A system and method for configuring Maintenance Intermediate Point (MIP) nodes of an Ethernet OAM network based on absolute level indicia as well as relative level indicia encoded in OAM frames generated by Maintenance End Point (MEP) nodes. A first OAM level field in a payload portion of an Ethernet OAM frame is encoded with an absolute OAM level associated with the originating MEP's OAM domain. A second OAM level field is encoded with a relative OAM level indicative of the number of OAM domain levels traversed by the Ethernet OAM frame.