An enhanced network management system is disclosed. The network management
system is configured to receive management information via multiple
virtual connections from multiple data communication nodes. The
management information includes service level information for a
transparent connection, for example, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
connection carrying encapsulated frame relay packets between two
networks, for example a wide area network and a local area network. The
transparent connection is intermediate to the wide area network and the
local area network. The management information further includes equipment
failure information of customer equipment, for example, a bridging node
used to encapsulate the frame relay packets. Thus, using the collected
management information, a network outage caused by customer equipment
failure can be differentiated from a service provider service level
event.