Patent ID: 8102774

Claim:
A method for setting-up connectivity monitoring of a connection between a first edge node and a second edge node in a network, said method comprising the steps of: extending connection setup procedures used to establish the connection between the first edge node and the second edge node to also provision an Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) functionality by establishing a first OAM entity at the first edge node and a second OAM entity at the second edge node, where the first OAM entity and the second OAM entity are used to monitor a health of the connection between the first edge node and the second edge node, and wherein establishing the first OAM entity and the second OAM entity comprises exchanging messages between the first edge node and the second edge node, each message containing an object with a Type-Length-Value (TLV) defined for OAM configuration, wherein the TLV has a connectivity interval field in which there is coded a value of a connectivity check interval, and wherein the first edge node uses at least the received connectivity check interval to establish the first OAM entity and the second edge node uses at least the received connectivity check interval to establish the second OAM entity.