A device for generating report data related to a status of an interface of a network element, the report data being suitable for informing a control plane about the status of the interface so that flapping between utilizable and non-utilizable states of the interface is filtered out from the report data, the device comprising a delay timer and a processor system configured to: - receive status data having an on-value when the interface is utilizable and an off-value when the interface is non-utilizable, - initialize, in response to a situation which the status data is received for a first time, delay-based data to have a value of the status data and dampening-based data to have the value of the status data, - activate the delay timer in response to a situation in which the status data changes while the delay timer is inactive, - set, at an end of a delay determined by the delay timer, the delay-based data to have a value of the status data occurring at the end of the delay, - set, regardless of the delay timer, the dampening-based data to have the value of the status data if a penalty value fulfils a condition defined with one or more penalty thresholds, and otherwise set the dampening-based data to have the off-value, - set, regardless of the delay timer, the report data to have a value of the delay-based data if the dampening-based data has the on-value, and otherwise set the report data to have the off-value, and - decrease, regardless of the delay timer and in response to a situation in which the penalty value is greater than zero, the penalty value in accordance with a predetermined rule over time, characterized in that the processor system is further configured to: - set, regardless of the delay timer, penalty control data to have a preventive value in response to a situation in which increasing the penalty value during a time window exceeds a predetermined limit, the time-window including a current moment of time and having a pre-determined temporal length, and - increase, regardless of the delay timer, the penalty value in response to a situation in which i) the status data changes from the on-value to the off-value and ii) the penalty control data has a value other than the preventive value. - receive status data having an on-value when the interface is utilizable and an off-value when the interface is non-utilizable, - initialize, in response to a situation which the status data is received for a first time, delay-based data to have a value of the status data and dampening-based data to have the value of the status data, - activate the delay timer in response to a situation in which the status data changes while the delay timer is inactive, - set, at an end of a delay determined by the delay timer, the delay-based data to have a value of the status data occurring at the end of the delay, - set, regardless of the delay timer, the dampening-based data to have the value of the status data if a penalty value fulfils a condition defined with one or more penalty thresholds, and otherwise set the dampening-based data to have the off-value, - set, regardless of the delay timer, the report data to have a value of the delay-based data if the dampening-based data has the on-value, and otherwise set the report data to have the off-value, and - decrease, regardless of the delay timer and in response to a situation in which the penalty value is greater than zero, the penalty value in accordance with a predetermined rule over time, - set, regardless of the delay timer, penalty control data to have a preventive value in response to a situation in which increasing the penalty value during a time window exceeds a predetermined limit, the time-window including a current moment of time and having a pre-determined temporal length, and - increase, regardless of the delay timer, the penalty value in response to a situation in which i) the status data changes from the on-value to the off-value and ii) the penalty control data has a value other than the preventive value.