User's Manual

Horizon Compact Plus Release 1.0.1 Wireless Ethernet Product User Manual – Volume 4
4.0 Ethernet Connectivity Fault Management (ECFM)
IEEE 802.1ag and ITU-T Y.1731 standards define mechanisms that provide Ethernet Connectivity Fault
Management (ECFM). The fault management mechanisms defined by Y.1731 are basically the same
as those for 802.1ag, but with subtle differences in the concept of the management domain and its
association. ITU-T Y.1731 also defines performance monitoring mechanisms.
ECFM comprises a number of fault management mechanisms that work together to help administrators
debug Ethernet networks. These are:
• connectivity check message (CCM)
• link trace message (LTM)
• loopback message (LBM)
• remote defect indication (RDI)
• alarm indication signal (AIS – supported by Y.1731 only)
The Y.1731 performance monitoring mechanisms include:
• frame loss measurement (LM)
• frame delay measurement (DM)
• throughput measurement
The Horizon Compact Plus supports the CCM, LTM, LBM, and RDI mechanisms
of 802.1ag and Y.1731
mechanisms noted above. The AIS and performance monitoring mechanisms of Y.1731 are not
supported. However Horizon Compact Plus will respond to DM messages.
ECFM is supported on any port of the Horizon Compact Plus.
Note that ECFM is not supported when any system redundancy option is configured.
Entering networking details of maintenance domains (MD), maintenance associations (MA),
maintenance association intermediate points (MIP) and maintenance end points (MEP), into a database
on various devices in an Ethernet network, allows operators to trace fault conditions throughout that
network.
The Horizon Compact Plus is limited in the number of the above elements it can manage as follows:
• MD – 16
• MA – 32
• MEP – 60
There are four steps to configuring ECFM. Each step comprises the issuing of a number of CLI “set”
commands. Some of these commands must be entered in a specific order for the configuration to be
successful.
Section 4.1 shows the basic steps involved in configuring ECFM on the Horizon Compact.
Section 4.2 has configuration examples that show, in more detail, how to configure the Horizon
Compact Plus for ECFM.
Section 0 contains all the CLI commands associated with ECFM, with a brief explanation of their
function.
Note that ECFM uses a special MAC address that the network system discovers through connectivity
check messages sent out by the CE’s. This allows Loopback and Linktrace activities to be performed.
Since the ECFM MAC address is auto discovered by the network system, there is no need to configure
this address in the Horizon Compact. However, if you wish to determine what the Horizon Compact Plus
ECFM MAC address is, use the CLI command get ecfm maintenance-point local.
ECFM packets that are required to traverse the Horizon Compact Plus can be prioritized through the
QoS system, if enabled (see Section Error! Reference source not found. Error! Reference source
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