ETH-CFM MEPs support the processing of ETH-CFM PDUs without interrupting the flow of service data. ETH-CFM processing identifies, processes, and responds to the appropriate ETH-CFM PDUs directed at the target MEP using domain-level logic comparison, equal to and lower. This behavior lends itself well to the testing of connectivity, performance monitoring, and path information. The pinpoint ETH-CFM processing logic also lends itself well to service activation testing streams encapsulated in ETH-LBM frames.
The lbm-svc-act-responder configuration option allocates additional resources to the associated MEP to process high-speed service activation streams encapsulated in ETH-LBM frames. When a MEP is created with this option, it streamlines the processing of the inbound ETH-LBM frame. This is accomplished by performing basic ETH-CFM header parsing, replacing the inbound ETH-LBM operational code (03) with the outbound ETH-LBR operational code (02), swapping source and destination MAC addresses, and reflecting any Data TLVs and other data contained in the PDU without validation. A MEP configured with the lbm-svc-act-responder configuration option operates in promiscuous ETH-LBM mode.
Promiscuous ETH-LBM mode bypasses some checks and extended functions typically performed by a MEP. In this mode, the MEP does not validate the Layer 2 destination MAC address of the arriving ETH-LBM frame to ensure that it matches the MEP. ETH-LB system statistics and per-MEP statistics, as well as ETH-LB specific counters, are not incremented. CFM debugging is not available for these ETH-LB packets.
Only ETH-LBM PDUs at the same domain level as the MEP that is configured with the lbm-svc-act-responder function access the additional resources required to accommodate high-speed service activation processing. Normal processing of ETH-CFM packets occurs for all other ETH-CFM PDUs that arrive on the MEP with the same domain level. The MEP also processes and terminates the lower levels as per normal processing. To ensure correct handling of the service activation stream encapsulated in the ETH-LBM PDU, the level of all ETH-LBM packets in the stream must equal that of the target MEP with the lbm-svc-act-responder command.
This mode of operation is supported for Up and Down MEPs in Epipe and VPLS services as well as for base router interfaces. This functionality requires a minimum of FP3 hardware.