Ciena Corporation

Ghulam Mustafa

Gagan Garg

Khujasta Afreen Mohsini

Nilakantha Swain

Systems and methods for enhancing the Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) protocol defined in IEEE 802.1Q are provided. In particular, the enhancements include adding a security or safety feature to prevent malicious attacks. A method, according to one implementation, includes the step of operating a Network Element (NE) in a safety mode associated with a link connectivity protocol (e.g., CFM) that involves receiving one or more messages used for detecting link connectivity issues of an Ethernet service in a section of a network and responding to the link connectivity issues. In response to receiving the one or more messages used for detecting link connectivity issues while operating the NE in the safety mode, the method includes the step of storing the one or more messages as one or more untrusted messages in an isolated database of the NE without processing information in the one or more untrusted messages.

Security mode enhancement for connectivity fault management (CFM)

Systems and methods for tracking and reporting the existence or absence of faults in a Network Element (NE) or node of a network, network domain, or Maintenance Domain (MD) are provided. A method, according to one implementation, includes a step of tracking the existence or absence of a plurality of faults in a NE within a network domain. Each of the plurality of faults is categorized in one of a plurality of priority levels. In response to a detection of one or more new faults in the NE or a rectification of one or more old faults in the NE, the method further includes the step of updating a fault indication variable that individually signifies the existence or absence of a fault at each of the priority levels.

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Aligarh, India

Ghulam Mustafa