Patent ID: 8559432

Claim:
A method implemented by a first provider equipment (PE) device to enable operations, administration and management (OAM) functionality over a pseudo-wire (PW) between the first PE device and a second PE device, wherein the PW traverses a packet switched network and carries control channel messages and a flow of data packets, and where the packet switched network includes nodes traversed by the pseudo-wire that use information outside a pseudo-wire label stack of the data packets for determining multi-path routing, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a control channel message at the first PE, the control channel message to be forwarded over the pseudo-wire to the second PE; determining that the pseudo-wire was negotiated to support an offset based control channel; prefixing the control channel message with a pseudo-flow header, the pseudo-flow header matching a header that is also part of the data packets of the flow, that is outside the pseudo-wire label stack of the data packets, and that is used by the nodes for determining multi-path routing of the data packets, the pseudo-flow header of the control channel message to ensure that the control channel message is forwarded over a same route by the nodes of the packet switched network as the data packets of the flow, thereby enabling OAM functionality specified by the control channel message to be accurately performed for the pseudo-wire; and forwarding the control channel message with the pseudo-flow header to the second PE over the pseudo-wire.