Patent ID: 8054751

Claim:
In a network environment including a provider network coupled to a first customer network site via a first access link and to a second customer network site via a second access link, a method for providing an indication to said first customer network site of an access link fault relative to said second access link, comprising: detecting said access link fault relative to said second access link, said detecting by an access link interface of a remote provider edge (PE) entity that is connected to a remote customer edge (CE) entity disposed at said second customer network site, the access link interface detecting said access link fault tunneled from the first customer network site to the second customer network site using at least one of: an Ethernet Alarm Indication and Suppression (AIS) frame generated by the remote PE, and a Continuity Check (CC) frame modified to include remote access fault information by way of an access link fault flag field; responsive to said detecting, generating by said remote PE entity an Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) control frame that includes an indication of said access link fault, said control frame enters the provider network as a regular Ethernet frame and transparently traverses the provider network which will not drop the frame since the indication of said access link fault emanated from outside the provider network, wherein said frame includes an indication of the remote access fault detected by the PE; transmitting said OAM control frame across said provider network, whereby said OAM control frame is received by an access link interface of a local PE entity that is connected to a local CE entity disposed at said first customer network site; and translating said indication of said access link fault in said OAM control frame into a locally compliant error delivery condition compatible with said first customer network site, wherein the translating said indication of said access link fault comprises generating an Ethernet in First Mile (EFM) frame having its payload include an error condition message of the AIS frame indicating the access link fault indication, and a link fault bit included in the EFM frame to indicate the remote access fault, the AIS frame comprising at least one reliability measure field including a time count field as part of the AIS frame, the time count field providing a measure of how long the access link fault has been present since detection of the access link fault, and wherein the time count field is incremented upon generation of the AIS frame.