Patent ID: 8730822

Claim:
A method of providing Ethernet Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning (OAMP) functionality on an Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) hardware device for supporting Ethernet MAC SDH/SONET OAMP functionality by managing Wave layer, Physical layer, Line layer, Section layer, and Path layer on an Ethernet protocol network, comprising: a near end MAC OAMP Control sublayer receiving Ethernet OAMP Client requests to be transmitted; the near end MAC OAMP Control sublayer creating an Ethernet OAMP Control frame with requested OAMP control parameters associated with an Ethernet OAMP Client request; and the near end MAC OAMP Control sublayer transmitting the Ethernet OAMP Control frame; wherein the Ethernet MAC hardware device provides corresponding Ethernet OAMP functionality for the Ethernet Wave layer, Physical layer, Line layer, Section layer, and Path layer in such a way that full compliance with SDH/SONET protocol OAMP functionality can be implemented on the Ethernet protocol network.