Patent ID: 7680923

Claim:
A method for determining the connectivity of a communication path in a communication network, comprising: monitoring received traffic at an egress network device, wherein said monitoring includes detecting a received probe message, wherein said received probe message indicates an ingress access point, said ingress access point including an identifier of an ingress network element and a path identifier; determining, responsive to said detecting of said received probe message, whether said egress network device is currently tracking probe messages indicating said ingress access point, wherein said determining includes determining whether a data structure entry associated with said ingress access point indicated by said received probe message currently exists in a tracking data structure stored in said egress network device, such that said egress network device is determined to not be currently tracking probe messages indicating said ingress access point responsive to determining that a data structure entry associated with said ingress access point indicated by said received probe message does not currently exist in said tracking data structure; and in the event that probe messages indicating said ingress access point are not currently being tracked, initiating tracking at said egress network device of probe messages indicating said ingress access point, wherein said initiating tracking at said egress network device includes adding a data structure entry associated with said ingress access point indicated by said received probe message to said tracking data structure, wherein said data structure entry includes an indication of a last time at which a probe message was received at said egress network device from said ingress access point.