Patent ID: 7376078

Claim:
A method comprising: storing state data update messages and corresponding acknowledgement messages in a standby control unit of a network device, wherein each of the state data update messages and the respective one of the acknowledgement messages includes a corresponding state change identifier; and upon an occurrence of a failover event, selectively replaying state information to an interface component of the network device from the standby control unit based upon the state change identifiers of the stored state data update messages and acknowledgement messages, wherein selectively replaying state information comprises: identifying a standby process within the standby control unit containing current state information that is not synchronized with state information of a corresponding client process within the interface component by; identifying a set of second state data update messages stored by the standby control unit that are not associated with corresponding acknowledgement messages; requesting retransmission of the acknowledgement messages by the interface component to identify acknowledgement messages lost as a result of the failover event; and identifying the standby process based on one or more of the set of second state data update messages that remain unassociated with corresponding acknowledgement messages after the requested retransmission; and transmitting current state information maintained by the standby process to the corresponding client process within the interface component to re-synchronize the state information of the client process and the state information of the standby process.