Patent ID: 7957267
Filing Date: 2011-06-07
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A fault detection device for detecting faults on a network, comprising: a monitoring control packet transmitter, arranged at a higher layer above a link layer in the fault detection device, to generate a fault monitoring control packet configured to carry no control content in a payload thereof and to be discarded at a receiving end device other than the fault detection device and transmit the generated fault monitoring control packet to an associated device with which the fault detection device need not interoperate to detect faults according to a protocol; a transmit packet counter, arranged at a physical layer or the link layer in the fault detection device to monitor outputs of the higher layer above the link layer, to detect transmit packets carrying no control content in a payload thereof and to be discarded at a receiving end device other than the fault detection device, and keep count of the detected transmit packets; a receive packet counter to receive control packets transmitted from the associated device, and keep count of the received control packets; and a fault detector to monitor the count of transmitted packets and the count of received packets and, if at least one of the counts remains unchanged for a fixed period of time, judge that a fault has occurred and send a fault notification.