Patent ID: 8284677

Claim:
A method performed by a first network element, the method comprising receiving, at the first network element, a fault state change message of a first protocol indicating a fault state change for a remote maintenance endpoint, the fault state change determined by a second network element that is configured to periodically receive connectivity check messages of a second protocol generated by the remote maintenance endpoint, wherein a connectivity status of the remote maintenance endpoint is active in response to the second network element periodically receiving the connectivity check messages, and is not active in response to a lack of connectivity check messages received from the remote maintenance endpoint, and wherein the second network element sends the fault state change message in response to the connectivity status of the remote maintenance endpoint changing from not active to active instead of forwarding the connectivity check messages periodically received by the second network element to a plurality of local maintenance endpoints; updating a local database based on the received fault state change message, the local database comprising the connectivity status of the remote maintenance endpoint; and proxying connectivity check messages to the local maintenance endpoints based on the updated local database, wherein the proxying comprises, if the remote maintenance endpoint is identified as active in the local database, generating and periodically sending with the first network element proxied connectivity check messages to the local maintenance endpoints such that the proxied connectivity check messages are formatted to appear as if they are connectivity check messages that originated from the remote maintenance endpoint, wherein the first network element and the second network element are included in the same domain.