Systems and methods for operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) in the physical coding sublayer (PCS)

1. A method for operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) of data message transmission, the method comprising:

embedding a data message loaded in a transmit register of a transmitter as an out-of-band message with physical code sublayer modulation; and

transmitting, to a receiver, the out-of-band message on a physical code sublayer of a physical layer of a link between the transmitter and the receiver.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

establishing, on the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver, a handshake to allow out-of-band messages to be passed asynchronously between the transmitter and the receiver,

wherein the transmitting, to the receiver, the out-of-band message on the physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver comprises: asynchronously transmitting, to the receiver, the out-of-band message on the physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the data message is an OAM message.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the transmitter is associated with a first management entity and the receiver is associated with a second management entity, and

wherein the OAM message is used for OAM of the first management entity and the second management entity.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first management entity and the second management entity transmit OAM messages bi-directionally.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

reading the transmit register of the transmitter to determine a transmit status of the transmit register; and

loading the data message into the transmit register in response to the transmit status indicating availability.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, at the transmit register, an acknowledgement indicating that the out-of-band message has been successfully received by the receiver.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

in response to receiving the acknowledgement, transmitting, to the receiver, a new out-of-band message on the physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter is associated with a first management entity and the receiver is associated with a second management entity,

wherein the receiver comprises a receive register that is read by the second management entity, and

wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the out-of-band message being successfully received by the receiver and stored in the receive register, sending, to the first management entity, an acknowledgment indicating that the out-of-band message has been successfully received.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical code sublayer modulation is in compliance with the 1000Base T1 physical layer standard.

11. A system for operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) of data message transmission, the system comprising:

a memory unit;

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory unit, the processor being configured to:

embed a data message loaded in a transmit register of a transmitter as an out-of-band message with physical code sublayer modulation; and

transmit, to a receiver, the out-of-band message on a physical code sublayer of a physical layer of a link between the transmitter and the receiver.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to establish, on the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver, a handshake to allow out-of-band messages to be passed asynchronously between the transmitter and the receiver, and

wherein the processor is further configured, when transmitting, to the receiver, the out-of-band message on the physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver, to: asynchronously transmit, to the receiver, the out-of-band message on the physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the data message is an OAM message.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the transmitter is associated with a first management entity and the receiver is associated with a second management entity, and

wherein the OAM message is used for OAM of the first management entity and the second management entity.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the first management entity and the second management entity transmit OAM messages bi-directionally.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

read the transmit register of the transmitter to determine a transmit status of the transmit register; and

load the data message into the transmit register in response to the transmit status indicating availability.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive, at the transmit register, an acknowledgement indicating that the out-of-band message has been successfully received by the receiver.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

in response to receiving the acknowledgement, transmit, to the receiver, a new out-of-band message on the physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link between the transmitter and the receiver.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the physical code sublayer modulation is in compliance with the 1000Base T1 physical layer standard.

20. A method for operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) of data message transmission, the method comprising:

establishing, on a physical layer of a link between a transmitter and a receiver, a handshake to allow out-of-band messages to be passed asynchronously between the transmitter and the receiver;

embedding a data message loaded in a transmit register of the transmitter as an out-of-band message with physical code sublayer modulation; and

asynchronously transmitting the out-of-band message on a physical code sublayer of the physical layer of the link to the receiver.