normally introduced in the hello messages sent from the d pe when its associated ce pe connection fails the pe 1 starts sending hello messages provided with a defect indication di the pe 1 would clear the di from the hello messages a predefined time after these failures are repaired in case the d pe itself fails it stops sending hello messages to the n pe pe 2 when n pe receives a di over the vl or when it fails to receive a predefined number of consecutive hellos from the d pe it becomes a d pe itself and puts its ce 2 pe 2 connection into a forwarding state the alternative connection ce 1 pe 1 is anyway non operational and thus the failure of the vl in the direction from pe 2 to pe 1 cannot keep pe 1 as d pe the new d pe may optionally and preferably flush the forwarding databases learned mac addresses of the affected vpns of the access network and initiate a mac flushing message per vpn ordering this flushing to all the provider nodes where these vpns were provisioned this operation is schematically illustrated by a batch of arrows 31 the new d pe pe 2 may optionally and preferably trigger such mac flushing 33 also in the access network using one of the previously suggested methods e g sending xstp tcn or mac flush message or by activating the standby spoke pw per vpn fig3 c illustrates a situation which differs from that in fig3 b in that the other direction of the vl optionally fails this situation is simpler since in any failure in the upper traffic line and or the marked direction of the.