Patent ID: 7978614
Filing Date: 2011-07-12
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method performed by a network device of detecting non-receipt of failure detection protocol packets, the method comprising: storing, at the network device, timer information for each session in a plurality of failure detection protocol sessions, the timer information for each session comprising a first timer specifying a time value indicative of a periodic time interval for receiving a failure detection protocol packet for the session and a second timer specifying a time value indicative of an amount of time since a failure detection protocol packet was last received for the session; determining, based upon the first timer values specified for the plurality of failure detection protocol sessions, a time period for comparing the timers for the plurality of failure detection protocol sessions; based upon the determined time period, periodically comparing, for each session in the plurality of failure detection protocol sessions, the first timer value specified in the timer information for the session with the second timer value specified in the timer information for the session; and determining, based upon the comparing for a first session in the plurality of failure detection protocol sessions, that a failure detection protocol packet for the session is not received by the network device within the periodic time interval specified by the timer information for the first session; wherein determining the time period comprises setting the time period to a least common denominator of the first timer values specified for the plurality of failure detection protocol sessions; wherein determining that a failure detection packet is not received is performed by a module of the network device other than a processor of the network device, the processor configured to execute software for processing failure detection protocol packets.