CONNECTIVITY FAULT MANAGEMENT TIMEOUT PERIOD CONTROL

• US 20110141911A1
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Qiu, Lei, Washam, Benjamin D., Han, Xiaomei
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,698 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity

Abstract

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related system and machine-readable medium including one or more of the following: receiving, at the MEP, a connectivity fault management (CFM) message; determining whether the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for a timeout factor; and when the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, using the new value as the timeout factor. One or more of the following may also be included: when the CFM message does not include an indication specifying a new timeout factor, using a default value as the timeout factor; determining a timeout period using at least the timeout factor; determining whether the timeout period has elapsed since a most recent CFM message was received; and when the timeout period has elapsed since the last CFM message was received, determining that a timeout has occurred.

Claims

1. A system for modifying a timeout period at the request of a peer system, the system comprising:

a receiver interface that receives a connectivity fault management (CFM) message from the peer system;

a CFM message receiver that;

determines whether the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for a timeout factor used in determining the timeout period, and

when the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, sets the timeout factor equal to the new value included in the indication.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the CFM message receiver further updates a last received CFM message time when the CFM message is received via the receiver interface;

and further comprising;

a timeout module that;

determines a timeout period using at least the timeout factor,

determines whether the timeout period has elapsed since a most recent CFM message was received by using the last received CFM message time, and

when the timeout period has elapsed since the most recent CFM message was received, determines that a timeout has occurred.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a control signal interface that receives a control signal indicating that a timeout factor should be modified;

a temporary factor module that, when the control signal interface receives a control signal indicating that a timeout factor should be modified, determines a new value for the timeout factor to transmit to the peer system;

a CFM message initiator that;

when the temporary factor module has determined a value for the new timeout factor;

constructs a new CFM message, and

inserts an indication specifying the new timeout factor into the new CFM message; and

a transmitter interface that transmits the new CFM message to the peer system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the temporary factor module determines a new timeout factor to transmit to the peer system based on information carried by the control signal indicating that a timeout factor should be modified.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication is a Type-Length-Value (TLV) field.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the CFM message comprises at least one of:

a continuity check message and an alarm indication signal.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the timeout factor comprises at least one of:

a timeout multiplier and a message interval.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the CFM message receiver further:

when the CFM message does not include an indication specifying a new value for a timeout factor, sets the timeout factor equal to a default value for the timeout factor.

9. A method performed by a maintenance endpoint (MEP) configured on a node in a communications network for modifying a timeout period used by the MEP in determining whether a timeout has occurred, the method comprising:

receiving, at the MEP, a connectivity fault management (CFM) message;

determining whether the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for a timeout factor; and

when the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, using the new value as the timeout factor.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a timeout period using at least the timeout factor;

determining whether the timeout period has elapsed since a most recent CFM message was received; and

when the timeout period has elapsed since the last CFM message was received, determining that a timeout has occurred.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication is a Type-Length-Value (TLV) field.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the timeout factor includes at least one of:

a timeout multiplier and a message interval.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

when the CFM message does not include an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, using a default value as the timeout factor.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the MEP is implemented according to at least one of:

the IEEE 802.1ag standard and the ITU-T Y.1731 standard.

15. A machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for modifying a timeout period used by a maintenance endpoint (MEP) in determining whether a timeout has occurred, the machine-readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for receiving, at the MEP, a connectivity fault management (CFM) message;

instructions for determining whether the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for a timeout factor; and

instructions for, when the CFM message includes an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, using the new value as the timeout factor.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for determining a timeout period using at least the timeout factor;

instructions for determining whether the timeout period has elapsed since a most recent CFM message was received; and

instructions for, when the timeout period has elapsed since the last CFM message was received, determining that a timeout has occurred.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the indication is a Type-Length-Value (TLV) field.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the timeout factor includes at least one of:

a timeout multiplier and a message interval.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for, when the CFM message does not include an indication specifying a new value for the timeout factor, using a default value as the timeout factor.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the MEP is implemented according to at least one of:

the IEEE 802.1ag standard and the ITU-T Y.1731 standard.