762 Configuring Connectivity Fault Management
How Does Dot1ag Work Across a Carrier Network?
A typical metropolitan area network comprises operator, service provider, and 
customer networks. To suit this business model, CFM relies on a functional 
model of hierarchical maintenance domains (MDs). These domains are 
assigned a unique MD level. There is a maximum of 8 levels, which can be 
nested but cannot overlap. Each organization can have its own maintenance 
domain. The MD level limits administrator access to the appropriate domain. 
Figure 26-1 depicts three domains: the customer subscribes to the services of 
a provider, who, in turn, subscribes to the services of two operators. This 
scenario is a likely one, since no operator has complete coverage of a large 
region. A service instance would span the provider network covering one or 
more operators. Every domain has its own network management system. 
Dot1ag defines OAM services that operate across these domains (the vertical 
arrow) and within them (the horizontal arrow)
Figure 26-1. Organization of Domains
Entities at different levels have different responsibilities. For example, the 
lower level (operator) overlooks a subset of the network in detail and provides 
information about its status to its higher levels such as the provider level). 
Higher levels have a broader, but less detailed, view of the network. As a 
result, a provider could include multiple operators, provided that the domains 
Provider
Customer
Operator 1 Operator 3
Operator 2
Customer
Site 1
Customer
Site 2
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