WAN Design Requirements

LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation

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LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, hybrid cloud solutions have emerged as a game-changer for businesses seeking flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. One of the most intriguing aspects of hybrid cloud architecture is its potential when combined with LISP (Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol). In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of LISP hybrid cloud and explore its advantages, use cases, and potential impact on the future of cloud computing.

LISP, short for Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol, is a network architecture that separates the routing identifier of an endpoint device from its location information. This separation enables efficient mobility, scalability, and flexibility in networks, making it an ideal fit for hybrid cloud environments. By decoupling the endpoint's identity and location, LISP simplifies network management and enhances the overall performance and security of the hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Enhanced Scalability:LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation provides unparalleled scalability, allowing businesses to seamlessly scale their network infrastructure without disruptions. With LISP, endpoints can be dynamically moved across different locations without changing their identity, making it ideal for businesses with evolving needs.

Improved Performance:By decoupling the endpoint identity from its location, LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation reduces the complexity of routing. This results in optimized network performance, reduced latency, and improved overall user experience.

Seamless Multicloud Integration:One of the key advantages of LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation is its compatibility with multicloud environments. It simplifies the integration and management of multiple cloud providers, enabling businesses to leverage the strengths of different clouds while maintaining a unified network architecture.

Assessing Network Requirements:Before implementing LISP Hybrid Cloud, it is essential to assess your organization's specific network requirements. Understanding factors such as scalability needs, mobility requirements, and multicloud integration goals will help in designing an effective implementation strategy.

To ensure a successful LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation, partnering with an experienced provider is crucial. Look for a provider that has expertise in LISP and a track record of implementing hybrid cloud solutions. They can guide you through the implementation process, address any challenges, and provide ongoing support.

Conclusion: In conclusion, LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation offers a powerful solution for businesses seeking scalability, performance, and multicloud integration. By leveraging the benefits of LISP, organizations can optimize their network infrastructure, enhance user experience, and future-proof their IT strategy. Embracing LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation can pave the way for a more agile, efficient, and competitive business landscape.

Matt Conran

Highlights: LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation

Understanding LISP

LISP, short for Locator/ID Separation Protocol, is a network architecture that separates the device’s identity (ID) from its location (Locator). By decoupling these two elements, LISP enables greater scalability, improved mobility, and enhanced security. This protocol has gained significant traction in recent years and forms the foundation of LISP hybrid cloud.

Hybrid cloud computing combines the use of both public and private cloud infrastructures, allowing organizations to leverage the benefits of both worlds. By seamlessly integrating on-premises resources with public cloud services, businesses can achieve enhanced flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. This hybrid approach serves as an ideal platform for deploying LISP infrastructure, creating a potent combination.

Endpoint identifiers and routing locators

A device’s IPv4 or IPv6 address identifies it and indicates its location. Present-day Internet hosts are assigned a different IPv4 or IPv6 address whenever they move from one location to another, which overloads the location/identity semantic. Through the RLOC and EID, LISP separates location from identity. IP addresses of the egress tunnel router (ETR) and the host’s IP address are represented by the RLOC and EID, respectively.

A device’s identity does not change with a change in location with LISP. The device retains its IPv4 or IPv6 address when it moves from one location to another, but the site tunnel router (xTR) changes dynamically. A mapping system ensures that the identity of the host does not change with the change in location. As part of the distributed architecture, LISP provides an EID-to-RLOC mapping service that maps EIDs to RLOCs.

Advantages of LISP in Hybrid Cloud:

1. Improved Scalability: LISP’s ability to separate the identifier from the location allows for easier scaling of hybrid cloud environments. With LISP, organizations can effortlessly add or remove resources without disrupting the overall network architecture, ensuring seamless expansion as business needs evolve.

2. Enhanced Flexibility: LISP’s inherent flexibility enables organizations to distribute workloads across cloud environments, including public, private, and on-premises infrastructure. This flexibility empowers businesses to optimize resource utilization and leverage the benefits of different cloud providers, resulting in improved performance and cost-efficiency.

3. Efficient Mobility: Hybrid cloud environments often require seamless mobility, allowing applications and services to move between cloud providers or data centers. LISP’s mobility capabilities enable smooth migration of workloads, ensuring continuous availability and reducing downtime during transitions.

4. Enhanced Security: LISP’s built-in security features provide protection to hybrid cloud environments. With LISP, organizations can implement secure overlay networks, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality across diverse cloud infrastructures. LISP’s encapsulation techniques also prevent unauthorized access and mitigate potential security threats.

Use Cases of LISP in Hybrid Cloud:

1. Disaster Recovery: LISP’s mobility and scalability make it an excellent choice for implementing disaster recovery solutions in hybrid cloud environments. By leveraging LISP, organizations can seamlessly replicate critical workloads across multiple cloud providers or data centers, ensuring business continuity during a disaster.

2. Cloud Bursting: LISP’s flexibility enables organizations to leverage additional resources from public cloud providers during peak demand periods. With LISP, businesses can easily extend their on-premises infrastructure to the public cloud, ensuring optimal performance and cost optimization.

3. Multi-Cloud Deployments: LISP’s ability to abstract the underlying network infrastructure simplifies the management of multi-cloud deployments. Organizations can efficiently distribute workloads across cloud providers by utilizing LISP, avoiding vendor lock-in, and maximizing resource utilization.

LISP Components

In addition to separating device identity from location, the Location/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) architecture also reduces operational expenses (opex) by providing a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)–free multihoming network. Multiple address families (AF) are supported, a highly scalable virtual private network (VPN) solution is provided, and host mobility is enabled in data centers. Understanding LISP’s architecture and how it works is essential to understand how all these benefits and functionalities are achieved.

LISP Architecture

In RFC 6830, LISP defines a routing and addressing architecture for the Internet Protocol. The LISP routing architecture addressed scalability, multi-homing, traffic engineering, and mobility problems. A single 32-bit (IPv4 address) or 128-bit (IPv6 address) number on the Internet today combines location and identity semantics. In LISP, the location is separated from the identity. As a result, the LISP’s network layer locator (the network layer identifier) can change, but the network layer locator (the network layer identifier) cannot.

Triangular routing

As a result of LISP, the end user device identifiers are separate from the routing locators that others use to contact them. As a result of the LISP routing architecture design, devices are identified by their endpoint identifiers (EIDs), while their locations, called routing locators (RLOCs), are identified by their routing locators.

Before you proceed, you may find the following posts helpful for pre-information:

  1. LISP Control Plane
  2. LISP Hybrid Cloud Use Case
  3. LISP Protocol
  4. Merchant Silicon

LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation

Critical Points and Traffic Flows

  1. The enterprise LISP-enabled router ( PxTR-1) can be either physical or virtual. The ASR 1000 and selected ISR models support Locator Identity Separation Protocol ( LISP ) functions for the physical world and the CSR1000V for the virtual world.
  2. The CSR or ASR/ISR acts as a PxTR with both Ingress Tunnel Router ( ITR ) and Egress Tunnel Router ( ETR ) functions. The LISP-enabled router acts as PxTR so that non-LISP sites like the branch office can access the mobile servers once they have moved to the cloud. The “P” stands for proxy. The ITR and ETR functions relate to LISP encapsulation/decapsulation depending on traffic flow direction. The ITR encapsulates, and the ETR decapsulates.
  3. The PxTR-1 ( Proxy Tunnel Router ) does not need to be in the regular forwarding path and does not have to be the default gateway for the servers that require mobility between sites. However, it does require an interface ( same subnet ) to be connected to the servers that require mobility. The interface can be either a physical or a sub-interface.
  4. The PxTR-1 can detect server EID ( server IP address ) by listening to the Address Resolution Protocol ( ARP ) request that could be sent during server boot time or by specifically sending Internet Control Message Protocol ( ICMP ) requests to those servers.
  5. The PxTR-1 uses Proxy-ARP for both intra-subnet and inter-subnet communication.
  6. The PxTR-1 proxy replies on behalf of nonlocal servers ( VM-B in the Public Cloud ) by inserting its MAC address for any EID.
  7. There is an IPsec tunnel, and routing is enabled to provide reachability for the RLOC address space. The IPSEC tunnel endpoints are the PxTR-1 and the xTR-1.
hybrid cloud implementation
Hybrid cloud implementation with LISP.

LISP hybrid cloud: The map-server and map-resolver

The map-server and map-resolver functions are enabled on the PxTR-1. They can, however, be enabled in the private cloud. For large deployments, redundancy should be designed for the LISP mapping system by having redundant map-server and map-resolver devices. You can implement these functions on separate devices, i.e., the map-server on one device and the map resolver on the other. Anycast addressing can be used on the map-resolver so LISP sites can choose the topologically closer resolver.

Public cloud deployment  

  1. Unlike the PxTR-1 in the enterprise domain, the xTR-1 in the Public Cloud must be in the regular data forwarding path and acts as the default gateway.
  2. At the cloud site, the xTR-1 acts as both the eTR and the iTR. With flows from the enterprise domain to the public cloud, the xTR-1 performs eTR functions.
  3. For returning traffic from the cloud to the enterprise, the xTR-1 acts as an iTR.
  4. The xTR-1 LISP encapsulates traffic and forwards it to the RLOC at the enterprise site for an unknown destination.

Packet walk: Enterprise to public cloud

  1. Virtual Machine A in the enterprise space wants to communicate and opens a session with Virtual Machine B in the public cloud space.
  2. VM-A sends an ARP request for VM-B. This is used to find the MAC address of VM-B.
  3. The PxTR-1 with an interface connected to VM-A ( server mobility interface ) receives this request and replies with its MAC address. This is the Proxy ARP feature of the PxTR-1 and its users because VM-B is not directly connected.
  4. VM-A receives the MAC address via ARP from the PxTR-1 and forwards traffic to its default gateway.
  5. As this is a new connection, the PxTR-1 does not have a LISP mapping in its cache for the remote VM. This triggers the LISP control plane, and the PxTR-1 sends a map request to the LISP mapping system ( map-resolver and map-server ).
  6. The LISP mapping system, which is local to the device, replies with the EID-to-RLOC mapping, which shows that VM-B is located in the public cloud site.
  7. Finally, the LISP encapsulates traffic to the xTR-1 at the remote site.

 Packet walk: Non-LISP site to public cloud

  1. An end host in a non-LISP site wants to open a connection with VM-B.
  2. Traffic is naturally attracted via traditional routing to the enterprise site domain and passed to the local default gateway.
  3. The local default gateway sends an ARP request to find the MAC address of VM-B.
  4. The PxTR-1 performs proxy-ARP, responds to the ARP request, and inserts its MAC address for the remote VM-B.
  5. Traffic is then LISP encapsulated and sent to the remote Public Cloud, where VM-B is located.

Summary: LISP Hybrid Cloud Implementation

In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing, one technology has been making waves and transforming how organizations manage their infrastructure: LISP Hybrid Cloud. This innovative approach combines the benefits of the Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) and the flexibility of hybrid cloud architectures. This blog post explored the key features, advantages, implementation strategies, and use cases of LISP Hybrid Cloud.

Understanding LISP Hybrid Cloud

LISP, originally designed to improve the scalability of the Internet’s routing infrastructure, has now found its application in the cloud world. LISP Hybrid Cloud leverages the principles of LISP to seamlessly extend a network across multiple cloud environments, including public, private, and hybrid clouds. LISP Hybrid Cloud provides enhanced mobility, scalability, and security by decoupling the network’s location and identity.

Benefits of LISP Hybrid Cloud

Enhanced Mobility: With LISP Hybrid Cloud, virtual machines and applications can be moved across different cloud environments without complex network reconfigurations. This flexibility enables organizations to optimize resource utilization and implement dynamic workload management strategies.

Improved Scalability: LISP Hybrid Cloud efficiently scales network infrastructure by separating the endpoint’s identity from its location. This decoupling enables the seamless addition or removal of cloud resources while maintaining connectivity and minimizing disruptions.

Enhanced Security: By abstracting the network’s identity, LISP Hybrid Cloud provides an additional layer of security. It enables the obfuscation of the actual location of resources, making it harder for potential attackers to target specific endpoints.

Implementing LISP Hybrid Cloud

Infrastructure Requirements: Implementing LISP Hybrid Cloud requires a LISP-enabled network infrastructure, which includes LISP-capable routers and controllers. Organizations must ensure compatibility with their existing network equipment or consider upgrading to LISP-compatible devices.

Configuration and Management: Proper configuration of the LISP Hybrid Cloud involves establishing LISP overlays, mapping systems, and policies. Organizations should also consider automation and orchestration tools to streamline the deployment and management of their LISP Hybrid Cloud architecture.

Use Cases of LISP Hybrid Cloud

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: LISP Hybrid Cloud enables organizations to replicate their critical workloads across multiple cloud environments, ensuring business continuity during a disaster or service disruption.

Multi-Cloud Deployments: LISP Hybrid Cloud simplifies the deployment and management of applications across multiple cloud providers. It enables organizations to leverage the strengths of different clouds while maintaining seamless connectivity and workload mobility.

Conclusion:

LISP Hybrid Cloud offers a transformative approach to cloud networking, combining the power of LISP with the flexibility of hybrid cloud architectures. Organizations can achieve enhanced mobility, scalability, and security by decoupling the network’s location and identity. As the cloud landscape continues to evolve, LISP Hybrid Cloud presents a compelling solution for organizations looking to optimize their infrastructure and embrace the full potential of hybrid cloud environments.

WAN Design Requirements

LISP Protocol and VM Mobility

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LISP Protocol and VM Mobility

The networking world is constantly evolving, with new technologies emerging to meet the demands of an increasingly connected world. One such technology that has gained significant attention is the LISP protocol. In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of the LISP protocol, exploring its purpose, benefits, and how it bridges the gap in modern networking and its use case with VM mobility.

LISP, which stands for Locator/ID Separation Protocol, is a network protocol that separates the identity of a device from its location. Unlike traditional IP addressing schemes, which rely on a tightly coupled relationship between the IP address and the device's physical location, LISP separates these two aspects, allowing for more flexibility and scalability in network design.

LISP, in simple terms, is a network protocol that separates the location of an IP address (Locator) from its identity (Identifier). By doing so, it provides enhanced flexibility, scalability, and security in managing network traffic. LISP accomplishes this by introducing two key components: the Mapping System (MS) and the Tunnel Router (TR). The MS maintains a database of mappings between Locators and Identifiers, while the TR encapsulates packets using these mappings for efficient routing.

VM mobility refers to the seamless movement of virtual machines across physical hosts or data centers. LISP Protocol plays a crucial role in enabling this mobility by decoupling the VM's IP address from its location. When a VM moves to a new host or data center, LISP dynamically updates the mappings in the MS, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity. By leveraging LISP, organizations can achieve live migration of VMs, load balancing, and disaster recovery with minimal disruption.

The combination of LISP Protocol and VM mobility brings forth a plethora of advantages. Firstly, it enhances network scalability by reducing the impact of IP address renumbering. Secondly, it enables efficient load balancing by distributing VMs across different hosts. Thirdly, it simplifies disaster recovery strategies by facilitating VM migration to remote data centers. Lastly, LISP empowers organizations with the flexibility to seamlessly scale their networks to meet growing demands.

While LISP Protocol and VM mobility offer significant benefits, there are a few challenges to consider. These include the need for proper configuration, compatibility with existing network infrastructure, and potential security concerns. However, the networking industry is consistently working towards addressing these challenges and further improving the LISP Protocol for broader adoption and seamless integration.

In conclusion, the combination of LISP Protocol and VM mobility opens up new horizons in network virtualization and mobility. By decoupling the IP address from its physical location, LISP enables organizations to achieve greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency in managing network traffic. As the networking landscape continues to evolve, embracing LISP Protocol and VM mobility will undoubtedly pave the way for a more dynamic and agile networking infrastructure.

Matt Conran

Highlights: LISP Protocol and VM Mobility

Understanding LISP Protocol

The LISP protocol, short for Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol, is a network architecture that separates the identity of a device (identifier) from its location (locator). It provides a scalable solution for routing and mobility while simplifying network design and reducing overhead. By decoupling the identifier and locator roles, LISP enables seamless communication and mobility across networks.

Virtual machine mobility revolutionized the way we manage and deploy applications. With VM mobility, we can move virtual machines between physical hosts without interrupting services or requiring manual reconfiguration. This flexibility allows for dynamic resource allocation, load balancing, and disaster recovery. However, VM mobility also presents challenges in maintaining consistent network connectivity during migrations.

The integration of LISP protocol and VM mobility brings forth a powerful combination. LISP provides a scalable and efficient routing infrastructure, while VM mobility enables dynamic movement of virtual machines. By leveraging LISP’s locator/identifier separation, VMs can maintain their identity while seamlessly moving across different networks or physical hosts. This synergy enhances network agility, simplifies management, and optimizes resource utilization.

The benefits of combining LISP and VM mobility are evident in various use cases. Data centers can achieve seamless workload mobility and improved load balancing. Service providers can enhance their network scalability and simplify multi-tenancy. Enterprises can optimize their network infrastructure for cloud computing and enable efficient disaster recovery strategies. The possibilities are vast, and the benefits are substantial.

How Does LISP Work

Locator Identity Separation Protocol ( LISP ) provides a set of functions that allow Endpoint identifiers ( EID ) to be mapped to an RLOC address space. The mapping between these two endpoints offers the separation of IP addresses into two numbering schemes ( similar to the “who” and the “where” analogy ), offering many traffic engineering and IP mobility benefits for the geographic dispersion of data centers beneficial for VM mobility.

LISP Components

The LISP protocol operates by creating a mapping system that separates the device’s Endpoint Identifier (EID), from its location, the Routing Locator (RLOC). This separation is achieved using a distributed database called the LISP Mapping System (LMS), which maintains the mapping between EIDs and RLOCs. When a packet is sent to a destination EID, it is encapsulated and routed based on the RLOC, allowing for efficient and scalable communication.

Before you proceed, you may find the following posts helpful:

  1. LISP Hybrid Cloud 
  2. LISP Control Plane
  3. Triangular Routing
  4. Active Active Data Center Design
  5. Application Aware Networking

 

LISP Protocol and VM Mobility

Virtualization

Virtualization can be applied to subsystems such as disks and a whole machine. A virtual machine (VM) is implemented by adding a software layer to an actual device to sustain the desired virtual machine’s architecture. In general, a virtual machine can circumvent real compatibility and hardware resource limitations to enable a more elevated degree of software portability and flexibility.

In the dynamic world of modern computing, the ability to seamlessly move virtual machines (VMs) between different physical hosts has become a critical aspect of managing resources and ensuring optimal performance. This blog post explores VM mobility and its significance in today’s rapidly evolving computing landscape.

 

VM mobility refers to transferring a virtual machine from one physical host to another without disrupting operation. Virtualization technologies such as hypervisors make this capability possible, enabling the abstraction of hardware resources and allowing multiple VMs to coexist on a single physical machine.

LISP and VM Mobility

The Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) is an innovative networking architecture that decouples the identity (Identifier) of a device or VM from its location (Locator). By separating the two, LISP provides a scalable and flexible solution for VM mobility.

How LISP Enhances VM Mobility:

1. Improved Scalability:

LISP introduces a level of indirection by assigning Endpoint Identifiers (EIDs) to VMs. These EIDs act as unique identifiers, allowing VMs to retain their identity even when moved to different locations. This enables enterprises to scale their VM deployments without worrying about the limitations imposed by the underlying network infrastructure.

2. Seamless VM Mobility:

LISP simplifies moving VMs by abstracting the location information using Routing Locators (RLOCs). When a VM is migrated, LISP updates the mapping between the EID and RLOC, allowing the VM to maintain uninterrupted connectivity. This eliminates the need for complex network reconfigurations, reducing downtime and improving overall agility.

3. Load Balancing and Disaster Recovery:

LISP enables efficient load balancing and disaster recovery strategies by providing the ability to distribute VMs across multiple physical hosts or data centers. With LISP, VMs can be dynamically moved to optimize resource utilization or to ensure business continuity in the event of a failure. This improves application performance and enhances the overall resilience of the IT infrastructure.

4. Interoperability and Flexibility:

LISP is designed to be interoperable with existing network infrastructure, allowing organizations to gradually adopt the protocol without disrupting their current operations. It integrates seamlessly with IPv4 and IPv6 networks, making it a future-proof solution for VM mobility.

Basic LISP Traffic flow

A device ( S1 ) initiates a connection and wants to communicate with another external device ( D1 ). D1 is located in a remote network. S1 will create a packet with the EID of S1 as the source IP address and the EID of D1 as the destination IP address. As the packets flow to the network’s edge on their way to D1, they are met by an Ingress Tunnel Router ( ITR ).

The ITR maps the destination EID to a destination RLOC and then encapsulates the original packet with an additional header with the source IP address of the ITR RLOC and the destination IP address of the RLOC of an Egress Tunnel Router ( ETR ). The ETR is located on the remote site next to the destination device D1.

LISP protocol

The magic is how these mappings are defined, especially regarding VM mobility. There is no routing convergence, and any changes to the mapping systems are unknown to the source and destination hosts. We are offering complete transparency.

LISP Terminology

LISP namespaces:

LSP Name Component

LISP Protocol Description 

End-point Identifiers  ( EID ) Addresses

The EID is allocated to an end host from an EID-prefix block. The EID associates where a host is located and identifies endpoints. The remote host obtains a destination the same way it obtains a normal destination address today, for example through DNS or SIP. The procedure a host uses to send IP packets does not change. EIDs are not routable.

Route Locator ( RLOC ) Addresses

The RLOC is an address or group of prefixes that map to an Egress Tunnel Router ( ETR ). Reachability within the RLOC space is achieved by traditional routing methods. The RLOC address must be routable.

LISP site devices:

LISP Component

LISP Protocol Description 

Ingress Tunnel Router ( ITR )

An ITR is a LISP Site device that sits in a LISP site and receives packets from internal hosts. It in turn encapsulates them to remote LISP sites. To determine where to send the packet the ITR performs an EID-to-RLOC mapping lookup. The ITR should be the first-hop or default router within a site for the source hosts.

Egress Tunnel Router ( ETR )

An ETR is a LISP Site device that receives LISP-encapsulated IP packets from the Internet, decapsulates them, and forwards them to local EIDs at the site. An ETR only accepts an IP packet where the destination address is the “outer” IP header and is one of its own configured RLOCs. The ETR should be the last hop router directly connected to the destination.

LISP infrastructure devices:

LISP Component Name

LISP Protocol Description

Map-Server ( MS )

The map server contains the EID-to-RLOC mappings and the ETRs register their EIDs to the map server. The map-server advertises these, usually as an aggregate into the LISP mapping system.

Map-Resolver ( MR )

When resolving EID-to-RLOC mappings the ITRs send LISP Map-Requests to Map-Resolvers. The Map-Resolver is typically an Anycast address. This improves the mapping lookup performance by choosing the map-resolver that is topologically closest to the requesting ITR.

Proxy ITR ( PITR )

Provides connectivity to non-LISP sites. It acts like an ITR but does so on behalf of non-LISP sites.

Proxy ETR ( PETR )

Acts like an ETR but does so on behalf of LISP sites that want to communicate to destinations at non-LISP sites.

VM Mobility

LISP Host Mobility

LISP VM Mobility ( LISP Host Mobility ) functionality allows any IP address ( End host ) to move from its subnet to either a) a completely different subnet, known as “across subnet,” or b) an extension of its subnet in a different location, known as “extended subnet,” while keeping its original IP address.

When the end host carries its own Layer 3 address to the remote site, and the prefix is the same as the remote site, it is known as an “extended subnet.” Extended subnet mode requires a Layer 2 LAN extension. On the other hand, when the end hosts carry a different network prefix to the remote site, it is known as “across subnets.” When this is the case, a Layer 2 extension is not needed between sites.

LAN extension considerations

LISP does not remove the need for a LAN extension if a VM wants to perform a “hot” migration between two dispersed sites. The LAN extension is deployed to stretch a VLAN/IP subnet between separate locations. LISP complements LAN extensions with efficient move detection methods and ingress traffic engineering.

LISP works with all LAN extensions – whether back-to-back vPC and VSS over dark fiber, VPLS, Overlay Transport Virtualization ( OTV ), or Ethernet over MPLS/IP. LAN extension best practices should still be applied to the data center edges. These include but are not limited to – End-to-end Loop Prevention and STP isolation.

A LISP site with a LAN extension extends a single site across two physical data center sites. This is because the extended subnet functionality of LISP makes two DC sites a single LISP site. On the other hand, when LISP is deployed without a LAN extension, a single LISP site is not extended between two data centers, and we end up having separate LISP sites.

LISP extended subnet

VM mobility
VM mobility: LISP protocol and extended subnets

To avoid asymmetric traffic handling, the LAN extension technology must filter Hot Standby Router Protocol ( HSRP ) HELLO messages across the two data centers. This creates an active-active HSRP setup. HSRP localization optimizes egress traffic flows. LISP optimizes ingress traffic flows.

The default gateway and virtual MAC address must remain consistent in both data centers. This is because the moved VM will continue to send to the same gateway MAC address. This is accomplished by configuring the same HSRP gateway IP address and group in both data centers. When an active-active HSRP domain is used, re-ARP is not needed during mobility events.

The LAN extension technology must have multicast enabled to support the proper operation of LISP. Once a dynamic EID is detected, the multicast group IP addresses send a map-notify message by the xTR to all other xTRs. The multicast messages are delivered leveraging the LAN extension.

LISP across subnet 

VM mobility
VM mobility: LISP protocol across Subnets

LISP across subnets requires the mobile VM to access the same gateway IP address, even if they move across subnets. This will prevent egress traffic triangulation back to the original data center. This can be achieved by manually setting the vMAC address associated with the HSRP group to be consistent across sites.

Proxy ARP must be configured under local and remote SVIs to correctly handle new ARP requests generated by the migrated workload. With this deployment, there is no need to deploy a LAN extension to stretch VLAN/IP between sites. This is why it is considered to address “cold” migration scenarios, such as Disaster Recovery ( DR ) or cloud bursting and workload mobility according to demands.

Benefits of LISP:

1. Scalability: By separating the identifier from the location, LISP provides a scalable solution for network design. It allows for hierarchical addressing, reducing the size of the global routing table and enabling efficient routing across large networks.

2. Mobility: LISP’s separation of identity and location mainly benefits mobile devices. As devices move between networks, their EIDs remain constant while the RLOCs are updated dynamically. This enables seamless mobility without disrupting ongoing connections.

3. Multihoming: LISP allows a device to have multiple RLOCs, enabling multihoming capabilities without complex network configurations. This ensures redundancy, load balancing, and improved network reliability.

4. Security: LISP provides enhanced security features, such as cryptographic authentication and integrity checks, to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the mapping information. This helps mitigate potential attacks, such as IP spoofing.

Applications of LISP:

1. Data Center Interconnection: LISP can interconnect geographically dispersed data centers, providing efficient and scalable communication between locations.

2. Internet of Things (IoT): With the exponential growth of IoT devices, LISP offers an efficient solution for managing these devices’ addressing and communication needs, ensuring seamless connectivity in large-scale deployments.

3. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): LISP can optimize content delivery by allowing CDNs to cache content closer to end-users, reducing latency and improving overall performance.

The LISP protocol is a revolutionary technology that addresses the challenges of scalability, mobility, multi-homing, and security in modern networking. Its separation of identity and location opens up new possibilities for efficient and flexible network design. With its numerous benefits and versatile applications, LISP is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of networking.

Summary: LISP Protocol and VM Mobility

LISP (Locator/ID Separation Protocol) and VM (Virtual Machine) Mobility are two powerful technologies that have revolutionized the world of networking and virtualization. In this blog post, we delved into the intricacies of LISP and VM Mobility, exploring their benefits, use cases, and seamless integration.

Understanding LISP

LISP, a groundbreaking protocol, separates the role of a device’s identity (ID) from its location (Locator). By decoupling these two aspects, LISP enables efficient routing and scalable network architectures. It provides a solution to overcome the limitations of traditional IP-based routing, enabling enhanced mobility and flexibility in network design.

Unraveling VM Mobility

VM Mobility, on the other hand, refers to the ability to seamlessly move virtual machines across different physical hosts or data centers without disrupting their operations. This technology empowers businesses with the flexibility to optimize resource allocation, enhance resilience, and improve disaster recovery capabilities.

The Synergy between LISP and VM Mobility

When LISP and VM Mobility join forces, they create a powerful combination that amplifies the benefits of both technologies. By leveraging LISP’s efficient routing and location independence, VM Mobility becomes even more agile and robust. With LISP, virtual machines can be effortlessly moved between hosts or data centers, maintaining seamless connectivity and preserving the user experience.

Real-World Applications

Integrating LISP and VM Mobility opens up various possibilities across various industries. In the healthcare sector, for instance, virtual machines hosting critical patient data can be migrated between locations without compromising accessibility or security. Similarly, in cloud computing, LISP and VM Mobility enable dynamic resource allocation, load balancing, and efficient disaster recovery strategies.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, combining LISP and VM Mobility ushers a new era of network agility and virtual machine management. Decoupling identity and location through LISP empowers organizations to seamlessly move virtual machines across different hosts or data centers, enhancing flexibility, scalability, and resilience. As technology continues to evolve, LISP and VM Mobility will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping the future of networking and virtualization.