Metro Ethernet Connectivity Fault Management Acceleration

A method of real-time generation of a connectivity check message, the method comprising:

• maintaining, by a line card in a network element, a list of connections in an Ethernet connectivity fault management (CFM) domain that are supported by the line card;
• associating, by the line card, a timer with each connection in the list of connections;
• accessing, by the line card, each connection in the list of connections by stepping through the list in round robin fashion, one connection during each clock cycle;
• decrementing, by the line card, the timer for a given connection currently being accessed;
• and
• generating, by the line card, a continuity check message for the given connection currently being accessed if the timer associated with the given connection expires as a result of the decrementing.

A network element comprising:

• a switch fabric;
• a central processor (CP) card;
• and
• a line card in communication with the CP card through the switch fabric, the line card including an Ethernet interface for transmitting and receiving Ethernet connectivity fault management (CFM) frames over a network and circuitry configured to generate new continuity check messages, to process continuity check messages received on each connection supported by the line card, and to detect any loss of continuity for the connections supported by the line card.