Access point identifiers in 400ZR and 400ZR+ protocols

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to communicate in a computer network;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface, the processor configured to:
• obtain data, via the network interface, to transmit over an optical network link to a network element;
• generate an optical network frame comprising:
• a plurality of alignment marker bytes;
• a plurality of padding bytes following the plurality of alignment marker bytes;
• a plurality of overhead bytes following the plurality of padding bytes, the plurality of overhead bytes including a Multi-Frame Alignment Signal (MFAS) byte, a link status byte, and a plurality of reserved bytes;
• and
• a plurality of payload bytes following the plurality of overhead bytes, the plurality of payload bytes encoding at least a portion of the data to transmit to the network element;
• and
• insert trail trace identifier information into the plurality of reserved bytes in the plurality of overhead bytes, the trail trace identifier information identifying the apparatus as a source of the optical network frame.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions and, when the software is executed on a processor of a first network element, the software is operable to cause the processor to:

• obtain data to transmit over an optical network link to a second network element;
• generate an optical network frame comprising:
• a plurality of alignment marker bytes;
• a plurality of padding bytes following the plurality of alignment marker bytes;
• a plurality of overhead bytes following the plurality of padding bytes, the plurality of overhead bytes including a Multi-Frame Alignment Signal (MFAS) byte, a link status byte, and a plurality of reserved bytes;
• and
• a plurality of payload bytes following the plurality of overhead bytes, the plurality of payload bytes encoding at least a portion of the data to transmit to the second network element;
• and
• insert trail trace identifier information into the plurality of reserved bytes in the plurality of overhead bytes, the trail trace identifier information identifying the first network element as a source of the optical network frame.