Abstract: In various embodiments, the techniques and supporting systems implement a recursive routing mechanism in hierarchical topological addressed environments to analyze and determine the presence of packet-forwarding errors within an IP network comprising a plurality of network-connected devices. This includes receiving, at a software defined network device, an indication of a potential packet-forwarding error between a first and second device of the plurality of network-connected devices and injecting, by the software defined network device, a test packet at an ingress to the first device. The test packet includes an initial ingress interface location identifying the first device, an alternate ingress interface location identifying the software defined network device and an egress interface location identifying the second device. A determination may then be made as to whether the test packet is received at the second device, thus indicating the existence or lack of routing errors.

Abstract: A system for hierarchical topological addressing and hierarchical recursive routing in a network includes routing devices organized in a hierarchical topology forming a routing layer including levels. The levels include first and second levels including first and second subsets of the routing devices, respectively. Each routing device in the first level is directly connected to endpoint modules and to routing devices in the second level. Each routing device has a hierarchical address based on a location of the routing device within the hierarchical topology. Each routing device performs recursive one-hop routing to route packets through the network. Performing recursive one-hop routing on a particular packet includes: selecting a network port based on a destination address of the packet, wherein the destination address is a hierarchical address of a second routing device in the first level, and forwarding the packet to a routing device directly connected to the selected network port.