A method is disclosed for managing a network having a plurality of network elements, where the network elements are configured to be interconnected to one another. A data structure is maintained that includes information about a link state for each network element in the plurality of network elements. The link state for each network element describes a connection between that network element and at least one other network element designated to be connected to that network element. A management policy is configured for the plurality of network elements by using link state information in the data structure to detect if any of the plurality of network elements are unreachable.