Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is a connection-oriented protocol that has a shared state between active endpoints. Some of this shared state is vital for operation@ but may be volatile in nature@ such as packet sequence numbers used on the L2TP Control Connection. When failure of one side of a control connection occurs@ a new control connection is created and associated with the old connection by exchanging information about the old connection. Such a mechanism is not intended as a replacement for an active fail over with some mirrored connection states@ but as an aid for those parameters that are particularly difficult to have immediately available. Protocol extensions to L2TP defined in this document are intended to facilitate state recovery@ providing additional resiliency in an L2TP network@ and improving a remote system's layer 2 connectivity.