PHYSICAL LAYER DEVICE AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING PHYSICAL LAYER OPERATIONS IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

Embodiments of a method and a device are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method for performing physical layer operations at a network node in a communications network is disclosed. In an embodiment, the method involves identifying a fault status at the network node, embedding an indication of the fault status into a bit stream at the physical layer of the network node, and transmitting the bit stream from the network node. In an embodiment, embedding an indication of the fault status into a bit stream at the physical layer includes embedding an operations, administration, and management (OAM) word into the bit stream to communicate the indication of the fault status.