Multi-hop physical layer data collection protocol

A system comprising:

• hardware processing circuitry;
• and
• one or more hardware memories storing instructions that, when executed, configure the hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:
• generating a packet comprising a message, the message indicating a request for a value of a layer one or layer two (L1 or L2) property;
• transmitting the packet to a destination device;
• receiving, from the destination device, a second packet comprising a response message to the message;
• decoding the response message from the second packet;
• and
• decoding, from the response message, one or more L1 or L2 property values of one or more network devices traversed along a network path from the network device to the destination device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, configure hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:

• generating a packet comprising a message, the message indicating a request for a value of a layer one or layer two (L1 or L2) property;
• transmitting the packet to a destination device;
• receiving, from the destination device, a second packet comprising a response message to the message;
• decoding the response message from the second packet;
• and
• decoding, from the response message, one or more L1 or L2 property values of one or more network devices traversed along a network path from the network device to the destination device.