknowledgement makes it possible to test delay, jitter, and throughput.

	Cisco ASR 901 Series Aggregation Services Router Software Configuration Guide
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