The SRRP instance MCS key ties the received MCS information to the local SRRP instance with the same MCS key. If the received key does not match an existing SRRP instance, the MCS information associated with the key is ignored. After an SRRP instance is created and mapped to an MCS peering, the SRRP instance evaluates received information with the same MCS key to verify it corresponds to the same peering. If the received MCS key is on a different peering than the local MCS key an SRRP peering mismatch event is generated detailing the SRRP instance ID, the IP address of the peering the MCS key is received on and the IP address to which the local MCS key is mapped. If the peering association mismatch is corrected, an SRRP peering mismatch clear event is generated.