CN111357248B

CN111357248B - Method and apparatus for PHY management in FLEXE networks

Info

Publication number: CN111357248B
Application number: CN201880075096.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邓军; 赵金凤
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2017-12-20
Filing date: 2018-11-30
Publication date: 2023-01-13
Anticipated expiration: 2038-11-30
Also published as: CN111357248A; WO2019120058A1

Abstract

A method for PHY management is provided. The method is implemented by a local network device in a communication network. The local network device is communicatively connected to a remote network device in a communication network. The method can comprise the following steps: receiving a PHY membership indication for a remote PHY from a remote network device; obtaining a PHY membership indication for a local PHY in a Flexe group of the local network device, wherein the local PHY is paired with the remote PHY; determining a status of a local PHY in the Flexe group based on the PHY membership indication for the local PHY and the remote PHY; and converting the state of the local PHYs in the FlexE group according to the triggering event.

Description

Method and apparatus for PHY management in FLEXE networks

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to flexible ethernet (FlexE) networks and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for PHY management in FlexE networks.

Background

FlexE, defined by the Optical Interconnection Forum (OIF), provides a common mechanism for supporting various Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) rates, which may or may not correspond to any existing Ethernet physical layer (PHY) rates. This includes MAC rates that are greater (by bundling) and less (by subrate and channelization) than the ethernet PHY rate used to carry FlexE.

Conventionally, the general capabilities supported by FlexE networks include: (ii) bonded Ethernet PHYs, e.g., supporting 200G MACs on two bonded (bond) 100GBASE-R PHYs, (ii) sub-rates of Ethernet PHYs, e.g., supporting 50G MACs on 100GBASE-R PHYs, and (iii) channelizing within a group of PHYs or bonded PHYs, e.g., supporting 150G and two 25G MACs on two bonded 100GBASE-R PHYs. Note that combinations are also contemplated, e.g., subrates of a group of bundled PHYs, e.g., 250G MAC on three bundled 100GBASE-R PHYs. The FlexE group refers to a group containing 1 to n bundled ethernet PHYs. When one or more of the PHYs of the FlexE group have failed, traffic for all clients on the FlexE group will be interrupted.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present disclosure to address at least one of the above problems, thereby improving the accuracy of clock synchronization.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method implemented at a local network device in a communication network. The local network device is communicatively connected to a remote network device in a communication network. The method may include receiving a PHY membership (membership) indication for a remote PHY from a remote network device; obtaining a PHY membership indication for a local PHY in a Flexe group of the local network device, wherein the local PHY is paired with a remote PHY; determining a status of a local PHY in the Flexe group based on the PHY membership indication for the local PHY and the remote PHY; and converting the state of the local PHYs in the FlexE group according to the triggering event.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a network apparatus is provided in a communication network. The network device is communicatively coupled to another network device in a communication network. The network device may include a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor. The memory may be adapted to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the network device to perform the steps of the method according to the first aspect above.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory machine readable medium having a computer program stored thereon. The computer program, when executed by the set of one or more processors of the network apparatus, causes the network apparatus to perform the steps of the method according to the first aspect above.

Drawings

The disclosure may best be understood by way of example with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrate embodiments of the disclosure. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a diagram showing the general structure of a FlexE network;

fig. 2 schematically illustrates an example flow diagram of PHY management implemented by a network device in accordance with one or more embodiments of this disclosure;

fig. 3 schematically illustrates an example flow diagram for determining the status of local PHYs in a FlexE group in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a state transition diagram illustrating state transitions between states of PHYs in a FlexE group according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an implementation of PHY membership indication in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; and

fig. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a network device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description describes methods and apparatus for FlexE PHY management in FlexE networks. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details such as logic implementations, types and interrelationships of system components, etc., are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, control structures, circuits, and instruction sequences have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the disclosure. Those of ordinary skill in the art, with the included descriptions, will be able to implement appropriate functionality without undue experimentation.

As used herein, the terms "first," "second," and the like refer to different elements. The singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the terms "comprising," "including," "having," "including," and/or "containing" specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The term "according to" is to be read as "at least partially according to". The terms "one embodiment" and "an embodiment" are to be read as "at least one embodiment". The term "another embodiment" is to be read as "at least one other embodiment".

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood. It will be further understood that terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Text in parentheses and boxes with dashed borders (e.g., large dashes, small dashes, dot-dash lines, and dots) may be used herein to illustrate optional operations that add additional features to embodiments of the present disclosure. However, in certain embodiments of the present disclosure, such notation (notation) should not be considered to imply that these are the only options or optional operations, and/or that the boxes with solid line boundaries are not optional.

Electronic devices use a machine-readable medium (also called a computer-readable medium), such as a machine-readable storage medium (e.g., a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a flash memory device, a phase change memory) and a machine-readable transmission medium (also called a carrier wave) (e.g., an electrical, optical, radio, acoustical or other form of propagated signal such as carrier waves, infrared signals) to store and transmit (internally and/or over a network with other electronic devices) code (which consists of software instructions and which is sometimes referred to as computer program code or computer program) and/or data. Thus, an electronic device (e.g., a computer) includes hardware and software, such as a set of one or more processors coupled to one or more machine-readable storage media to store code for execution on the set of processors and/or to store data. For example, an electronic device may include non-volatile memory that contains code because the non-volatile memory may retain the code/data even when the electronic device is turned off (when power is removed), and that portion of the code to be executed by the processor(s) of the electronic device is typically copied from the slower non-volatile memory into the volatile memory (e.g., dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), static Random Access Memory (SRAM)) of the electronic device when the electronic device is turned on. A typical electronic device also contains a set of physical network interfaces or one or more physical network interfaces to establish network connections (to transmit and/or receive code and/or data using propagated signals) with other electronic devices. One or more portions of embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented using different combinations of software, firmware, and/or hardware.

A network device is an electronic device that communicatively interconnects other electronic devices (e.g., other network devices, end-user devices) on a network. Some network devices are "multiple services network devices" that provide support for multiple networking functions (e.g., routing, bridging, switching, layer 2 aggregation, session border control, quality of service, and/or subscriber management), and/or support for multiple application services (e.g., data, voice, and video).

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a logical structure of a FlexE network 100. The logical structure of the FlexE network 100 contains a FlexE bank 110, one or more FlexE clients 120, and FlexE shims (shim) 130 at each end of the FlexE bank. The FlexE bank 110 refers to a group of 1 to n bundled ethernet channels contained between the FlexE shims 130. As used herein, a PHY is a component that operates at the physical layer of the OSI network model. Each PHY may be identified by a number in the range 1-254, for example. The values 0 and 255 are reserved. The PHY number (PHY number) may correspond to a physical port order on a device such as a network device, and the FlexE shims at either end of the FlexE group may use the PHY number to identify each PHY in the group. Each PHY of the FlexE bank is capable of delivering a logical serial stream of 64B/66B encoded blocks from FlexE multiplexing to FlexE demultiplexing. The FlexE group 110 may contain one or more bundled 100GBASE-R PHYs as well as other rates, including new, higher rates once those standards are completed. One or more FlexE clients 120 are each ethernet streams based on a MAC data rate, which may or may not correspond to any ethernet PHY rate. Flexe client 120 MAC rates supported by OIF-FLEXE 1.0 are 10, 40 and m × 25 Gb/s. FlexE shim 130 is the layer that maps or demaps FlexE clients 120 carried on FlexE bank 110. FlexE multiplexing refers to the transport direction in which FlexE clients 120 are mapped on FlexE groups 110. FlexE demultiplexing refers to the receive direction in which the FlexE client 120 is demapped from the FlexE group 110. Thus, when used in the context of a network layer, the PHY described in this disclosure may be a network layer; when used in the context of a FlexE group, may be a functional entity; when used in a hardware design, may be a one-to-one mapping to ports or optical transceivers or may be a chip that implements the functionality of the PHY layer.

Currently, there are only two membership states for PHYs in the FlexE group, i.e., in the group or not. As defined in OIF-FLEXE-1.0, a PHY bitmap (bit map) is specified to indicate whether the PHY is in the FlexE group. In case of PHY failure, lock out for management, or misalignment of PHY bitmaps in both ends of the FlexE group (due to PHY member addition/deletion), the entire FlexE network will be out of service and traffic for all clients will be interrupted.

The present disclosure provides a method for isolating PHY members from a FlexE group such that the FlexE group will work with the isolated members in the group such that PHY failures, lock out for management, temporary misalignment of PHY bitmaps for paired PHYs (due to PHY member addition/deletion) will not cause the entire FlexE group to be taken out of service. In addition to the current two PHY membership states (in a group or not), a third PHY membership state, i.e., an isolated member, is defined. When the PHY is an isolated member of the FlexE bank, no client traffic will be distributed to the PHY, although the PHY is still in the FlexE bank, and the FlexE bank will function regardless of the state of the isolated PHY.

For the case where a PHY in the FlexE bank fails or is disrupted, the PHY may be isolated as an isolated member in the FlexE bank until the failure is recovered, and such failure will not cause the traffic of all clients in the FlexE bank to be disrupted. For the case where some PHYs are locked out, the PHYs may be isolated as isolated members for management purposes. To add a PHY to a FlexE group, the PHY may first be added as a quarantine member and then become a PHY member of the FlexE group after being activated. To delete a PHY in a FlexE group, the PHY may first be quarantined as a quarantine member in the FlexE group and then deleted from the FlexE group. Details of the method will be described below.

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates an example flow diagram 200 of PHY management implemented by a network device in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 2, in step 201, a PHY membership indication for a remote PHY may be received from a remote network device. In step 202, a PHY membership indication for a local PHY in a FlexE group of the local network device may be obtained. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a local PHY is coupled to a remote PHY. In step 203, the status of the local PHYs in the FlexE group may be determined based on the PHY membership indications of the local PHY and the remote PHY. In step 204, the state of the local PHYs in the FlexE group may be transformed according to the triggering event.

According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, an updated PHY membership indication may be transmitted to the remote network device when the membership of the local PHY at the local network device changes. As an example, a PHY membership indication may be sent to a remote network device upon a change in the membership status of a local PHY at a local network device. As another example, the PHY membership indication may be periodically transmitted to the remote network device.

According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the PHY membership indication may include a PHY bitmap and a PHY isolation indication. As an example, the PHY isolation indication may include an isolation bitmap in reserved bits of an overhead frame (overhead frame). As another example, the PHY isolation indication may contain a list of isolated PHY numbers in a management channel of the overhead frame. Implementations of PHY membership indication in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be described in more detail below.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, there may be three membership states of a PHY in the FlexE group: member, quarantine member, and non-member. Member means that PHY is in FlexE group and can carry the traffic of client. Quarantine members means that the PHY is in the FlexE group, but quarantined, so no client traffic can be distributed to the PHY. Non-member means that the PHY is not in the FlexE group.

According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, the status of the local PHYs in the FlexE group may be determined based on the membership indications of the local PHY and the remote PHY. There may be at least five states for the PHY, including an out-of-group (O) state, a maintenance (M) state, a work (W) state, a Local Add (LA) state, and a Remote Add (RA) state.

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates an example flow diagram 300 for determining the status of local PHYs in a FlexE group in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 3, in step 301, if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a member in a FlexE group, and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a member in a FlexE group, the state of the local PHY may be determined to be a W state. In step 302, if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a non-member in a FlexE group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a non-member in a FlexE group, the status of the local PHY in the FlexE group may be determined to be an O status. In step 303, the status of the local PHYs in the FlexE group may be determined to be M status if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a quarantine member in the FlexE group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a quarantine member in the FlexE group. In step 304, the status of the local PHY may be determined to be the RA status if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a non-member in a FlexE group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a quarantine member in a FlexE group. In step 305, the state of the local PHY may be determined to be the LA state if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a quarantine member in a FlexE group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a non-member in a FlexE group.

Fig. 4 is a state transition diagram 400 illustrating state transitions between states of local PHYs in a FlexE group according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be the W state, if an isolation trigger event is received that isolates the local PHY from the FlexE group, the membership state of the local PHY may be changed to an isolated member and the state of the local PHY may be converted to the M state, as shown at 401. According to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, an isolation trigger event may include detecting a failure of a local PHY, locking out of the local PHY, detecting a remote defect indication of a remote PHY, receiving an isolation instruction of the local PHY, or receiving an updated PHY membership indication indicating that the remote PHY is an isolated member from a remote network device. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, after converting the state of a local PHY to an M state, traffic on that PHY may be redistributed to other PHYs in the FlexE group that are active.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be M state, if an activation trigger event is received that activates the local PHY in the FlexE group, the membership state of the local PHY may be changed to member and the state of the local PHY may be converted to W state, as shown at 402. According to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the activation trigger event may include detecting a fault clear of the local PHY, clearing a lock out of the local PHY, and receiving an updated PHY membership indication from the remote network device indicating that the remote PHY is a member in a FlexE group. According to further embodiments of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be M state, if a deletion trigger event is received to delete the local PHY from the FlexE group, the membership state of the local PHY may be changed to non-member and the state of the local PHY may be converted to RA state, as shown at 403. According to one or more of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be an M state, the state of the local PHY may be automatically transitioned to an LA state when an updated PHY membership indication of a remote PHY is received from the remote network device indicating that the remote PHY is a non-member in a FlexE group, as shown at 404.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be the O state, if an addition trigger event to add the local PHY to the FlexE group is received, the membership state of the local PHY may be changed to member and the state of the local PHY may be converted to the LA state, as shown at 405. According to one or more of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be an O state, the state of the local PHY may be automatically converted to an RA state when an updated PHY membership indication for a remote PHY is received from the remote network device, the updated PHY membership indication for the remote PHY indicating that the remote PHY is a member of a FlexE group, as shown at 406.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be the LA state, if a deletion trigger event to delete the local PHY from the FlexE group is received, the membership state of the local PHY may be changed to non-member and the state of the local PHY may be converted to the O state, as shown at 407. According to one or more of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be the LA state, the state of the local PHY may be automatically transitioned to the M state when an updated PHY membership indication of a remote PHY is received from the remote network device indicating that the remote PHY is a quarantine member in a FlexE group, as shown at 408.

According to one or more of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is in the RA state, if an addition trigger event to add the local PHY in the FlexE group is received, the membership state of the local PHY may be changed to a member and the state of the local PHY may be converted to the M state, as shown at 409. According to one or more of the present disclosure, when the state of the local PHY is in the RA state, the state of the local PHY may be automatically converted to the O state when an updated PHY membership indication for the remote PHY is received from the remote network device indicating that the remote PHY is a non-member in the FlexE group, as shown at 410.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an implementation of PHY membership indication according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 5, there is a general structure of a FlexE overhead frame and a multiframe. Alignment of data from the PHY of a FlexE group is accomplished by inserting FlexE overhead into the stream of 66B blocks carried on the group. As shown in fig. 5, the PHY bitmap may be carried in an overhead multiframe. Further, the PHY isolation bitmap may be defined using 256 bitmaps in the overhead multiframe, and each bit has the same correlation with the PHY as the PHY bitmap. As an example, for a PHY bitmap, bit =0 may mean that the PHY is not in a FlexE group; and bit =1 may mean that the PHY is in the FlexE group, and vice versa. As an example, for a PHY isolation bitmap, bit =0 may mean that the PHY is not in a bank or in a bank but is not isolated from a FlexE bank; and bit =1 may mean that the PHY is in the group and isolated from the FlexE group; and vice versa. Thus, the PHY membership indication may contain "00", i.e., the PHY is a non-member of the FlexE group; "11", i.e., PHY is an isolated member of the FlexE group; and "10", i.e. the PHY is a member of the FlexE group. The location of the PHY bitmap is not limited to block 2 of each overhead frame, and the PHY isolation bitmap may be carried in other reserved bits of the overhead frame, depending on the implementation. In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the PHY isolation bitmap may also be compressed, as isolation may occur on only a few PHYs.

According to other embodiments of the present disclosure, the PHY isolation indication may include a list of isolated PHY numbers on a management channel of the overhead frame. However, this configuration is merely an example, and one skilled in the art may employ other configurations of PHY membership indication according to different implementations.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a network apparatus 600 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that network device 600 may be implemented using components other than those shown in fig. 6.

Referring to fig. 6, the network device 600 may include at least a processor 601, a memory 602, interfaces, and communication media. The processor 601, memory 602, and interface are communicatively coupled to each other via a communication medium.

Processor 601 includes one or more processing units. The processing unit may be a physical device or an article of manufacture that includes one or more integrated circuits that read data and instructions from a computer-readable medium, such as the memory 602, and selectively execute the instructions. In various embodiments, the processor 601 is implemented in various ways. As an example, the processor 602 may be implemented as one or more processing cores. As another example, the processor 601 may include one or more separate microprocessors. In yet another example, the processor 601 may comprise an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) providing the specific functionality. In yet another example, the processor 601 provides specific functionality through the use of an ASIC and through the execution of computer-executable instructions.

Memory 602 comprises one or more computer-usable or computer-readable storage media capable of storing data and/or computer-executable instructions. It should be appreciated that the storage medium is preferably a non-transitory storage medium.

The communication medium facilitates communication between the processor 601, the memory 602, and the interface. The communication medium may be implemented in various ways. For example, the communication medium may include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, a PCI Express bus, an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus, a serial Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) interconnect, a parallel ATA interconnect, a fiber channel interconnect, a USB bus, a Small Computing System Interface (SCSI) interface, or another type of communication medium. The interface can be coupled to the processor. Information and data relating to the method as described above may be transmitted via the interface.

In the example of fig. 6, the instructions stored in memory 602 may include those that, when executed by processor 601, cause network apparatus 600 to implement the methods described with respect to fig. 2, 3, and 4.

Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of transactions on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Here and generally, an algorithm is considered to be a self-consistent sequence of transactions leading to a desired result. Transactions are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as "processing" or "computing" or "calculating" or "determining" or "displaying" or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required method transactions. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description above. In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of embodiments of the disclosure as described herein.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be an article of manufacture of a non-transitory machine-readable medium, such as a microelectronic memory, having stored thereon instructions (e.g., computer code) that program one or more data processing components (generally referred to herein as "processors") to perform the operations described above. In other embodiments, some of these operations may be performed by specific hardware components (e.g., dedicated digital filter blocks and state machines) that contain hardwired logic. Those operations might alternatively be performed by any combination of programmed data processing components and fixed hardwired circuit components.

In the foregoing detailed description, embodiments of the disclosure have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

Throughout the description, some embodiments of the present disclosure have been presented through flowchart illustrations. It should be appreciated that the transactions and order of transactions depicted in these flow diagrams are intended for illustrative purposes only and are not intended as a limitation of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made to the flow chart without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for PHY management in a FlexE network, the method implemented by a local network device in the FlexE network, the local network device communicatively connected to a remote network device in the FlexE network, the method comprising:

receiving a PHY membership indication for a remote PHY from the remote network device;

obtaining a PHY membership indication for a local PHY in a Flexe group of the local network device, wherein the local PHY is paired with the remote PHY;

determining a status of the local PHY in the Flexe group based on the PHY membership indication for the local PHY and the remote PHY; and

transitioning the state of the local PHYs in the Flexe group according to a triggering event,

wherein the PHY membership indication indicates the membership of the PHY as one of: members, sequestered members and non-members of the Flexe group,

wherein, when a PHY in the FlexE bank fails or is disrupted, the PHY is sequestered as a sequestered member in the FlexE bank and does not distribute client traffic to the PHY, such that a failure or disruption of the PHY does not cause traffic to be disrupted for all clients in the FlexE bank.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of the local PHYs in the FlexE group includes any of: an out-of-group (O) state, a maintenance (M) state, a work (W) state, a Local Addition (LA) state, and a Remote Addition (RA) state;

wherein determining the state of the local PHY comprises:

if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a member of the Flexe group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a member of the Flexe group, then the state of the local PHY is determined to be a W state;

if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a non-member of the Flexe group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a non-member of the Flexe group, then the state of the local PHY in the Flexe group is determined to be an O state;

if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a quarantine member in the Flexe group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a quarantine member in the Flexe group, then the state of the local PHY in the Flexe group is determined to be an M state;

if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a non-member of the Flexe group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is an isolated member of the Flexe group, then the state of the local PHY is determined to be an RA state; or

The status of the local PHY is determined to be LA status if the PHY membership indication of the local PHY indicates that the local PHY is a quarantine member in the Flexe group and the PHY membership indication of the remote PHY indicates that the remote PHY is a non-member in the Flexe group.

3. The method of claim 2, transitioning the state of the local PHYs in the FlexE group according to a triggering event when the state of the local PHY is determined to be a W state comprises:

changing the membership indication of the local PHY to an isolated member and transitioning the state of the local PHY to an M state if an isolation trigger event is received that isolates the local PHY from the Flexe group.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein transitioning the state of the local PHYs in the Flexe group according to a triggering event when the state of the local PHY is determined to be an M state comprises:

changing the membership indication of the local PHY to a member and transitioning the state of the local PHY to a W state if an activation trigger event is received that activates the local PHYs in the Flexe group; or

Changing the membership indication of the local PHY to a non-member and transitioning the state of the local PHY to an RA state if a deletion trigger event is received to delete the local PHY from the Flexe group.

5. The method of claim 2, when the state of the local PHY is determined to be an O state, transitioning the state of the local PHY in the FlexE group according to a triggering event comprises:

changing the membership indication of the local PHY to a member and transitioning the state of the local PHY to an LA state if an addition trigger event is received to add the local PHY to the Flexe group.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein transitioning the state of the local PHYs in the FlexE group according to a triggering event when the state of the local PHYs is determined to be an LA state comprises:

changing the membership indication of the local PHY to a non-member and transitioning the state of the local PHY to an O state if a deletion trigger event is received to delete the local PHY from the Flexe group.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein transitioning the state of the local PHYs in the Flexe group according to a triggering event when the state of the local PHY is determined to be an RA state comprises:

changing the membership indication of the local PHY to a member and transitioning the state of the local PHY to an M state if an add trigger event is received to add the local PHY in the Flexe group.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the isolation trigger event includes any of: detecting a failure of the local PHY, locking out the local PHY, detecting a remote defect indication of the remote PHY, receiving a quarantine instruction of the local PHY, or receiving an updated PHY membership indication from the remote network device indicating that the remote PHY is a quarantine member.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the activation trigger event includes any of: detecting a fault clear of the local PHY, clearing a lock out of the local PHY, or receiving an updated PHY membership indication from the remote network device indicating that the remote PHY is a member of the Flexe group.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the PHY membership indication comprises a PHY bitmap or a PHY isolation indication.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the PHY isolation indication includes an isolation bitmap in reserved bits of an overhead frame or a list of isolation PHY numbers in a management channel of an overhead frame.

12. The method of claim 3, after transitioning the state of the local PHY to an M state, the method further comprising: traffic is redistributed to other local PHYs in W state in the FlexE group.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending an updated PHY membership indication to the remote network device when the membership indication of the local PHY at the local network device changes.

14. A network device for PHY management in a FlexE network, the network device communicatively coupled to another network device in the FlexE network, and comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and adapted to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the network device to perform the steps of the method of any of claims 1-13.

15. A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a set of one or more processors of a network device, causes the network device to perform the steps of the method of any of claims 1-13.