Patent ID: 8036132

Claim:
A method comprising: obtaining access to a loopback port terminating a Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) on a non-service provider connection device communicatively coupled to a backbone network of a service provider, said PVC comprising a plurality of transport network interfaces; defining a management PVC terminated on said loopback port; sending loopback test requests from a signaling device via said management PVC, wherein a separate loopback test request of the loopback test requests is transmitted to each of the plurality of transport network interfaces from the signaling device; monitoring loopback test signals via a layer 2 tool, the loopback test signals comprising the loopback test requests and a loopback test response, said layer 2 tool adapted to measure round-trip delay times from said signaling device and each of said plurality of transport network interface devices for the loopback test signals; via said monitored loopback test signals, identifying baseline round-trip delay times between said signaling device and each of said plurality of transport network interface devices; establishing a profile of round-trip delay times for each of a plurality of access links between said plurality of transport network interface devices, said profile comprising said baseline round-trip delay times; establishing a first threshold delay time between said signaling device and said non-service provider connection device; determining, when one or more of said monitored loopback test signals are not delayed beyond said first threshold delay time, that a layer 1 trunk circuit failure has not occurred; establishing a second threshold delay time between said signaling device and said non-service provider connection device; determining, when one or more of said monitored loopback test signals are not delayed beyond said second threshold delay time, that a layer 1 router failure has not occurred; determining, when one or more of said monitored loopback test signals are delayed substantially less than a baseline round-trip delay between said signaling device and said non-service provider connection device, that a facility loopback exists; locating said facility loopback; identifying a management entity that is responsible for said facility loopback; responsive to a determination that a trunk circuit failure has occurred, locating said trunk failure via active diagnostics; responsive to a determination that a router failure has occurred, locating said router failure via active diagnostics; and automatically generating a trouble ticket adapted to provide a service entity with failure location information regarding said trunk failure, said facility loopback, or said router failure.