Cell transfer apparatus with hardware structure for oam cell generation

Abstract

An ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) cell transfer apparatus includes an input interface, a switch block, and an OAM cell processing hardware block having a memory unit. The input interface receives an SDH/SONET signal on each of a plurality of first transfer paths to output an input OAM cell corresponding to the SDH/SONET signal to one of a plurality of input ports of the switch block corresponding to the first transfer path for the SDH/SONET signal to be transferred. The switch block receives the input OAM (operation and maintenance) cell from the corresponding input port as an OAM input port to output to the OAM cell processing hardware block together with a port number of the OAM input port, and receives at least one output OAM cell from the OAM cell processing hardware block to output to at least one of the plurality of output ports based on the received output OAM cell. The OAM cell processing hardware block reads out the at least one output OAM cell corresponding to the input OAM cell from the memory unit based on the input OAM cell and the port number supplied from the switch block, and outputs the at least one output OAM cell to the switch block.

1 - 32 . (canceled) 
     
     
         33 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a device, a notification from a physical interface,
 the notification including a first identifier associated with a physical port, associated with the physical interface, at which an interruption was detected; and 
   outputting, by the device and based on the notification, an outgoing operation and maintenance (OAM) data item,
 the outgoing OAM data item including a second identifier associated with one of a plurality of output ports, and 
 the second identifier being based on the first identifier. 
   
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 33 , where the interruption includes an interruption in one of a plurality of signals associated with a plurality of incoming OAM data items. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 receiving a plurality of incoming OAM data units; and   processing the plurality of incoming OAM data units to identify the plurality of output ports.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 outputting a plurality of outgoing OAM data items to the plurality of output ports.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 storing header error control (HEC) information in the outgoing OAM data item; and   transferring the outgoing OAM data item.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 33 , further comprising:
 identifying the plurality of output ports; and   storing identifiers associated with the plurality of output ports in a header error control (HEC) information field of the outgoing OAM data item,
 the identifiers including the second identifier. 
   
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 33 ,
 where the notification includes a port failure signal, and   where the outgoing OAM data item includes an alarm indication signal (AIS) data item based on the port failure signal.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 33 , where the outgoing OAM data item includes a remote defect indication (RDI) OAM data item. 
     
     
         41 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:
 one or more instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
 receive a notification from a physical interface,
 the notification including a first identifier associated with a physical port, associated with the physical interface, at which an interruption was detected; and 
 
 output, based on the notification, an outgoing operation and maintenance (OAM) data item,
 the outgoing OAM data item including a second identifier associated with one of a plurality of output ports, and 
 the second identifier being based on the first identifier. 
 
   
     
     
         42 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 41 , where the outgoing OAM data item includes one of a remote defect indication (RDI) data item or an alarm indication signal (AIS) data item. 
     
     
         43 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 41 , where the notification is a port failure signal. 
     
     
         44 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 41 , where the interruption includes an interruption in one of a plurality of signals associated with a plurality of incoming OAM data items. 
     
     
         45 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 41 , where the instructions further comprise:
 one or more instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
 receive a plurality of incoming OAM data units, 
 process the plurality of incoming OAM data units to identify the plurality of output ports, and 
 output a plurality of outgoing OAM data items to the plurality of output ports,
 the plurality of outgoing OAM data items including the outgoing data item. 
 
   
     
     
         46 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 41 , where the instructions further comprise:
 one or more instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
 store header error control (HEC) information in the outgoing OAM data item; and 
 transfer the outgoing OAM data item. 
   
     
     
         47 . A method comprising:
 detecting, by a device and at a first input port of a plurality of input ports, an incoming operation and maintenance (OAM) data item associated with at least one of a plurality of signals;   receiving, by the device and via a first output port, the incoming OAM data item and a first identifier associated with the first input port;   identifying, by the device, a second output port based on the first identifier associated with the first input port; and   outputting, by the device and to the second input port, an outgoing OAM data item and a second identifier associated with the second output port.   
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising:
 receiving an outgoing OAM data item at a second input port of the plurality of input ports; and   outputting, via the second output port and with the at least one of the plurality of signals, the outgoing OAM data item based on the second identifier associated with the second output port.   
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising:
 transferring, after detecting the incoming OAM data item, the incoming OAM data item and the first identifier to the first output port.   
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising:
 detecting a condition associated with one or more of physical ports that receive the plurality of signals; and   sending, based on detecting the condition, a notification that includes a third identifier associated with the one or more of the physical ports.   
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 47 , where the outgoing OAM data item includes one of a remote defect indication (RDI) data item or an alarm indication signal (AIS) data item. 
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising:
 receiving, by a physical interface of the device and from a switch block of the device, the outgoing OAM data item;   storing, by the physical interface, header error control (HEC) information in the outgoing OAM data item; and   transferring, by the physical interface, the outgoing OAM data item to one of a plurality of physical ports of the physical interface.