Abstract: An extension is provided to a Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) that can use the LACP protocol transport and provides Link Aggregation Group (LAG) management while also functioning as a full liveness detection protocol. Bi-directional link detection is supported and timers are configurable to any number. The extension can be backwards compatible with standard LACP and can use a subtype that is specified as unused. The extension can start up using standard LACP packet rates and include additional information in the unused subtype. If a LACP speaker does not support the extension, then the protocol conforms to standard LACP. A state machine of the extension is used if it detects conforming information from a peer speaker. The state machine can allow faster detection should a link error occur.