A telecommunications transport network is described in which a plurality of network
elements each has a performance monitoring facility operative to report overall
error rate at the element in each network path using the element. The network includes
one or more management systems operative to calculate performance of a segment
of a path between two network elements, from the reported overall error rates at
the elements. Monitoring can thus be provided in management software using standard
interfaces to gather the reported error rates, without additional ASICs at the
network elements. Since not all paths will require TCM the additional processing
required by the network management systems need not be great. Not even every connection
that crosses a domain boundary will necessarily need TCM although the facility
is especially useful for dedicated connections.