Network link liveness detection

A method, comprising:

• in a network device, checking a link liveness of a network link using a first state machine in accordance with a link aggregation control protocol (LACP) driver;
• executing a second state machine, different than the first state machine and within the LACP driver, to check the link liveness, wherein the second state machine includes a sleep state in which the second state machine defaults to the link liveness check performed by the first state machine;
• and
• checking the link liveness using the second state machine by transmitting and receiving packets from a peer network device in order to bi-directionally test the network link between the network device and the peer network device.

A network device, comprising:

• switching hardware for receiving and forwarding packets through the network device in accordance with a forwarding information base (FIB);
• control hardware coupled to the switching hardware, the control hardware for executing first and second state machines that test links to peer devices, the first state machine being part of a link aggregation control protocol (LACP) and the second state machine being included in a LACP driver;
• and
• multiple ports for coupling to the peer devices via the links and wherein the control hardware is for executing the first and second state machines for each of the multiple ports.