Operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9680720-B1
Application number	US-201414480400-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 8, 2014
Priority date	Mar 23, 2010
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

Network traffic that includes an Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) unit is received. A first data flow to which the OAM data unit belongs is identified from among a plurality of data flows of network traffic. Based on identifying the first flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs, a first entry corresponding to the first flow is retrieved from a memory that stores OAM action data including a plurality of entries indicating how OAM data units in different flows of communication traffic are to be processed. The first entry is from among the plurality of entries and indicates how OAM data units in the first flow are to be processed, including whether the network device should modify the data unit as part of an OAM action. The OAM data unit is processed in accordance with the first entry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for processing Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data units in a network device that includes an ingress interface from which an OAM data unit is received, the apparatus comprising:
a memory to store OAM action data including a plurality of entries that indicate how OAM data units in a plurality of respective flows of communication traffic received by the network device are to be processed by the network device, wherein multiple entries among the plurality of entries include respective indices to at least one table stored in the memory; and
one or more integrated circuit devices configured to:
identify, from among the plurality of flows of communication traffic, a flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs,
based on identifying the flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs, retrieve from the OAM action data stored in the memory a first entry from among the plurality of entries, wherein
the first entry corresponds to the flow,
the first entry indicates how OAM data units in the flow are to be processed by the network device including whether the network device should modify the data unit as part of an OAM action, and
the first entry includes an index to a first table among the at least one table, and

when the first entry indicates that the network device should modify the data unit as part of the OAM action, obtain a second entry from the first table using the index included in the first entry, the second entry from the first table indicating how OAM data units in the flow are to be modified, and

process the OAM data unit in accordance with the first entry, including: when the first entry indicates that the network device should modify the data unit as part of the OAM action, modify the OAM data unit in accordance with the second entry from the first table.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first entry indicates whether time stamping is enabled for the flow;
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to, if the first entry indicates that time stamping is enabled for the flow,
determine whether a time stamp is to be added to the data unit,
determine a location in the data unit at which to add the time stamp using the second entry in the first table if it is determined that the time stamp is to be added to the data unit, and
add the time stamp to the data unit at the determined location if it is determined that the time stamp is to be added to the data unit; and

the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to, if the first entry indicates that time stamping is not enabled for the flow,
not add the time stamp to the data unit.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first entry indicates whether an opcode included in the packet should be examined to determine whether the time stamp is to be added to the data unit;
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to, if the first entry indicates that the opcode included in the packet should be examined to determine whether the time stamp is to be added to the data unit,
examine the opcode to determine whether the time stamp is to be added to the data unit, and
add the time stamp to the data unit if the opcode indicates that the time stamp is to be added to the data unit; and

the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to, if the first entry does not indicate that the opcode included in the packet is to be examined to determine whether the time stamp is to be added to the data unit,
add the time stamp to the data unit.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first table is an offset table;
multiple entries among a plurality of entries in the offset table indicate respective locations within data units at which timestamps are to be inserted; and
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to, when the first entry indicates that time stamping is enabled for the flow and when it is determined that the time stamp is to be added to the data unit,
determine a location for the time stamp using the second entry retrieved from the offset table, and
add the time stamp to the data unit at the determined location.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first entry indicates whether a value of a loss measurement (LM) counter should be added to data units in the flow;
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to:
add the value of the LM counter to the data unit if the first entry indicates that the value of the LM counter should be added to data units in the flow, and
not add the value of the LM counter to the data unit if the first entry indicates that the value of the LM counter should not be added to data units in the flow.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more integrated circuit devices include one of a content-addressable memory (CAM) unit or a ternary CAM (TCAM) unit; and
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to utilize the one of the CAM unit or the TCAM unit to identify the flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs from among the plurality of flows of communication traffic.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to:
based on identifying the flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs, generate an indicator of the flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to:
retrieve the first entry from the OAM action data using the generated indicator.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the memory stores a second table having the plurality of entries that indicate how OAM data units in a plurality of respective flows of communication traffic received by the network device are to be processed by the network device; and
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to use the indicator of the flow as an index to the second table to retrieve the first entry from the second table.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein multiple entries among the plurality of entries include respective flags to indicate whether the network device should process data units in respective flows based on respective operation codes (opcodes) of the data units.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the multiple entries among the plurality of entries includes at least one of:
(i) respective first flags to indicate whether the one or more integrated circuit devices should increment respective loss measurement (LM) counters in response to receiving data units in respective flows, and/or
(ii) respective second flags to indicate whether the one or more integrated circuit devices should use data units in respective flows in keep-alive aging.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein:
entries among the multiple entries include respective Maintenance Entity Group (MEG) threshold levels, wherein the first entry includes a first MEG threshold level, and
the one or more integrated circuit devices are configured to (i) drop the OAM data unit in response to a MEG level of the data unit not meeting the first MEG threshold level in the first entry, and (ii) further process the OAM data unit in accordance with the first entry in response to the MEG level of the OAM data unit meeting the first MEG threshold level in the first entry.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the OAM action data including the plurality of entries is arranged in a second table stored in the memory.

14. A method for processing an Operations, Admin

Assignees

• Marvell Israel (M I S L) Ltd
• Marvell Israel (M I S L ) Ltd

Inventors

• Mizrahi Tal
• Melman David

Classifications

• H04L41/00

  Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks · CPC title

• H04L43/106

  using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps · CPC title

• H04L43/0852

  Delays · CPC title

• H04L43/062 Primary

  related to network traffic · CPC title

• H04L43/10 Primary

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title