Topological location discovery in an ethernet network

Abstract

A topology aware entity, such as an OSS (Operations Support System), an NMS (Network Management System) or an RM (Resource Manager), associated with an Ethernet network is configured to execute a method for topological location discovery of nodes that are added to the network. According to the method, the topology aware entity receives (step 30) a notification about a new node that has been added to the network. Then, the topology aware entity causes (step 31) an existing node to initiate a path discovery to the new node using an Ethernet Connectivity and Fault Management, CFM, protocol, such as IEE 802.1 ag or ITU-T Y.1731. The topology aware entity receives (step 32) the resulting path data from the existing node and identifies (step 33), based on the path data, a topological position of the new node in the Ethernet network. The method may be embodied as Identify topological position of new program instructions stored on a computer-readable medium.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.