Proxy maintenance endpoint at provider edge switch

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface coupled to a service provider network via an Ethernet link; and

a processor for registering with a designated proxy maintenance endpoint within the service provider network, transmitting Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) frames to the designated proxy maintenance endpoint and receiving a CFM report from the designated proxy maintenance endpoint via the interface, the CFM report including a plurality of additional CFM frames, each originated by a respective one of a plurality of remote customer premises equipment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a memory for storing the CFM report.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the memory further maintains a list of the plurality of remote customer premises equipment.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the processor performs an audit check on the list using the CFM report to remove ones of the remote customer premises equipment from the list that are not included in the CFM report and add ones of the remote customer premises equipment to the list that are included in the CFM report.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is configured to not perform any fault detection based on loss of CFM frames from individual ones of the plurality of remote customer premises equipment.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor further generates and transmits a link trace message via the interface to one or more of the plurality of remote customer premises equipment using the CFM report.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor further generates and transmits a loop-back message via the interface to one or more of the plurality of remote customer premises equipment using the CFM report.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor transmits the CFM frames to the designated proxy maintenance endpoint at a configurable frequency.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor further runs an auto-discovery algorithm to register with the designated proxy maintenance endpoint.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the CFM frames are continuity check messages.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a customer premises equipment and the Ethernet link is a metro link that couples the customer premises equipment to a provider edge switch including the designated proxy maintenance endpoint.

12. A provider edge switch, comprising:

an interface coupled to a plurality of customer premises equipment via a downstream Ethernet link and to a service provider network via an upstream Ethernet link, the interface for receiving, via the downstream Ethernet link, respective Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) frames from the plurality of customer premises equipment;

a memory maintaining a proxy maintenance endpoint algorithm; and

a processor for executing the proxy maintenance endpoint algorithm to:

create a designated proxy maintenance endpoint for the plurality of customer premises equipment;

generate a CFM report and encapsulate all of the CFM frames received from the plurality of customer premises equipment into the CFM report; and

transmit the CFM report to remote proxy maintenance endpoints within the service provider network via the upstream Ethernet link.

13. The provider edge switch of claim 12 , wherein the interface further receives an additional CFM report from one of the remote maintenance endpoints, the additional CFM report including a plurality of additional CFM frames, each originated by a respective one of a plurality of remote customer premises equipment.

14. The provider edge switch of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of additional CFM frames are included within encapsulated CFM information in the CFM report.

15. The provider edge switch of claim 14 , wherein the processor further de-capsulates the encapsulated CFM information to produce de-capsulated CFM information and provides the de-capsulated CFM information to the plurality of customer premises equipment via the downstream Ethernet link.

16. The provider edge switch of claim 14 , wherein the memory further includes a list of the remote proxy maintenance endpoints and the plurality of remote customer premises equipment associated with each of the remote maintenance endpoints and the processor updates the list based on the additional CFM report.

17. The provider edge switch of claim 12 , wherein the CFM report includes a header having an opcode indicating that the CFM report is a continuity check message containing encapsulated CFM frames, the header further indicating a number of encapsulated CFM frames.

18. The provider edge switch of claim 12 , wherein the processor further transmits the CFM report at a configurable frequency.

19. The provider edge switch of claim 17 , wherein the configurable frequency is less than 10 packets per second.

20. The provider edge switch of claim 12 , wherein the processor further receives the CFM frames from the plurality of customer premises equipment via the downstream Ethernet link at respective configurable frequencies such that timer validation checks are not performed.