VRRP Fabric Routing

Prior to ExtremeXOS 21.1, VRRP had one master router which would do L3 routing and one or more backup routers which would do L2 forwarding of packets to the master router. This caused loss of bandwidth in the links that connect the master and backup routers. This issue is present in any topology wherein host traffic is flowing via backup router. In case of multiple backup routers, traffic from hosts attached to some backup routers would have to traverse multiple links to reach the master router. This caused loss of bandwidth in multiple links towards the master.

The VRRP fabric routing feature introduced in ExtremeXOS 21.1 allows the backup router to take part in L3 routing for the packets it receives with DA=VMAC. A backup router enabled with this feature is called a Fabric Routing Enabled Backup (FREB) router. This feature allows load sharing of traffic between VRRP routers and saves the bandwidth of links connecting the master and backup. This bandwidth saved can be used to provide better connectivity between the segments of the network wherein each segment is connected to only one VRRP router directly. This solution is applicable for all topologies such as MLAG, EAPS, or STP.