A MEP has a persistent defect condition. A notification (fault alarm) is sent to the management entity with the OID of the MEP that has detected the fault. The management entity receiving the notification can identify the system from the network source address of the notification, and can identify the MEP reporting the defect by the indices in the OID of the dot1agCfmMepHighestPrDefect variable in the notification: dot1agCfmMdIndex - Also the index of the MEP's Maintenance Domain table entry (dot1agCfmMdTable). dot1agCfmMaIndex - Also an index (with the MD table index) of the MEP's Maintenance Association network table entry (dot1agCfmMaNetTable), and (with the MD table index and component ID) of the MEP's MA component table entry (dot1agCfmMaCompTable). dot1agCfmMepIdentifier - MEP Identifier and final index into the MEP table (dot1agCfmMepTable).