Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) Version 3 for IPv4 and IPv6
draft-addogra-rtgwg-vrrp-rfc5798bis-12

Abstract

This document defines the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) for IPv4 and IPv6. It is version three (3) of the protocol, and it is based on VRRP (version 2) for IPv4 that is defined in RFC 3768 and in "Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol for IPv6". VRRP specifies an election protocol that dynamically assigns responsibility for a virtual router to one of the VRRP routers on a LAN. The VRRP router controlling the IPv4 or IPv6 address(es) associated with a virtual router is called the VRRP Active Router, and it forwards packets sent to these IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. VRRP Active Routers are configured with virtual IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, and VRRP Backup Routers infer the address family of the virtual addresses being carried based on the transport protocol. Within a VRRP router, the virtual routers in each of the IPv4 and IPv6 address families are a domain unto themselves and do not overlap. The election process provides dynamic failover in the forwarding responsibility should the Active Router become unavailable. For IPv4, the advantage gained from using VRRP is a higher-availability default path without requiring configuration of dynamic routing or router discovery protocols on every end-host. For IPv6, the advantage gained from using VRRP for IPv6 is a quicker switchover to Backup Routers than can be obtained with standard IPv6 Neighbor Discovery mechanisms. The VRRP terminology has been updated conform to inclusive language guidelines for IETF technologies. The IETF has designated National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) "Guidance for NIST Staff on Using Inclusive Language in Documentary Standards" for its inclusive language guidelines. This document obsoletes VRRP Version 3 [RFC5798].

Authors

Acee Lindem
Aditya Dogra

(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid.)