Patent ID: 8593973

Claim:
A method comprising: executing, on a first layer two (L2) device, an operations, administration, and management (OAM) protocol to monitor a first L2 network, wherein the first L2 device operates within the first L2 network; determining, with the first L2 device, that a first network path to a second L2 device via a first layer three (L3) device is a preferred network path, wherein the second L2 device operates in a second L2 network, wherein the first and second L2 networks are coupled by an intermediate L3 network, wherein the first L3 device and a second L3 device are positioned within the L3 network and provide multi-homed connectivity between the L3 network and the first L2 network; issuing, with the OAM protocol executing on the first L2 device, a first L2 frame to the first L3 device of the L3 network, wherein the first L2 frame includes an indication that the first L3 device is within the preferred network path to direct the first L3 device to reserve resources of the first L3 device for processing packets received from the first L2 device; and issuing, with the OAM protocol executing on the first L2 device, a second L2 frame to the second L3 device of the L3 network, wherein the second L2 frame issued to the second L3 device includes an indication that the second L3 device is not within the preferred network path to direct the second L3 device to release resources of the second L3 device that were previously reserved for processing packets received from the first L2 device.