In one embodiment, a method comprises detecting, by a first provider edge router, a second provider edge router providing reachability to a prescribed destination address prefix via a protected next hop address; allocating, by the first provider edge router, a mirror forwarding table associated with the second provider edge router and identifying a destination used by the second provider edge router for reaching the prescribed destination address prefix; and the first provider edge router sending repair information to a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)-free core network router in the core network, the repair information enabling the BGP-free core network router to add a context label and reroute a received data packet to the first provider edge router if the second provider edge router is unavailable, the context label enabling the first provider edge router to identify the destination in the rerouted data packet for delivery to the destination address prefix.