Patent ID: 7821948

Claim:
A method of activating monitoring of a unidirectional point-to-multipoint multicast connection, wherein a transport path of the unidirectional point-to-multipoint multicast connection forms a tree that extends from a root to a plurality of branch endpoints, via exchange of Operations, Administration, and Management (OAM) messages in a communications network management context, the method comprising: extending connectivity to a new branch endpoint in the tree; retrieving, with a network management system (NMS), a connection record from a network management repository, the connection record storing connectivity information for the tree; determining common path points in the tree between the root and the new branch endpoint; segmenting an uncommon portion of the tree between the root and the new branch endpoint; identifying at least one uncommon OAM compliant managed path segment; and issuing OAM configuration commands to the at least one uncommon OAM compliant managed path segment uniquely associated with the new branch endpoint to activate an OAM functionality, wherein a provisioning status of the OAM functionality is stored only once in the connection record for common managed and compliant path points in the tree between the root and the new branch endpoint and OAM messages are conveyed to the plurality of branch endpoints.