Patent ID: 7746809

Claim:
A method for making correspondence between a maintenance point identifier and a media access control address, wherein each maintenance point on the network is allocated a unique maintenance point identifier, the method further comprising: sending, by a maintenance end point, a broadcast query message to all the maintenance points on the network with a maintenance point identifier of a destination maintenance point to obtain the media access control address of the destination maintenance point; determining, by the maintenance points, whether the maintenance point identifier in the message is the same as its own maintenance point identifier after each maintenance point receives the broadcast query message; if they are same, returning a unicast response message which includes its own maintenance point identifier and media access control address; otherwise, performing no operation; obtaining, by the maintenance end point, the media access control address of the destination maintenance point from the unicast response message; sending, by a maintenance point newly entered the network, to other maintenance points on the network a broadcast configuration message which carries the maintenance point identifier and the media access control address of the maintenance point newly entered; and saving, by a maintenance end point on the network which receives the broadcast configuration message, the correspondence between the maintenance point identifier and the media access control address in the broadcast configuration message in its own correspondence information table; wherein, before the maintenance point newly entered sends a broadcast configuration message, the method further comprises: verifying the validity of the maintenance point newly entered; if it is valid, executing the step of sending a broadcast configuration message and subsequent steps; otherwise, ending the process; and the step of verifying the validity of the maintenance point newly entered comprises: sending, by the maintenance point newly entered, a broadcast query message to the network with its maintenance point identifier and starting a timer; determining, by each maintenance point which receives the broadcast query message, whether the maintenance point identifier carried in the message is the same as its own maintenance point identifier; if they are same, then returning a unicast response message; otherwise, performing no operation; and determining, by the maintenance point newly entered, whether the unicast response message from other maintenance point is received before the timer times out; and if it is received, determining that the maintenance point newly entered is invalid; otherwise, determining that the maintenance point newly entered is valid.