Patent ID: 7835265

Claim:
A method for determining failure of a communications link, the steps comprising: setting, by a computing device, a timer for a predetermined interval; waiting the predetermined interval for a link heartbeat packet; determining whether an end-of-frame packet is received; in response to determining that the end-of-frame indication has been received, determining whether a good frame is received; in response to determining that an end-of-frame packet has not been received, determining whether the timer has expired; in response to determining that the timer has expired, determining whether receiving is in progress; entering a pending status if the receiving is not in progress; determining whether a central processing unit (CPU) verification has failed; in response to determining that the CPU verification has not failed, resetting the timer; increasing an error count; determining whether the error count exceeds a predetermined value; in response to determining that the error count exceeds the predetermined value, entering the pending status; in response to determining that the error count does not exceed a predetermined value, determining whether the end-of-frame indication is not received; and sending, by the computing device, link failover data to a switch fabric board.