Scaling and Interoperability of All-Path with Bridged and SDN Domains using VXLANs

Abstract

All-Path protocols, namely ARP-Path and TCPPath, provide shortest path bridging by using path discovery and backwards learning in meshed topologies. However, their domain size may be limited to prevent excessive Layer 2 (L2) broadcast traffic overload in hosts. This paper proposes the use of Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) to solve this issue. Moreover, this paper also verifies the extensibility of All-Path domains and its interoperability with other different L2 protocols via VXLAN, which enables flexible network hybridization. Although encapsulation via VXLAN is heavier than other standard protocols designed for L2 scalability, the overall advantages and suitability for virtualized networks are excellent. Results show full compatibility and interoperability combined with good throughput and delay performance.