System and method for congestion notification in an ethernet OAM network

摘要

A network element in an Ethernet OAM network is operable to detect congestion associated with an OAM domain and generate a congestion notification to MEPs in the OAM domain using a modified Ethernet OAM protocol. When a network element detects congestion in one or more queues associated with an MEP in an OAM domain, it triggers a congestion state. The MEP transmits a congestion notification to other MEPs in the OAM domain. The notifying MEP, as well as other MEPs receiving the congestion notification, initiate a network management protocol message to a network management system for the OAM domain. The MEPs in the OAM domain may also propagate the congestion notification to MEPs in higher maintenance level OAM domains.

主权项

1. A network element operable in an Ethernet OAM network, comprising:
at least one port of the network element operable for configuration as a maintenance end point (MEP) in a first OAM domain; at least one queue assigned to an Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC), wherein the EVC is monitored by the MEP; at least one processing module configured to:
monitoring the at least one queue associated with the MEP;when a congestion level in the at least one queue compares unfavorably to a congestion threshold, performing a statistical sampling on the at least one queue over a first predetermined time period;when the congestion threshold compares unfavorably for the first predetermined time period, triggering a congestion state for the MEP in the first OAM domain;generate a first congestion notification for transmission to one or more other MEPs in the first OAM domain, wherein the first congestion notification includes a congestion measurement field relating to the at least one queue, an identifier for the MEP and an S-VLAN identifier of the EVC assigned to the at least one queue;generate a network management system (NMS) message for transmission to a NMS for the first OAM domain, wherein the NMS message includes congestion information and the identifier for the MEP; andgenerate a second congestion notification for propagation to another MEP in a second OAM domain at a higher hierarchical level, wherein the second congestion notification includes the congestion information and an identifier for the first OAM domain.