Patent ID: 7653082

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network, an Ethernet network, the SDH network having an SDH network management system to monitor functionality of network elements in the SDH network, the SDH network being arranged to transport at least Ethernet information in SDH format across the SDH network, the SDH network being at least partially situated at a host site, the Ethernet network being situated at a user site, the SDH network comprising an SDH network element arranged to convert the Ethernet information in the SDH format into Ethernet format information for transportation between the host and user sites via a link between the host and user sites, the Ethernet network comprising an Ethernet network element to receive the Ethernet format information, and a user network termination element connected by a direct connection to the SDH network element, the user network termination element being arranged to convert information from optical Ethernet format to electrical Ethernet format and from the electrical Ethernet format to the optical Ethernet format, the SDH network element being operative to request a status of the Ethernet network element when the SDH network element is required to update the SDH network management system with status information on the functionality of at least one of the SDH network element and the Ethernet network element, the direct connection between the SDH network element and the user network termination element being used for determining if the user network termination element is functioning correctly.