Unidirectional Link Detection: Difference between revisions

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UDLD is still necessary for L2 faults. 802.3ae is operating at Layer1
m Description: added manufacturer to list of UDLD options
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:* In order for UDLD to work, both switch devices on the link must support UDLD and have it enabled on respective ports.
 
==[[Allied Telesis|Description]]==
If two devices, A and B, are connected via a pair of [[optical fiber]]s, one used for sending from A to B and other for sending from B to A, the link is bidirectional (two-way). If one of these fibres is broken, the link has become one-way or unidirectional. The goal of the UDLD protocol is to detect a broken bidirectional link (e.g. transmitted [[packet (information technology)|packets]] do not arrive at the receiver, or the fibres are connected to different [[computer port (hardware)|ports]]).
 
For each device and for each port, a UDLD packet is sent to the port it links to. The packet contains sender identity information (device and port), and expected receiver identity information (device and port). Each port checks that the UDLD packets it receives contain the identifiers of his own device and port.
 
UDLD is a Cisco-proprietary protocol. Switches[[Allied Telesis]] also uses this protocol (UDLD) on their X-Series switches while fromHP, [[3ComExtreme Networks]], and its[[Avaya|AVAYA]] Enterprise division H3Call have a similar feature calledcalling it by a different name. HP calls theirs Device Link Detection Protocol (DLDP). Switches from [[Extreme Networks]] have a similar featurecall calledit Extreme Link Status Monitoring (ELSM). Switchesand from [[NORTEL]]/[[AVAYA]] havecalls a similar feature calledtheirs, Link-state Tracking.

Similar functionality in a standardized form is provided as part of the [[Ethernet]] [[OA&M|OAM]] protocol that is defined as part of the [[Ethernet in the First Mile]] changes to [[802.3]] (previously [[802.3ah]]). [[D-Link]] has their DULD feature built on top of [[Ethernet]] [[OA&M|OAM]] function. [[Brocade Communications Systems|Brocade]] devices running Ironware support a proprietary form of UDLD.
 
The use of UDLD over 10GbE is augmented, as per 802.3ae/D3.2 standard, when a fault is detected in the physical link: