How to check reliability of Ethernet connection between an Intel NUC and ARM cortex-M micro controller ?

I am actually building a robotic system . Where I delegate lower control tasks to a MCU and upper stack processing like State estimation , Perception ,Path planning to an onboard computer (Intel NUC). I am currently researching on ways in which failure can occur in the system . One aspect is communication between MCU and OBC. I will be connecting both using a Ethernet line routed by a router. I would like to come up with checking routines to see if the connection between MCU and Intel NUC is reliable . I have thought of below 2 routines. I am looking for more suggestions apart from this

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1. Periodic ACK between OBC and MCU
2. SHA256 for data integrity check .

Is there anything else, I can add to the list ?

Thank you !