Patent ID: 7924730

Claim:
A method of performing connectivity verification in an application layer content-routed overlay network including a plurality of routers and wherein messages are transported through the network over a message transport layer between publishers and subscribers by matching content of the messages with prior subscriptions associated with said subscribers, comprising: constructing a ping request message at a connectivity manager in an originating router, wherein said ping request message contains content matching a subscription associated with a target subscriber attached to a terminating router; said connectivity manager sending said ping request message to a publisher attached to the originating router for injection into a forwarding plane at the originating router whereby said ping-request message is forwarded through the content-routed network over said message transport layer along a user data path to the target subscriber by content matching with the subscription associated with said target subscriber in accordance with a content-routing protocol; in response to the target subscriber receiving said ping request message, a connectivity manager at the terminating router constructing a ping-reply message and sending it to a publisher at the terminating router for injection into a forwarding plane at the terminating router whereby the ping-reply message is returned through the content-routed network over said message transport layer along a user data path to a receiving subscriber attached to the originating router by content matching with the subscription associated with the receiving subscriber in accordance with a content-routing protocol; said receiving subscriber at the originating router forwarding the received ping-reply message to the connectivity manager at the originating router; and said connectivity manager at the originating router determining connectivity to said target subscriber based on the receipt of said ping-reply message at the receiving subscriber.