A
system for originating
connectivity fault management (CFM) frames on non-CFM aware switches is disclosed. In the disclosed
system, an OAM (Operations Administration and Management) proxy networking device connected to a core
Ethernet network operates with one or more CPE (
Customer Premises Equipment) devices to which it is communicably connected to support CFM out to the CPE devices without requiring that the CPE devices themselves implement CFM functionality. The OAM proxy networking device generates
Connectivity Check (CC) frames,
Loopback reply frames, and Linktrace reply frames for MEPs (Maintenance End Points) or MIPs (Maintenance Intermediate Points) contained in communication ports on the CPEs. These CFM frames generated by the OAM proxy networking device are then sent within messages from the OAM proxy networking device to the appropriate CPE. When the CPE device receives a message from the OAM proxy networking device containing one of these CFM frames, it checks the
operability of a communication port indicated by the message. If the port is operable, the CPE device extracts the CFM frame from the message and originates it through the OAM proxy networking device into the core
Ethernet network. The OAM proxy networking device further operates to process
Connectivity Check frames received from the core
Ethernet network and addressed to the CPE devices by maintaining an MEP
connectivity database. As a result, these received
Connectivity Check frames are dropped without forwarding to the CPE devices.