Patent ID: 8842550

Claim:
A first network element to be coupled with a second network element over a first network in the same domain, the first network element comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium to store code; and a set of one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, operative to execute the code, the code including: a connectivity check state change module to: receive a single first fault state change message, according to a second protocol, from the second network element over the first network in response to a connectivity status of a remote maintenance endpoint changing from not active to active, wherein the second network element sends the single first fault state change message to the first network element instead of creating and sending a fault state change message for each of the connectivity check messages periodically received by the second network element in response to the connectivity status change of the remote maintenance endpoint, and receive a single second fault state change message, according to the second protocol, from the second network element over the first network in response to the connectivity status of the remote maintenance endpoint changing from active to not active, wherein the second network element sends the single second fault state change message when a lack of connectivity check messages is detected; and a connectivity check proxy module to proxy connectivity check messages to a local maintenance endpoints in response to the first single fault state change message, wherein the proxying comprises, generating and periodically sending proxied connectivity check messages to the local maintenance endpoint over a second network, different than the first network, such that the proxied connectivity check messages are formatted to appear as if they are the connectivity check messages periodically received by the second network element that originated from the remote maintenance endpoint.