Abstract—Virtual eXtensible LAN (VXLAN) is a Layer 2 overlay scheme over a Layer 3 to solve the scalability problems of Virtual LAN (VLAN). VXLAN utilizes IP multicast to broadcast a frame to hosts in a VXLAN segment which has an independent broadcast domain. The VXLAN segment is mapped into a multicast group based on a multicast tree which ensures a loop-free topology. However, VXLAN depends on IP multicast because all devices have to support IP multicast. In addition, IP multicast requires a large amount of network resources to maintain multicast trees which are built per the multicast group. In this paper, the proposed scheme replaces IP multicast. It is extended from Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP), and provides the spanning tree to broadcast a frame and to prevent a loop topology in VXLAN. The IP multicast dependency is removed and the number of spanning trees is reduced by taking the advantage of MSTP that constructs a spanning tree per an instance. It also provides interoperability with VLAN by using a typical spanning tree algorithm.

Index Terms—IP multicast, MSTP, and VXLAN.

The authors are with the High-Speed Communications Lab., Department of Computer and Radio Communication Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Cite:Seok Weon Seo, Seong Mun Kim, Sung Gi Min, "Extensible Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol for Virtual eXtensible LAN," International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 120-129, 2016.