Patent ID: 8331222

Claim:
A link fault handling method, comprising: by a first data forwarding apparatus, keeping a neighboring relation with a second data forwarding apparatus after a link between the first data forwarding apparatus and the second data forwarding apparatus fails intermittently, wherein the link between the first data forwarding apparatus and the second data forwarding apparatus fails intermittently in the following way: a first fault detecting module in the first data forwarding apparatus receives no fault detection message from the second data forwarding apparatus at a preset time, but receives the fault detection message from the second data forwarding apparatus in an intermittency period after the preset time wherein, when the first fault detecting module receives no fault detection message from the second data forwarding apparatus at the preset time: the first fault detecting module sends a first notification message to a first upper-layer application module in the first data forwarding apparatus, the first notification message indicating the failure of a fault detection session; and the first upper-layer application module keeps the neighboring relation with the second data forwarding apparatus, and generates a first new link state message and floods the first new link state message to other data forwarding apparatuses which locate in the same autonomous domain with the first data forwarding apparatus, wherein the first new link state message indicates network topology around the first data forwarding apparatus after the link is cut off.