US Patent 9253061 Tunnel health check mechanism in overlay network

A health check mechanism for an overlay network may employ tunneling technology. A health check packet may be sent between endpoints. The health check packet may be recognized in the network and may initiate a health check process on receipt. In some embodiments, the health check packet may include a signature recognized by the network. A destination endpoint, upon receipt of the health check packet, may provide health check statistics to a source endpoint.