A recovery route reflector with a monitoring module and a BGP state establishment module is peered with a plurality of primary route reflectors. Each of the plurality of primary route reflectors is peered with a set of provider edge devices. The BGP state between the recovery route reflector and the plurality of primary route reflectors is periodically monitored. When a primary route reflector fails the BGP state between the recovery route reflector and the failed primary route reflectors is idle, and the recovery route reflector establishes a peer session with the provider edge devices that had been peered with the failed route reflector.