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Configure MEP Interfaces to Support Ethernet Frame Delay Measurements

Ethernet frame delay measurement is a useful tool for providing performance statistics or supporting or challenging Service Level Agreements (SLAs). By default, Ethernet frame delay measurement uses software for timestamping and delay calculations. You can optionally use hardware timing to assist in this process and increase the accuracy of the delay measurement results. This assistance is available on the reception path.

Before you can perform Ethernet frame delay measurements on your devices, you must have done the following:

  • Configured Ethernet OAM and CFM correctly

  • Prepared the measurement between two compatibly configured routers

  • Enabled the distributed periodic packet management daemon (ppmd)

  • Avoided trying to perform Ethernet frame delay measurement on aggregated Ethernet or pseudowire interfaces, which are not supported

  • Made sure the hardware-assisted timestamping is supported if that feature is configured

At the end of this configuration, you create two routers that can perform and display Ethernet frame delay measurements on Ethernet interfaces using optional hardware timestamping. By default, Ethernet frame delay measurement uses software for timestamping and delay calculations. You can optionally use hardware timing to assist in this process and increase the accuracy of the delay measurement results. This assistance is available on the reception path.

To configure hardware-assisted timestamping:

  1. To enable Ethernet frame delay measurement hardware assistance on the reception path, include the hardware-assisted-timestamping statement at the [edit protocols oam ethernet connectivity-fault-management performance-monitoring] hierarchy level:
  2. Ethernet frame delay measurement requires that distributed PPMD is enabled. Before you can gather statistics for Ethernet frame delay measurement, you must make sure that PPMD is configured properly. Without distributed PPMD, delay measurement results are not valid.

    To perform Ethernet frame delay measurement, make sure that the following configuration statement is NOT present: