Patent ID: 8705374

Claim:
A method for isolating a potential impairment in a communication network, comprising: receiving, by a processor of an application server, an impairment notification indicating the potential impairment for one of a plurality of label switched paths between a source device and a destination device, wherein the source device and the destination device are provider edge routers; obtaining, by the processor, internet protocol addresses of the source device and the destination device; identifying, by the processor, all routers along each of the label switched paths; determining automatically, by the processor, whether each of the routers for each of the label switched paths is configured to exchange label mapping information, wherein the determining comprises receiving a separate label distribution protocol interface status for each of a plurality of interfaces of each of the routers for each of the label switched paths towards the destination device, wherein each of the plurality of interfaces is associated with one of the label switched paths, wherein each label distribution protocol interface status for an interface includes an indication as to whether a label distribution protocol is enabled and whether the label distribution protocol is operational on the interface; verifying, by the processor, label mapping for each of the label switched paths, wherein the verifying comprises determining whether an out label on a tested router matches an in label of a next hop router along each of the label switched paths; and identifying, by the processor, one of the plurality of label switched paths as being impaired when a router on the one label switched path is determined to be not configured to exchange label mapping information.