The Cisco ASR 9000 Series operates in a fully distributed fashion which equates to all packet forwarding decisions and actions taking place on individual line cards. The purpose-built high-density Ethernet line cards are equipped with a flexible programming infrastructure, high-density Ethernet, robust Hierarchical Quality of Service (H-QoS), advanced Ethernet services, wide ranging security mechanisms, and integrated Synchronous Ethernet capabilities. The distributed implementation on the ASR 9000 Series extends to the control plane as well and adds a new dimension in scale for features such as Bidirectional Fault Detection (BFD) and Ethernet Operations and Maintenance. (E-OAM) for improved resiliency and comprehensive, automated instrumentation.