Tag :: Ethernet OAM

As Ethernet technologies made their way into the Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and the Wide Area Networks (WAN) from the conventional enterprise level usage, they are now widely being used by service providers to provide end-to-end connectivity to customers. Such service provider networks are typically spread across large geographical areas. Additionally, the service providers themselves may be relying on certain internet backbone providers, referred to as “operators”, to provide connectivity in case the geographical area to be covered is too huge. 

As Ethernet technologies made their way into the Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and the Wide Area Networks (WAN) from the conventional enterprise level usage, they are now widely being used by service providers to provide end-to-end connectivity to customers. Such service provider networks are typically spread across large geographical areas. Additionally, the service providers themselves may be relying on certain internet backbone providers, referred to as “operators”, to provide connectivity in case the geographical area to be covered is too huge. This mode of operation makes the task of Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) of such networks far more challenging, and the ability of service providers to respond to frame loss in such networks directly impacts their competitiveness.

RFC2544 defines a number of benchmark tests that may be used to describe the performance characteristics of a network interconnecting device(s). Starting from 4.28.1F, Arista switches support throughput test belonging to a set of benchmark tests as defined in RFC2544. Starting from 4.29.0F, Arista switches support frame loss rate test.