Patent ID: 8717936

Claim:
A method comprising: transmitting, with at least one processor, a path verification message over a path, wherein the path verification message comprises a plurality of labels, each label of the plurality of labels corresponding to a layer of a plurality of layers in a label switched path hierarchy, and wherein the plurality of layers comprises a current layer and at least one non-current layer; receiving, with the at least one processor, a reply message in response to transmitting the path verification message; determining, with the at least one processor, whether the reply message includes information that describes a non-current layer of the at least one non-current layer; in response to determining that the reply message does not include information that describes the non-current layer, incrementing, with the at least one processor, a first time-to-live field associated with the current layer; and in response to determining that the reply message includes information that describes the non-current layer: incrementing, with the at least one processor, a second time-to-live field associated with the non-current layer, wherein the second time-to-live field is different than the first time-to-live field.