The 7210 SAS routers support 802.3ah. Customers who subscribe to Epipe service treat the Epipe as a wire, so they demand the ability to run 802.3ah between their devices which are located at each end of the Epipe.
Note: This feature only applies to port-based Epipe SAPs because 802.3ah runs at port level not VLAN level. Therefore, such ports must be configured as null encapsulated SAPs.
When OAM PDU tunneling is enabled, 802.3ah OAM PDUs received at one end of an Epipe are forwarded through the Epipe. 802.3ah can run between devices that are located at each end of the Epipe. When OAM PDU tunneling is disabled (by default), OAM PDUs are dropped or processed locally according to the efm-oam configuration (shutdown or no shutdown).
Note that enabling 802.3ah for a port and enabling OAM PDU tunneling for the same port are mutually exclusive. That is, on a specific port either 802.3ah tunneling can be enabled or 802.3ah can be enabled, but both cannot be enabled together.