Vendors push Ethernet OAM as standards mature

To help carriers offer stringent quality of service and strict service level agreements for Ethernet service, equipment vendors are increasingly bringing to market equipment with
Ethernet operations, administration and management (OAM) functions based largely on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ 802.1AG standard, which is expected to be finalized soon.

Cisco Systems announced today “the implementation of standards-based Carrier Ethernet OAM capabilities from the core to the customer premise across its Carrier Ethernet portfolio.” Those OAM capabilities--now present in Cisco’s 7600 routers, 3400 Ethernet access switches, 3750 metro Ethernet switches and Integrated Services Router (or ISR)--are based largely on the IEEE’s 802.3ah standard for link-layer troubleshooting, the 802.1AG standard for connectivity fault management and the Metro Ethernet Forum’s ELMI protocol for automatic provisioning of customer premises gear. (ELMI is based largely on the Frame Relay LMI protocol, but unlike FRLMI, ELMI does not manage the link between customer and carrier equipment.)

“ELMI isn’t really a standards body, but we’ll call [Cisco’s OAM] ‘standards-based’ because [ELMI] is going to become the de facto standard,” said Ian Hood, Cisco’s senior product marketing manager.

Separately today, Adva Optical Networking announced a partnership with operations support software vendor Infovista to bring OAM capabilities--also based on 802.1AG--to Adva’s Ethernet access gear.

The partnership--which was initiated by its first customer, Australia’s Uecomm--integrates Infovista’s performance monitoring and reporting software with Adva’s FSP 150 Ethernet gear, allowing Adva customers to produce detailed reports of network performance to customers or for internal use in network operations centers. Like Cisco, Adva is trumpeting the partnership’s enablement of end-to-end service-level-agreements.

The creators of 802.1AG are expected to vote on it soon.