System and method for fast detection of communication path failures

摘要

A system and methods for reducing detection time of path failures in a communications network is disclosed. Computing devices are organized into at least three groups based on their connectivity. The computing devices arc assigned three identification values based on their group assignments. The identification values for each computing device are stored in a router connected to the communications network. Heartbeat packets are sent from the computing devices to the router on a periodic basis. If the router fails to receive a heartbeat packet from a particular computing device, a communication path from the router to the computing device is determined based on the three identification values.