Bridge port MAC address discovery mechanism in ethernet networks

A method of discovering medium access control (MAC) addresses in a network, the method comprising:

• receiving, at an access node, a diagnostic message from an operator, the diagnostic message comprising physical port information and indicating that at least a portion of a MAC address of a destination bridge port is unknown to the operator, wherein at least two bits of a specified MAC address are set to a predetermined pattern, the predetermined pattern indicating that a request is stored in a type-length value field of the diagnostic message and wherein at least two bits of a wildcard private MAC address are set to a predetermined pattern, the predetermined pattern identifying the portion of the MAC address unknown to the operator;
• forwarding the diagnostic message to a respective bridge port of the access node;
• determining whether the physical port information specified in the diagnostic message corresponds to a physical port of the respective bridge port;
• and
• sending a reply message to the operator with the specified MAC address of the respective bridge port.

An access node in a network, the access node comprising:

• a bridge port;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor receives a diagnostic message sent by an operator, the diagnostic message comprising physical port information and indicating that at least a portion of a MAC address of the bridge port is unknown to the operator,
• the processor forwards the diagnostic message to the bridge port,
• the bridge port determines whether the physical port information specified in the diagnostic message corresponds to a physical port of the bridge port, and
• the bridge port sends a reply message to the operator specifying the MAC address of the bridge port, wherein the diagnostic message comprises a destination MAC address, for a Loopback message, and a target MAC address, for a Link Trace message, wherein a wildcard private MAC address is used in the destination MAC address for the Loopback message and in the target MAC address for the Link Trace message, wherein at least two bits of the wildcard private MAC address are set to a predetermined pattern, the predetermined pattern identifying the portion of the MAC address unknown to the operator.

An access node in a network, the access node comprising:

• a bridge port;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor receives a diagnostic message sent by an operator, the diagnostic message comprising physical port information and indicating that at least a portion of a MAC address of the bridge port is unknown to the operator, wherein at least, two bits of a wildcard private MAC address are set to a predetermined pattern, the predetermined pattern identifying the portion of the MAC address unknown to the operator and at least two bits of a specified MAC address are set to a predetermined pattern, the predetermined pattern indicating that a request is stored in a type-length value field of the diagnostic message
• the processor forwards the diagnostic message to the bridge port,
• the bridge port determines whether the physical port information specified in the diagnostic message corresponds to a physical port of the bridge port, and
• the bridge port sends a reply message to the operator with the specified MAC address of the bridge port.