Patent ID: 8861371

Claim:
A computing-device implemented method comprising: receiving, by a first Ethernet interface, a message from a remote second Ethernet interface via an Ethernet operation, administration, and management (OAM) channel, wherein the Ethernet OAM channel comprises an International Telecommunications Union Y.1731 channel, determining, by the first Ethernet interface, that the message includes a request for status information regarding an identified higher layer service, wherein the identified higher layer service comprises a service operating on a network layer higher than layer 2, wherein the message comprises an OAM protocol data unit (PDU), and wherein the determining includes: determining, by the first Ethernet interface, that the received OAM PDU includes at least an indication that the message is a higher layer service message and an identification of the identified higher layer service, and wherein the identification of the identified higher layer service comprises an identity of a host device on which the identified higher layer service is running and an identity of a port number on the host device associated with the identified higher layer service; determining, by the first Ethernet interface, a current status of the identified higher layer service in response to determining that the message includes the request for status information; generating, by the first Ethernet interface, a response message to include the current status; and transmitting, by the first Ethernet interface, the response message to the remote second Ethernet interface via the Ethernet OAM channel.