Fwd: Interesting problems with using IPv6

Sun Sep 14 18:20:04 UTC 2014

On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 10:45 AM, Sam Stickland <sam at spacething.org> wrote:

> Slightly off topic, but has there ever been a proposed protocol where hosts
> can register their L2/L3 binding with their connected switch (which could
> then propagate the binding to other switches in the Layer 2 domain)?
> Further discovery requests (e.g. ARP, ND) from other attached hosts could
> then all be directly replied, eliminating broadcast gratuitous arps. If the
> switches don't support the protocol they would default to flooding the
> discovery requests.
>
> It seems to me that so many network are caused because of the inability to
> change the host mechanisms.
>
> Sam
>

It looks like in 2011 Cisco proposed a
technology called "OTV" that would do
just that, according to this page:
 http://network-101.blogspot.com/2011/03/otv-vs-vpls.html
Granted, it was aimed for wide-area
networking, rather than control within
a datacenter; but as everyone who has
started doing BGP to their top of rack
switches has learned, there's often good
value in adopting techniques and protocols
used in the wide area network within the
datacenter as well.

However, I haven't heard recent mention
of it, so I'm guessing it failed to make a
big enough splash to get any widespread
adoption.

Matt