Patent ID: 8396955

Claim:
A method comprising: instantiating a first maintenance end point on a first port of a first network element; determining, by the first maintenance end point, whether a heartbeat message has been received from a second maintenance end point instantiated on a second port of a second network element; in response to determining that the heartbeat message has been received, analyzing the heartbeat message to determine an identifier for the second network element and an identifier for the second port; and based on the determination of the identifier of the second network element and the identifier of the second port, storing information to an adjacency list, the information indicating at least one of: adjacency of the first port to the second port; and adjacency of the first network element to the second network element; and communicating the adjacency list to a path computation element configured to determine a network topology including the first network element, the second network element, and a plurality of other network elements based on the adjacency list and a plurality of other adjacency lists.