Fast Path Ethernet Switching: On-demand, efficient transparent bridges for data center and campus networks
Guillermo Ibáñez, Juan Antonio Carral, Alberto García-Martínez, Jose Manuel Arco, Diego Rivera, Arturo Azcorra · 2010
In this paper we propose Fast Path Ethernet, an evolution of the transparent bridges learning mechanisms to increase infrastructure utilization for campus and datacenter networks in a simple way. Fast Path Ethernet Switches reuse standard ARP Request and Reply packets to set up fast on-demand paths between hosts. This architecture uses the standard Ethernet frame format, so it is fully transparent to hosts and compatible with 802.1D bridging in core-island mode. A proof of concept has been implemented in Linux. Preliminary simulations in metropolitan and campus network topologies show superior performance to spanning tree and even to shortest path forwarding, at a fraction of the their complexity.