The present technology is directed to signaling unreachability of a network device, more specifically, a prefix of the network device in network that utilizes route summarization. A pulse trigger agent can detect an unreachability of at least one Provider Edge (PE) device in a network domain of a network and determine that a route summarization is being used within the network where the unreachability of the at least one PE device is hidden by the route summarization. A pulse distribution agent can transmit a failure message informing other PE devices of the unreachability of the at least one PE device.