Using BFD packets in a virtualized device

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions, the instructions executable by a processor of a system to cause the system to:

• receive, at a second linked network device, a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) synchronization packet from a first linked network device, wherein the first linked network device and the second linked network device are part of a link aggregation group running a BFD process and wherein the link aggregation group uses an active forwarding mode where data traffic flowing through first linked network device is routed through the second linked network device;
• determine, at the second linked network device, that the BFD synchronization packet is a BFD single-hop packet coming from a VLANs using the active forwarding mode and a time-to-live (TTL) value of the BFD synchronization packet is an acceptable increment lower than a BFD TTL supported by the BFD process;
• and
• determine, at the second linked network device, not to discard the BFD synchronization packet.

A system comprising:

• a first BFD packet receiver to receive a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) packet originating from a first network device, wherein a first linked network device and a second linked network device are part of a link aggregation group running a BFD process;
• a BFD packet transmitter to transmit a BFD synchronization packet from the first linked network device, wherein the link aggregation group uses an active forwarding mode where data traffic flowing through first linked network device is routed through the second linked network device;
• a second BFD receiver to receive the BFD synchronization packet at the second linked network device, wherein a time-to-live (TTL) value of the BFD synchronization packet is lower than a BFD TTL supported by the BFD process;
• a BFD packet determiner that the BFD synchronization packet is a BFD single-hop packet coming from a VLANs using the active forwarding mode;
• and
• a BFD packet adjuster to adjust the time-to-live (TTL) value of the BFD synchronization packet to a BFD TTL supported by the BFD process.