Providing efficient routing of an operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) frame received at a port of an ethernet switch

1. A method for efficient routing of an Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) frame received at a first port and terminating on a second port of an Ethernet switch, said method comprising:

receiving an OAM frame at a first port;

building a first classification key dependent on an OAM frame header;

classifying in a context of the first port to create a first classification;

determining whether the received OAM frame is to be discarded after the creation of said first classification, and if an answer is negative, determining whether a loopback of said received OAM frame is required on said first port, and if the loopback is required, sending said first classification key to an OAM engine coupled to the Ethernet switch;

resolving action dependent on said first classification;

modifying the first classification key to create a second classification key;

classifying the received OAM frame in a context of the second port to create a second classification;

sending the second classification key to the OAM engine for modification into a third classification key;

receiving the third classification key from the OAM engine;

modifying the third classification key into a final classification key;

modifying the header of the received OAM frame with the final classification key; and

sending the modified OAM frame to a switching fabric of the Ethernet switch.

2. The method of claim 1 which includes storing the received OAM frame in a temporary frame buffer, and retrieving the stored OAM frame for use in said modifying of the received OAM frame with said final classification key.

3. The method of claim 1 which includes extracting said OAM frame header from the received OAM frame, and using the extracted OAM frame header in said building of said first classification key.

4. The method of claim 1 in which said second, third and final classification keys are created only if it is determined that the loopback is not required on said first port.

5. A system for efficient routing of an Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) frame received at a first port and terminating on a second port of an Ethernet switch, said system comprising;

a memory coupled to a processor, the processor configured to:

receive an OAM frame at a first port;

build a first classification key dependent on an OAM frame header;

classify in a context of the first port to create a first classification;

determine whether the received OAM frame is to be discarded after the creation of said first classification, and if an answer is negative, determining whether a loopback of said received OAM frame is required on said first port, and if the loopback is required, sending said first classification key to an OAM engine coupled to the Ethernet switch;

resolve actions dependent on said first classification;

modify the first classification key to create a second classification key;

classify the received OAM frame in a context of the second port to create a second classification;

send the second classification key to the OAM engine for modification into a third classification key;

receive the third classification key from the OAM engine;

modify the third classification key into a final classification key;

modify the header of the received OAM frame with the final classification key; and

send the modified OAM frame to a switching fabric of the Ethernet switch.

6. The system of claim 5 in which said processor is configured to store the received OAM frame in a temporary frame buffer, and retrieve the stored OAM frame for use in modifying the received OAM frame with said final classification key.

7. The system of claim 5 in which said processor is configured to extract said OAM frame header from the received OAM frame, and use the extracted OAM frame header to build said first classification key.

8. The system of claim 5 in which said processor is configured to create said second, third and final classification keys only if it is determined that the loopback is not required on said first port.