Re-establishing a bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD) session when a discriminator mismatch is detected

A local end device configured for Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) communication, the local end device comprising:

• a network interface configured to enable communication with a remote end device for exchanging BFD control packets,
• a processing device in communication with the network interface, and
• a memory device configured to store a computer program having instructions that, when executed, enable the processing device to
• responsive to a Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) session being down and the local end device restarts or reboots with a first local discriminator number for the BFD session with a remote end device, receive a first BFD control packet from the remote end device, the first BFD control packet including a remote discriminator number associated with the remote end device and a second local discriminator number presumed to be associated with the local end device but is known to be incorrect by the local end device, wherein the second local discriminator number is presumed based on (i) the first BFD control packet having the remote discriminator number, (ii) the second local discriminator number being different from the first local discriminator number, (iii) the second local discriminator number is non-zero, and (iv) the local end device has restarted or rebooted,
• reply to the remote end device with a second BFD control packet including the first local discriminator number of the local end device in response to determining that the second local discriminator number is known to be incorrect, and
• receive a third BFD control packet from the remote end device including the remote discriminator number associated with the remote end device and the first local discriminator number.