SmartARP: merging IP and MAC addressing for low-cost gigabit Ethernet networks

Abstract Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is one of the key TCP/IP stack protocols, used on LANs to map 32 bit IP addresses into 48 bit hardware addresses. Regular ARP uses MAC layer broadcasts to perform the mapping. In this paper a new server-based ARP extension (smartARP) is proposed, which allows the extension of ARP functionality beyond a single MAC layer broadcast domain. Compared to regular IP router, smartARP together with simple broadcast-filtering switches presents a low-cost alternative for forwarding packets between MAC layer broadcast domains. SmartARP is transparent to existing IP hosts, operates independent of LAN speed, and scales for big networks.