Integration of service-level monitoring with fault management for end-to-end multi-provider ethernet services

Assuring end-to-end service quality in a multi- provider Ethernet environment is a challenging task. Operation and maintenance issues have become more and more complex due to the gradual extension of the Ethernet technology from local- to wide-area networks and the increasingly frequent use of layer-2 virtual private networks. End-to-end Ethernet network management is currently under standardization, with a focus on connectivity fault management and performance management. However, none of the tools and research prototypes available to date integrate service-level monitoring with fault management functions such as event correlation or root cause analysis for interconnected Ethernet networks. In this paper, we address the issue by proposing an integrated service-level monitoring and fault management framework. Our event processing module can handle various events generated by network nodes or pollers. We also describe service-level monitoring and fault management methods that are fine-tuned for managing end-to-end multi- provider Ethernet services.