Link fault handling method, related apparatus, storage medium, and program product

A link fault handling method, wherein the method is applied to a network device;

• the network device comprises a forwarding plane circuit, a port status register, and a plurality of ports, and the port status register is configured to store a port state of each of the plurality of ports;
• and the method comprises:
• maintaining, by the forwarding plane circuit, a reference state table by polling the port status register, wherein the reference state table indicates whether a plurality of links on which the plurality of ports are respectively located are faulty;
• querying, by the forwarding plane circuit, a forwarding table and the reference state table based on a to-be-forwarded data flow, to determine whether a link used for transmitting the data flow is a faulty link;
• when determining that the link used for transmitting the data flow is the faulty link, determining, by the forwarding plane circuit, an alternative link of the faulty link;
• and
• updating, by the forwarding plane circuit, the forwarding table based on the alternative link, to switch the data flow to the alternative link.