Patent ID: 9379938
Filing Date: 2016-06-28
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: generating a first plurality of Service Operation, Administration, and Management (SOAM) flows intended for a working port and a second plurality of SOAM flows intended for a protection port, wherein the working port and the protection port form a link aggregation group and are located on different plug-in units of a network element; the first plurality of SOAM flows comprising (i) at least one SOAM flow used to verify the continuity of a first network path utilized by a protected group of virtual local area network (VLAN) flows and (ii) at least one SOAM flow used to verify the continuity of a second network path utilized by a redundant group of VLAN flows corresponding to the protected group of VLAN flows; the second plurality of SOAM flows comprising (i) at least one SOAM flow used to verify the continuity of the first network path utilized by the protected group of VLAN flows and (ii) at least one SOAM flow used to verify the continuity of the second network path utilized by the redundant group of VLAN flows; determining whether each of the working port and the protection port is an active port or an inactive port; dropping all of the plurality of SOAM flows intended for the inactive port; and communicating to the active port all of the plurality of SOAM flows intended for the active port.