Patent ID: 9692712
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method of operating a Service, Operation, Administration and Maintenance (SOAM) virtualization system for a network, said method comprising a network controller, coupled to a first maintenance entity through a tunnel, generating a tunnel packet comprising a tunnel header, a SOAM frame and metadata specifying one or more operations to perform on a parameter of said SOAM frame, wherein the network controller configures said SOAM frame as to have been generated by said first maintenance entity; said first maintenance entity receiving said tunnel packet over said tunnel and modifying said parameter of said SOAM frame by performing said one or more operations to produce a modified SOAM frame, said first maintenance entity forwarding said tunnel packet comprising said modified SOAM frame to a second maintenance entity over said network; said second maintenance entity, in response to receiving said tunnel packet comprising said modified SOAM frame, transmitting a second tunnel packet comprising a reply SOAM frame to said first maintenance entity; said first maintenance entity receiving said second tunnel packet comprising said reply SOAM frame and forwarding said reply SOAM frame to said network controller through said tunnel; and said network controller processing results of said tunnel packet comprising said reply SOAM frame.