METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING BIDIRECTIONAL FORWARDING (BFD) OVER MULTI-CHASSIS LINK AGGREGATION GROUP (MC-LAG) IN INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) MULTIPROTOCOL LABEL SWITCHING (MPLS) NETWORKS

摘要

Methods and apparatuses for enabling sub-seconds link failure detection in a multi- chassis link aggregation group (MC-LAG) system are described. A first network device (102) of a packet network transmits a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) encapsulated packet (120, 130) over a first link (104A) that is part of the MC-LAG (104), where the MC-LAG (104) couples the first network device (102) with a second network device (101B) and a third network device (101A) and the second and third network devices are part of an inter-chassis redundancy (ICR) system (101). The MPLS encapsulated packet (120, 130) includes a generic associated channel header (ACH) (122, 132) and a payload (126, 135), and where the payload includes a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) control packet (125, 135).