Implementing multicast link trace connectivity fault management in an Ethernet network

1. A method of implementing multicast link trace connectivity fault management in an Ethernet network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first node, a connectivity fault management link trace message sent by a second node;

updating a payload portion of the connectivity fault management link trace message with an identifier of the first node to create an updated connectivity fault management link trace message; and

forwarding, by the first node, the updated connectivity fault management link trace message to a third node without updating a source address of the updated connectivity fault management link trace message.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving the connectivity fault management link trace message by the first node comprises performing a reverse path forwarding check to determine whether the connectivity fault management link trace message arrived on an expected port for the source address of the connectivity fault management link trace message.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the step of performing a reverse path forwarding check is implemented in a forwarding plane by comparing a port on which the connectivity fault management link trace message was received with the expected port;

the method further comprising the steps of:

passing the connectivity fault management link trace message and information about the port on which the connectivity fault management link trace message was received to a control process; and

performing a secondary reverse path forwarding check in the control process by determining a source of the connectivity fault management link trace message and comparing the information about the port on which the connectivity fault management link trace message was received with expected port information for the source of the connectivity fault management link trace message.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the source information of the connectivity fault management link trace message is determined by reading source information contained in the payload portion of the connectivity fault management link trace message.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the source information is an originator ID response address.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the source information of the connectivity fault management link trace message is determined by reading a multicast destination address encoding information about the source of the connectivity fault management link trace message.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the connectivity fault management link trace message includes a time to live field, the method further including decrementing the time to live field prior to forwarding the updated connectivity fault management link trace message.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein forwarding occurs before performing the secondary reverse path forwarding check in the control process.

9. The method of claim 3 , wherein forwarding occurs after performing the secondary reverse path forwarding check in the control process.

10. The method of claim 9 , forwarding occurs only if the connectivity fault management link trace message passes the secondary reverse path forwarding check in the control process.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the source address is a field of a header of the connectivity fault management link trace message identifying a source MAC address of a node that originated the connectivity fault management link trace message.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the payload portion of the connectivity fault management link trace message includes information identifying a node that originated the connectivity fault management link trace message, the method further comprising generating and transmitting a Link Trace Response (CFR) message to the node that originated the connectivity fault management link trace message.

13. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the payload portion of the connectivity fault management link trace message includes a set of relayed by information elements, and

wherein the step of updating the payload portion of the connectivity fault management link trace message comprises adding a relayed by information element identifying the first node.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the relayed by information elements enables a set of nodes that have relayed the connectivity fault management link trace message to be determined.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the connectivity fault management link trace message includes a time to live field, the method further including decrementing the time to live field prior to forwarding the updated connectivity fault management link trace message.

16. A network element, comprising:

a memory device storing executable instructions; and

a processor in communication with the memory device, wherein executing the executable instruction by the processor causes the processor to:

provide a forwarding plane configured to implement a Reverse Path Forwarding Check (RPFC) on multicast packets based on a corresponding source address of each of the multicast packets;

wherein each of the multicast packets comprises a respective connectivity fault management link trace message; and

update connectivity fault management link trace messages by adding network element identification information to each of the respective connectivity fault management link trace messages;

wherein the forwarding plane is further configured to forward the updated connectivity fault management link trace messages without changing the source addresses of the updated connectivity fault management link trace messages.

17. The network element of claim 16 , wherein the RPFC enables the network element to determine whether the multicast packets arrived on respective expected ports.

18. The network element of claim 16 , wherein executing the executable instructions by the processor causes the processor to:

decrement time to live fields of the connectivity fault management link trace messages prior to forwarding the updated connectivity fault management link trace messages.