Methods and apparatus for configuring a flex ethernet node

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out a method of processing Flex Ethernet (FlexE) data, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of data blocks over at least one physical layer connection, each data block corresponding to one of at least one FlexE client flow, wherein data blocks corresponding to a first client flow of the at least one FlexE client flow have a destination over at least one further physical layer connection and contain Ethernet packets and Operation, Administration & Management (OAM) blocks;
• forming at least one further Ethernet packet containing information from at least one of the OAM blocks, the at least one further Ethernet packet specifying the destination;
• and
• providing the at least one further Ethernet packet to a switching node for forwarding to the destination,
• wherein:
• the physical layer connection operates in accordance with a first layer of a communication protocol stack, where the first layer communicates data blocks between first layer peers;
• a second layer of the communication protocol stack communicates Ethernet packets between second layer peers;
• the switching node forms Ethernet packets from data blocks;
• a first output of the switching node is connected to a destination client;
• and
• a second output of the switching node is connected to a path to the at least one further physical layer connection.

Apparatus for processing Flex Ethernet (FlexE) data, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processing circuitry such that the apparatus is operable to:

• receive a plurality of data blocks over at least one physical layer connection, each data block corresponding to one of at least one FlexE client flow, wherein data blocks corresponding to a first client flow of the at least one FlexE client flow have a destination over at least one further physical layer connection and contain Ethernet packets and Operation, Administration & Management (OAM) blocks;
• form at least one further Ethernet packet containing information from at least one of the OAM blocks, the at least one further Ethernet packet specifying the destination;
• and
• provide the at least one further Ethernet packet to a switching node for forwarding to the destination,
• wherein:
• the physical layer connection operates in accordance with a first layer of a communication protocol stack, where the first layer communicates data blocks between first layer peers;
• a second layer of the communication protocol stack communicates Ethernet packets between second layer peers;
• the switching node forms Ethernet packets from data blocks;
• a first output of the switching node is connected to a destination client;
• and
• a second output of the switching node is connected to a path to the at least one further physical layer connection.