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Scaling the Address Resolution Protocol for Large Data Centers (SARP)
draft-nachum-sarp-03

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7586.
Authors Youval Nachum , Linda Dunbar , Ilan Yerushalmi , Tal Mizrahi
Last updated 2012-10-09
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draft-nachum-sarp-03
INTAREA Working Group                                      Youval Nachum
Internet Draft                                                   Marvell
Intended status: Proposed Standard                          Linda Dunbar
Expires: April 2013                                               Huawei
                                                         Ilan Yerushalmi
                                                             Tal Mizrahi
                                                                 Marvell
                                                         October 9, 2012

       Scaling the Address Resolution Protocol for Large Data Centers
                                  (SARP)
                         draft-nachum-sarp-03.txt

Abstract

   This  document  provides  a  recommended  architecture  and  network
   operation  named  SARP.  SARP  is  based  on  fast  proxies  that
   significantly  reduce  broadcast  domains  and  ARP/ND  broadcast
   transmissions. SARP supports smooth and fast virtual machine (VM)
   mobility without any modification to the VM, while keeping the
   connection up and running efficiently.  SARP is targeted for massive
   scaling data centers with a significant number of VMs using ARP and
   ND protocols.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The  list  of  current  Internet-Drafts  can  be  accessed  at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 9, 2013.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors. All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions        Relating        to        IETF        Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication  of  this  document.  Please  review  these  documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ................................................. 3
      1.1. SARP Motivation.......................................... 3
      1.2. SARP Overview ........................................... 3
      1.3. SARP Deployment Options ................................. 4
   2. Terms and Abbreviations Used in this Document ................ 5
   3. SARP Description ............................................. 6
      3.1. Control Plane: ARP/ND ................................... 6
         3.1.1. ARP/NS Request for a Local VM ...................... 6
         3.1.2. ARP/NS Request for a Remote VM ..................... 6
         3.1.3. Gratuitous ARP and Unsolicited Neighbor Advertisement
         (UNA) ..................................................... 7
      3.2. Data Plane: Packet Transmission ......................... 7
         3.2.1. Local Packet Transmission .......................... 7
         3.2.2. Packet Transmission Between Sites .................. 8
      3.3. VM Migration ............................................ 9
         3.3.1. VM Local Migration ................................. 9
         3.3.2. VM Migration from One Site to Another .............. 9
            3.3.2.1. Impact to IP<->MAC Mapping Cache Table of VMs being
            moved ................................................. 10
      3.4. Multicast and Broadcast ................................ 11
      3.5. Non IP packet .......................................... 11
      3.6. IP<->MAC caching on SARP Proxy ......................... 11
      3.7. High availability and load balancing ................... 12
      3.8. SARP Interaction with Overlay networks ................. 13
   4. Conclusions ................................................. 14
   5. Security Considerations ..................................... 15
   6. IANA Considerations ......................................... 15
   7. References .................................................. 15
      7.1. Normative References ................................... 15

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      7.2. Informative References ................................. 15
   8. Acknowledgments ............................................. 16

1. Introduction

1.1. SARP Motivation

   SARP  provides  operational  recommendations  for  network  in  data
   center(s) with a large number of virtual Machines which can migrate
   from one location to another without changing their IP/MAC addresses
   or allow serves in one location to be instantiated with applications
   with IP addresses in different subnets. [ARMD] has documented various
   impacts and scaling issues to data center networks, especially to
   L2/L3 boundary routers, when large number of VMs can move without
   changing their MAC/IP addresses.

1.2. SARP Overview

   SARP  is  a  type  of  proxies  that  constrain  the  ARP/ND
   broadcast/multicast messages to small segments regardless how wide
   their corresponding Layer 2 domain spread.

   In order to enable VMs to be moved across greater number of servers
   while maintaining their MAC/IP addresses unchanged, the layer-2
   network (e.g. VLAN) which interconnect those VMs may spread across
   different server racks, different rows of server racks, or even
   different data centers.

   For ease of description, let's break the entire network which
   interconnects all those VMs into two segments: interconnecting
   segment and "access" segments. While the "Access" network is mostly
   likely Layer 2, the "interconnecting" segment might be not.

   The SARP proxies are located at the boundaries where the "Access"
   segment connects to its "Interconnecting" segment. The boundary node
   could be a Hypervisor virtual switch, a Top of Rack switch, an
   Aggregation switch (or end of row switch), or a data center core
   switch.  Figure 1 depicts an example of two remote data centers that
   are managed as a single flat Layer 2 domain. SARP proxies are
   implemented at the edge devices connecting the data center to the
   transport   network.   SARP   significantly   reduces   the   ARP/ND
   transmissions  over  the  "interconnection"  network.  The  ARP/ND
   broadcast/multicast messages are bounded by the SARP proxies.

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                         *-------------------*
                         |                   |
                 +-------|   Interconnect    |-------+
                 |       |                   |       |
                 |       *-------------------*       |
                 |                                   |
        *-----------------*                  *----------------*
        |  SARP Proxies   |                  |  SARP Proxies  |
        *-----------------*                  *----------------*
           |           |                        |           |
       *-------*   *-------*                *-------*   *-------*
       |  ACC  |   |  ACC  |                |  ACC  |   |  ACC  |
       *-------*   *-------*                *-------*   *-------*
           |
      *----------*
      |Hypervisor|
      *----------*
           |
       *--------*
       |Virtual |
       |Machine |
       *--------*

          (West Site)                          (East Site)

              Figure 1 SARP Networking Architecture Example.

1.3. SARP Deployment Options

   SARP deployment is tightly coupled with the data center architecture.
   SARP  proxies  are  located  at  the  point  where  the  Layer  2
   infrastructure connects to its Layer 2 cloud using overlay networks.
   SARP proxies can be located at the data center edge (as Figure 1
   depicts), data center core, or data center aggregation. SARP can also
   be implemented by the hypervisor (as Figure 2 depicts).

   To simplify the description, we will focus on data centers that are
   managed as a single flat Layer 2 network, where SARP proxies are
   located at the boundary where the data center connects to the
   transport network (as Figure 1 depicts).

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                         *-------------------*
                         |                   |
                 +-------|     TRANSPORT     |-------+
                 |       |                   |       |
                 |       *-------------------*       |
                 |                                   |
        *-----------------*                  *----------------*
        |   Edge Device   |                  |  Edge Device   |
        *-----------------*                  *----------------*
                 |                                   |
        *-----------------*                  *----------------*
        |       Core      |                  |      Core      |
        *-----------------*                  *----------------*
           |           |                        |           |
       *-------*   *-------*                *-------*   *-------*
       |  Agg  |   |  Agg  |                |  Agg  |   |  Agg  |
       *-------*   *-------*                *-------*   *-------*
           |
      *----------*
      |Hypervisor|
      *----------*

          (West Site)                          (East Site)

                     Figure 2 SARP deployment options.

2. Terms and Abbreviations Used in this Document

   ARP: Address Resolution Protocol

   FIB: Forwarding Information Base

   IP-D: IP address of the destination virtual machine

   IP-S: IP address of the source virtual machine

   MAC-D: MAC address of the destination virtual machine

   MAC-E: MAC address of the East Proxy SARP Device

   MAC-S: MAC address of the source virtual machine

   NA: IPv6 ND's Neighbor Advertisement

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   ND: IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol. In this document, ND also
      refers to Neighbor Solicitation, Neighbor Advertisement,
      Unsolicited Neighbor Advertisement messages defined by RFC4861

   NS: IPv6 ND's Neighbor Solicitation

   SARP Proxy: The components that participates in the SARP protocol.

   UNA: IPv6 ND's Unsolicited Neighbor Advertisement

   VM: Virtual Machine

3. SARP Description

3.1. Control Plane: ARP/ND

   This section describes the ARP/ND procedure scenarios. In the first
   scenario, VMs share the same Access Segment. In the second scenario,
   the source VM is local Access Segment and the destination VM is
   located at the remote Access Segment.

   In all scenarios, the VMs (source and destination) share the same L2
   broadcast domain.

3.1.1. ARP/NS Request for a Local VM

   When source and destination VMs are located at the same Access
   Segment, the Address Resolution process is as described in [ARP] and
   [ND].  When  the  VM  sends  an  ARP  request  or  IPv6's  Neighbor
   Solicitation (NS) to learn the IP to MAC mapping of another local VM,
   it receives a reply from the other local VM with the IP-D to MAC-D
   mapping.

3.1.2. ARP/NS Request for a Remote VM

   When the source and destination VMs are located at different Access
   Segments, the Address Resolution process is as follows.

   In our example, the source VM is located at the west Access Segment
   and the destination VM is located at the east Access Segment.

   When the source VM sends an ARP/NS request to find out the IP to MAC
   mapping of a remote VM, if the local SARP proxy doesn't have the ARP
   cache for the target IP address or the cache entry has expired, the

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   ARP/NS request is propagated to all Access Segments which might have
   VMs in the same virtual network as the originating VM, including the
   east Access Segment.

   The destination VM responds to the ARP/NS request and transmits an
   ARP reply (IPv4) or Neighbor Advertisement (IPv6) having the IP-D to
   MAC-D mapping.

   The east SARP proxy functions as the proxy ARP of its Local VMs. The
   east SARP proxy modifies the ARP reply or NA message's source MAC-D
   to MAC-E and forwards the modified ARP reply or NA message to all the
   SARP proxies.

   The West SARP Proxy forwards the modified ARP reply message to the
   source VM.

   The west SARP proxy can also functions as an IP<->MAC cache of the
   Remote VMs. By doing so, it significantly reduces the volume of the
   ARP/ND transmission over the network.

   When the west SARP proxy caches the IP<-> MAC mapping entries for
   remote VMs, the timers for the entries to expire should be set
   relatively small to prevent stale entries due to remote VMs being
   moved or deleted. For environment where VMs move more frequently, it
   is not recommended for SARP Proxy to cache the IP<-> MAC mapping
   entries of remote VMs.

3.1.3. Gratuitous ARP and Unsolicited Neighbor Advertisement (UNA)

   Hosts (or VMs) send out Gratuitous ARP (IPv4) and Unsolicited
   Neighbor Advertisement - UNA (IPv6) for other nodes to refresh IP<-
   >MAC entries in their cache.

   The local SARP processes the Gratuitous ARP or UNA in the same way as
   the ARP reply or IPv6 NA, i.e. replace the source MAC with its own
   MAC.

3.2. Data Plane: Packet Transmission

3.2.1. Local Packet Transmission

   When a VM transmits packets to a destination VM that is located at
   the same site, there is no change in the data plane. The packets are
   sent from (IP-S, MAC-S) to (IP-D, MAC-D).

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3.2.2. Packet Transmission Between Sites

   Packets that are sent between sites traverse the SARP proxy of both
   sites. In our example, all packets sent from the VM located at the
   west site to the destination VM located at the east site traverse the
   west SARP proxy and the east SARP proxy.

   The source VM follows its ARP table and sends packets to (IP-D, MAC-
   E) destination addresses and with (IP-s, MAC-S) as the source
   addresses.

   The west SARP proxy can either 1) simply forward the data frame to
   MAC-E, or 2)replace the packet source address to its own source
   address (MAC-W), keeps the destination address to be (MAC-E), and
   forwards the packet to the east proxy SARP.

   It is recommended for west SARP proxy to replace Source Address with
   its own if the "interconnecting segment" has address learning
   enabled. Otherwise nodes in the "interconnecting segment" can't learn
   the address of the switch on which west SARP proxy is running unless
   the switch sends out frames periodically.

   When the east proxy SARP receives the packet, it replaces the
   destination MAC address to be (MAC-D) based on the packet destination
   IP (i.e., IP-D), but it does not change the source MAC addresses.
   When the destination VM receives the packet, the Source Address field
   would be the MAC address of the VM on the west side or the MAC
   address of the west side SARP proxy,

   Noted: it is common for data center network to have security policies
   to enforce some VMs can communicate with each other, and some VMs
   can't. Most likely, those policies are configured by VM's IP
   addresses. Even though the originating VM's MAC address might be lost
   when the packet arrives at the destination VM, the originating VM's
   IP address is still present in the data packets for security policy
   to be enforced.

   Noted: for the option which doesn't need west SARP to change source
   MAC of the data frames, the originating VM's MAC will be present when
   the data frames arrive at the destination VMs. Therefore, this option
   is valuable when hosts/VMs need to validate source VMs MAC addresses
   to comply any policies imposed.

   Noted: Most hosts/VMs refresh its IP<->MAC mapping cache, with the
   Source MAC and Source IP of a received data frame. For the option
   which west SARP changes data frame's source MAC with its own MAC
   address, the destination VM's IP<->MAC cache can be refreshed with

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   the valid mapping of the Source-VM-IP <->West-SARP-MAC. For the
   option of West SARP not changing source MAC, the destination VM has
   to turn off the learning of IP<->MAC mapping from the received data
   frames.

3.3. VM Migration

3.3.1. VM Local Migration

   When a VM migrates locally within its Access segment, the SARP
   protocol is not required to perform any action. VM migration is
   resolved entirely by the Layer 2 mechanisms.

3.3.2. VM Migration from One Site to Another

   In our example, the VM migrates from the west site to the east site
   while maintaining its MAC and IP addresses.

   VM  migration  might  affect  networking  elements  based  on  their
   respective location:

   -  Origin site (west site)

   -  Destination site (east site)

   -  Other sites

   Origin site:

   The Origin site is the site where the VM is before migration. It is
   the west site in our example.

   Before the VM (IP=IP-D, MAC=MAC-D) is moved, all VMs at the west site
   that have an ARP entry of IP-D in their ARP table have the (IP-D to
   MAC-D) mapping. VMs on any other "Access Segments" will have ARP
   entry of (IP-D to MAC-W) mapping where MAC-W is the MAC address of
   the SARP proxy on the West Access Segment.

   After the VM (IP-D) in the West Site moves to East Site, if there is
   gratuitous ARP (IPv4) or Unsolicited Neighbor Advertisement (IPv6)
   sent out by the destination hypervisor for the VM (IP-D), then the
   IP<->MAC mapping cache of VMs on all Access Segments will be updated
   by (IP-D to MAC-E) where MAC-E is the MAC address of the SARP proxy
   on the East Site. If there isn't any gratuitous ARP or Unsolicited
   Neighbor Advertisement sent out by the destination hypervisor, the

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   IP<->MAC cache on the VMs in west site (and other sites) will
   eventually aged out.

   Until IP<->MAC mapping cache tables are updated, the source VMs from
   the west site continue sending packets to MAC-D. Switches at the west
   site are still configured with the old location of MAC-D. This can be
   resolved by VM manager sending out a fake gratuitous ARP or
   Unsolicited  Neighbor  Advertisement  on  behalf  of  destination
   Hypervisor, shorter aging timer configured for IP<->MAC cache table,
   or by redirecting the packets to the proxy SARP of the west site.

   Destination Site:

   The destination site is the site to which the VM migrated, the east
   site in our example.

   Before any gratuitous ARP or Unsolicited Neighbor Advertisement
   messages are sent out by the destination hypervisor, all VMs at the
   east site (and all other sites) might have (IP-D to MAC-W) mapping in
   their IP<->MAC mapping cache. IP<->MAC mapping cache is updated by
   aging or by a gratuitous ARP or UNA message sent by the destination
   hypervisor. Until IP<->MAC mapping caches are updated, the source VMs
   from the east site continue to send packets to MAC-W. This can be
   resolved by VM manager sending out a fake gratuitous ARP/UNA
   immediately after the VM migration, or redirecting the packets from
   the SARP proxy of the east site to the migrated VM by updating the
   destination MAC of the packets to MAC-D.

   Other Sites:

   All VMs at the other sites that have an ARP entry of IP-D in their
   ARP table have the (IP-D to MAC-W) mapping. ARP mapping is updated by
   aging or by a gratuitous ARP message sent by the destination
   hypervisor of the migrated VM and modified by the SARP proxy of the
   east site (IP-D to MAC-E) mapping. Until ARP tables are updated, the
   source VMs from the west site continue sending packets to MAC-W. This
   can be resolved by redirecting the packets from the SARP proxy of the
   west site to the SARP proxy of the east site by updating the
   destination MAC of the packets to MAC-E.

3.3.2.1. Impact to IP<->MAC Mapping Cache Table of VMs being moved

   When a VM (IP-D) is moved from one site to another site, its IP<->MAC
   mapping entries for VMs located at the other sites (i.e. neither east
   site nor west site) are still valid, even though most Guest OSs (or
   VMs) will refresh their IP<->MAC cache after migration.

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   The VM (IP-D)'s IP<->MAC mapping entries  for VMs located at east
   site, if not refreshed after migration, can be kept with no change
   until the ARP aging time since they are mapped to MAC-E. All traffic
   originated from the VM (IP-D) in its new location to VMs located at
   the east site traverses the SARP proxy of the east Site. The ARP/UNA
   sent by the SARP proxy of the east site or by the VMs on east side
   can always refresh the corresponding entries in the VM (IP-D)'s IP<-
   >MAC cache .

   The VM (IP-D)'s ARP entries (i.e. IP to MAC mapping) for VMs located
   at west sites will not be changed either until the ARP entries age
   out or new data frames are received from the remote sites. Since all
   MAC addresses of the VMs located at the west site are unknown at the
   east site. All unknown traffic from the VM is intercepted by the SARP
   proxy of the east site and forwarded to the SARP proxy of the west
   site (just for ARP aging time). This can be resolved by the east SARP
   proxy having mapping entries for VMs in the west side. Upon receiving
   unknown packets, it can update the migrating VM with the new IP to
   MAC mapping by sending a modified gratuitous ARP with (IP-D to MAC-W)
   mapping.

   Note  that  overlay  networks  providing  the  Layer  2  network
   virtualization services configure their Edge Device MAC aging timers
   to be greater than the ARP request interval.

3.4. Multicast and Broadcast

   To be added in a future version of this document

3.5. Non IP packet

   To be added in a future version of this document

3.6. IP<->MAC caching on SARP Proxy

   ARP/NS Requests for a VM located at a remote site require flooding
   messages over the interconnecting network to all sites which have
   enabled the virtual network on which the VM belongs to.  This
   scenario is described in details at 3.1.2.  In such cases, SARP
   caching  can  reduce  the  number  of  ARP/ND  transmissions  over
   interconnecting networks.

   In the example presented at section 3.1.2.  the source VM is located
   at the west site and the destination VM is located at the east site.
   When the source VM sends an ARP or Neighbor Solicitation request to
   discover the IP to MAC mapping of the remote VM, the request can be
   intercepted by the west SARP proxy.

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   The west SARP proxy learns or refreshes the source IP to source MAC
   mapping and looks up the IP to MAC translation of the destination IP.
   If the destination IP entry is found and is valid, the west SARP
   proxy replies with an ARP reply or Neighbor Advertisement without
   propagating the packet to other sites. Otherwise, the packet is
   propagated to all sites which have the virtual network enabled
   including the east site.

   The propagated ARP/NS request is intercepted again by the east SARP
   proxy. It learns or refreshes the source IP to source MAC mapping and
   looks up the destination IP to MAC translation. If the destination IP
   entry is found and is valid the SARP proxy replies with an ARP reply
   or NA without propagating the ARP request to the east site.
   Otherwise, the ARP/NS request is broadcasted within the east site.

   The destination VM responds to the ARP/NS request and transmits an
   ARP reply or NA having the IP-D to MAC-D mapping.

   The east side SARP proxy intercepts the ARP reply or NA and learns or
   refreshes the Destination IP to Destination MAC mapping, replace the
   source MAC with its own MAC before sending the ARP reply or NA to the
   west SARP proxy (so that requesting VM can learn the IP-D to MAC-E
   mapping).

   The West SARP Proxy intercepts the ARP reply or NA and learns or
   refreshes  the  Destination  IP  to  Destination  MAC  mapping  and
   propagates the ARP reply to the source VM.

   The SARP proxies maintain an ARP caching table of IP to MAC mapping
   for all recent ARP/NS requests and replies. This table allows the
   SARP proxy to respond with low latency to the ARP/NS requests sent
   locally and avoid the broadcast transmissions of such requests over
   the transport network and all over the broadcast domains at the
   remote sites.

3.7. High availability and load balancing

   The SARP proxy is located at the boundary where the local Layer 2
   infrastructure connects to the interconnecting network. All traffic
   from the local site to the remote sites traverses the SARP proxy. The

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   SARP  proxy  is  subject  to  high  availability  and  bandwidth
   requirements.

   The SARP architecture supports multiple SARP proxies connecting a
   single site to the transport network. In SARP architecture all
   proxies  can  be  active  and  can  backup  one  another.  The  SARP
   architecture is robust and allows the network administrator to
   allocate proxies according to the bandwidth and high availability
   requirements.

   Traffic is segregated between SARP proxies by using VLANs. An SARP
   proxy is the Master-SARP proxy of a set of VLANs and the Backup-SARP
   proxy of another set of VLANs.

   For example the SARP proxies of the west site (as Figure 1 depicts)
   are SARP proxy-1 and SARP proxy-2. The west site supports VLAN-1 and
   VLAN-2 while SARP proxy-1 is the Master SARP proxy of VLAN-1 and the
   Backup proxy of VLAN-2 and SARP proxy-2 is the Master SARP proxy of
   VLAN-2 and the Backup SARP proxy of VLAN-1. Both proxies are members
   of VLAN-1 and VLAN-2.

   The Master SARP proxy updates its Backup proxy with all the ARP reply
   messages. The Backup SARP proxy maintains a backup database to all
   the VLANs that it is the Backup SARP proxy.

   The  Master  and  the  Backup  SARP  proxies  maintain  a  keepalive
   mechanism. In case of a failure the Backup proxy becomes the Master
   SARP proxy. The failure decision is per VLAN.  When the Master and
   the Backup proxies switchover, the backup SARP proxy can use the MAC
   address of the Master SARP proxy. The backup SARP proxy sends locally
   a gratuitous ARP message with the MAC address of the Master SARP
   proxy to update the forwarding tables on the local switches. The
   backup SARP proxy also updates the remote SARP proxies on the change.

3.8. SARP Interaction with Overlay networks

   SARP  interaction  with  overlay  networks  providing  L2  network
   virtualization (such as IP, VPLS, Trill, OTV, NVGRE and VxLAN) is
   efficient and scalable.

   The mapping of SARP to overlay networks is straightforward. The VM
   does the destination IP to SARP proxy MAC mapping. The mapping of the
   proxy MAC to its correct tunnel is done by the overlay networks. SARP
   significantly scales down the complexity of the overlay networks and
   transport networks by reducing the mapping tables to the number of
   SARP proxies.

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4. Conclusions

   SARP distributes the Layer 2 Forwarding Information Base (FIB) from
   the edge devices (functioning as SARP proxies) to the VMs. By doing
   so, it significantly reduces table sizes on the edge devices. The
   source VM maintains the mapping of its destination VMs to the
   destination site/cloud in the ARP table. The destination VM IP is
   translated to the destination MAC address of the SARP proxy at the
   destination site. The SARP proxies only maintain Layer 2 FIB of local
   VMs and remote edge devices.

   SARP proxies can support FAST VM migration and provide minimum
   transition phase. When SARP proxy indicates or is informed of VM
   migration, it can update all its peers and trigger a fast update.

   SARP seamlessly supports Layer 2 network virtualization services over
   the overlay network and significantly reduces their complexity in
   terms of table size and performance. The overlay networks are only
   required to map MAC addresses of the SARP proxies to the correct
   tunnel.

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5. Security Considerations

   The SARP proxies are located at the boundaries where the local Layer
   2 infrastructure connects to its Layer 2 cloud. The SARP proxies
   interoperate with overlay network protocols that extend the Layer-2
   subnet across data centers or between different systems within a
   datacenter.

   SARP control plane and data plane are traversed by the overlay
   network hence SARP does not expose the network to additional security
   threats.

   SARP proxies may be exposed to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks by
   means of ARP/ND message flooding. Thus, the SARP proxies must have
   sufficient resources to support the SARP control plane without making
   the network more vulnerable to DoS than without SARP proxies.

   SARP adds security to the data plane by hiding all the local layer 2
   MAC addresses from potential attacker located at the remote clouds.
   The only MAC addresses that are exposed at remote sites are the MAC
   addresses of the SARP proxies.

6. IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA actions required by this document.

   RFC Editor: please delete this section before publication.

7. References

7.1. Normative References

   [ARP]         Plummer, D., "An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol",
                 RFC 826, November 1982.

   [ND]          Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
                 "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC
                 4861, September 2007.

7.2. Informative References

   [ARMD]        Narten, T., Karir, M., Foo, I., " Problem Statement for
                 ARMD", draft-ietf-armd-problem-statement, February
                 2012.

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8. Acknowledgments

   This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.

Authors' Addresses

   Youval Nachum
   Marvell
   6 Hamada St.
   Yokneam, 20692 Israel
   Email: youvaln@marvell.com

   Linda Dunbar
   Huawei Technologies
   5430 Legacy Drive, Suite #175
   Plano, TX 75024, USA
   Phone: (469) 277 5840
   Email: ldunbar@huawei.com

   Ilan Yerushalmi
   Marvell
   6 Hamada St.
   Yokneam, 20692 Israel
   Email: yilan@marvell.com

   Tal Mizrahi
   Marvell
   6 Hamada St.
   Yokneam, 20692 Israel
   Email: talmi@marvell.com

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