US Patent 10063447 Path-ping and ECMP-traceroute for IPV6 overlay virtualized networks

In one embodiment, an ingress network virtualization edge (NVE) in a computer network generates an echo packet, and sets an indication in the echo packet that the echo packet is for overlay path validation. In addition, the ingress NVE sets a message type of the echo packet to a generic echo request, and includes virtualization network (VN) context information within the echo packet. Once setting a destination address of the echo packet as an egress NVE address and including an indication to the egress NVE that the echo packet is an operations, administration, and management (OAM) message, the ingress NVE may then send the echo packet toward the egress NVE (e.g., to validate the VN context information and/or to reveal multipath traces).