Patent ID: 8411701

Claim:
A method performed on a first network element functioning as an aggregation node in a radio access network (RAN), the method to support operations, management and administration (OAM) between network elements in a LowRAN portion of the RAN that support Ethernet in the first mile (EFM) and network elements in a HiRAN portion of the RAN that support connectivity fault management (CFM) in the radio access network, wherein the LowRAN portion is a point-to-point topology between a cell site and the aggregation node and wherein the HiRAN portion is a network of a plurality of aggregation nodes connected to a backhaul network of the RAN, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an EFM message at the aggregation node from a second network element that is a cell site in the LowRAN that supports EFM, wherein the EFM message includes OAM data; converting by the aggregation node the OAM data from the EFM message into a sub-type-length-value (sub-TLV) of a CFM message; and transmitting by the aggregation node the CFM message including the OAM data in the sub-TLV to a third network element that supports CFM, wherein the third network element is an aggregation node in the HiRAN, whereby an end-to-end OAM sublayer is provided in the RAN between the cell site and the backhaul network by conversion of OAM data from EFM to CFM.