Patent ID: 7855968

Claim:
A method of propagating fault information in an Ethernet network having multiple designated hierarchical levels of Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) domains, wherein each OAM domain is bounded by Maintenance End Point (MEP) nodes that bound a plurality of Maintenance Intermediate Point (MIP) nodes, comprising: transmitting a first Ethernet Alarm Indication and Suppression (AIS) frame by at least one MIP node disposed in a first lower hierarchical level OAM domain in the Ethernet network upon detecting a first fault in said first lower hierarchical level OAM domain for reception by at least one MEP node bounding said first OAM domain; generating additional AIS frames by at least a portion of other MIP nodes disposed in said first lower hierarchical level OAM domain in response to detecting further faults therein; transmitting said additional AIS frames to said at least one MEP node bounding said first OAM domain; upon receiving said first Ethernet AIS frame and said additional AIS frames, coalescing said additional AIS frames and said first Ethernet AIS frame and generating by said at least one MEP node bounding said first OAM domain a second Ethernet AIS frame for transmission to a second MEP node disposed in a second higher hierarchical level OAM domain, said second Ethernet AIS frame including a level indication that indicates a first fault has been detected in said first lower hierarchical level OAM domain; determining a second fault in said second higher hierarchical level OAM domain in the Ethernet networks by said second MEP node; and responsive to said second Ethernet AIS frame including the level indication that indicates the first fault has been detected in said first lower hierarchical level OAM domain, suppressing generation of an alarm in said second OAM domain by said second MEP node disposed in the second higher hierarchical level due to the second fault determined in said second higher hierarchical level OAM domain.