Patent ID: 8897128

Claim:
A method comprising: establishing, by a layer three (L3) network device of an L3 wide area network, a service link from the L3 network device to a remote L3 network device, wherein the service link comprises a pseudowire operating over a tunnel within the wide area network to transport layer two (L2) communications from a local edge network, attached by an attachment circuit to the L3 network device, to a remote edge network attached to the remote L3 network device; receiving, by the L3 network device from the remote L3 network device, a message that includes a value for determining a performance metric value for loss or delay of the L2 communications being transported by the service link from the L3 network device to the remote L3 network device; determining, by the L3 network device, the performance metric value satisfies a condition of a first defect policy and does not satisfy a condition of a second defect policy; and by the L3 network device and in response to determining the performance metric value satisfies the condition of the first defect policy and does not satisfy the condition of the second defect policy, applying a congestion mechanism specified by the first defect policy on the attachment circuit to the local edge network, wherein the congestion mechanism specified by the first defect policy at least temporarily reduces an amount of service traffic within the wide area network that is issued by devices of the local edge network.