Methods and apparatus for a handshake protocol in a LAG-based multipath switch fabric for multipath OAM

In some embodiments, an apparatus comprises a first switch configured to define an initialization packet that has a header value associated with a port from a set of ports associated with a link aggregation group. The first switch is configured to send the initialization packet to a second switch via the port based on the header value. The first switch is configured to receive an acknowledgement packet including the header value from the second switch in response to the second switch receiving the initialization packet. The first switch is configured to retrieve the header value from the acknowledgement packet such that the first switch defines, in response to the first switch receiving the acknowledgement packet, a response packet having the header value. The first switch is configured to send the response packet to the second switch via the port based on the header value.