Method and system for implementing ethernet oam in a software-defined networking (sdn) system

A network element coupled to a software-defined networking (SDN) system, wherein the SDN system contains a plurality of network elements processing traffic flows and a SDN controller managing the plurality of network elements, the network element comprising:

• a processor and a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing an Ethernet operation, administration, and management (OAM) module executable by the processor, wherein the network element is operative to:
• add an entry to a flow table of the network element, wherein the entry is a flow table entry associated with an operation, administration, and management (OAM) traffic flow for an Open System Interconnect (OSI) layer 2 (L2) service,
• add an entry to a group table of the network element, wherein the entry is a group table entry to be selected upon receiving a packet matching the flow table entry associated with the OAM traffic flow for the OSI L2 service, wherein the group table entry includes an instruction to send the packet to a set of ports, including a loopback port for the packet to be looped back to the flow table at a predetermined interval,
• receive the packet directing to the group table entry from the SDN controller, and
• send the packet to the set of ports of the network element according to the group table entry, wherein the packet is to be looped back through the loopback port to the flow table of the network element periodically at the predetermined interval.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations in a network element coupled to a software-defined networking (SDN) system, wherein the SDN system contains a plurality of network elements processing traffic flows and a SDN controller managing the plurality of network elements, the operations comprising:

• adding an entry to a flow table of the network element, wherein the entry is a flow table entry associated with an operation, administration, and management (OAM) traffic flow for an Open System Interconnect (OSI) layer 2 (L2) service;
• adding an entry to a group table of the network element, wherein the entry is a group table entry to be selected upon receiving a packet matching the flow table entry associated with the OAM traffic flow for the OSI L2 service, wherein the group table entry includes an instruction to send the packet to a set of ports, including a loopback port for the packet to be looped back to the flow table at a predetermined interval;
• receiving the packet directing to the group table entry from the SDN controller;
• and
• sending the packet to the set of ports of the network element according to the group table entry, wherein the packet is to be looped back through the loopback port to the flow table of the network element periodically at the predetermined interval.