LINK FAULT HANDLING METHOD AND DATA FORWARDING APPARATUS

A link fault handling method and a data forwarding apparatus are provided herein. The method includes: A first data forwarding apparatus keeps a neighboring relation with a second data forwarding apparatus after a link between the first data forwarding apparatus and the second data forwarding apparatus fails intermittently. The link between the first data forwarding apparatus and the second data forwarding apparatus fails intermittently in this way: A first fault detecting module in the first data forwarding apparatus receives no fault detection message from the second data forwarding apparatus at a preset time of receiving the message, but receives the fault detection message from the second data forwarding apparatus in an intermittency period after the preset time of receiving the message. The embodiments of the present invention shorten the convergence time of the upper-layer application module, improve the convergence performance, save CPU resources of the data forwarding apparatus, and improve working performance of the data forwarding apparatus.