While the LSP ping, SDP ping and service ping tools enable transport tunnel testing and verify whether the correct transport tunnel is used, they do not provide the means to test the learning and forwarding functions on a per-VPLS-service basis.
It is conceivable, that while tunnels are operational and correctly bound to a service, an incorrect Forwarding Database (FDB) table for a service could cause connectivity issues in the service and not be detected by the ping tools. Nokia has developed VPLS OAM functionality to specifically test all the critical functions on a per-service basis. These tools are based primarily on the IETF document draft-stokes-vkompella-ppvpn-hvpls-oam-xx.txt, Testing Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Services.
The VPLS OAM tools are:
MAC ping provides an end-to-end test to identify the egress customer-facing port where a customer MAC was learned. MAC ping can also be used with a broadcast MAC address to identify all egress points of a service for the specified broadcast MAC.
MAC trace provides the ability to trace a specified MAC address hop-by-hop until the last node in the service domain. An SAA test with MAC trace is considered successful when there is a reply from a far-end node indicating that they have the destination MAC address on an egress SAP or the CPM.
CPE ping provides the ability to check network connectivity to the specified client device within the VPLS. CPE ping returns the MAC address of the client, as well as the SAP and PE at which it was learned.
MAC populate allows specified MAC addresses to be injected in the VPLS service domain. This triggers learning of the injected MAC address by all participating nodes in the service. This tool is generally followed by MAC ping or MAC trace to verify if correct learning occurred.
MAC purge allows MAC addresses to be flushed from all nodes in a service domain.