Patent ID: 7898965

Claim:
A method of network monitoring in a first network layer node operating on a link state protocol controlled Ethernet network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving by the first node a network layer monitoring command from a network layer monitoring requestor, the monitoring command directed to a second node; resolving by the first node the network layer monitoring command into one or more Ethernet OAM command(s), the step of resolving comprising the steps of: resolving the network layer address of the second node by consulting a forwarding table to associate the network layer address of the second node with an Ethernet MAC node ID associated with second node on the link state protocol controlled Ethernet network, constructing the one or more Ethernet OAM command(s) with the second node Ethernet MAC node ID address as their destination addresses, and consulting the forwarding table to find the next hop address on the link state protocol controlled Ethernet network for forwarding the OAM command(s) towards the second node on the link state protocol controlled Ethernet network; sending the Ethernet OAM command(s) to the second node; receiving results of the Ethernet OAM command(s) from the second node; and returning by the first node the results of the Ethernet OAM command(s) in the form of a network layer response to the network layer monitoring requestor.