An Identifier-Locator Approach to Host Multihoming

Host multihoming allows individual hosts to be multiply connected to the network, e.g. by concurrent use of two network prefixes, each network prefix tied to a separate network interface. Such multihoming capability improves the host´s ability to implement such features as load-balancing, fail-over and multi-path transport protocols. However, IP does not directly support host multihoming today. The Identifier / Locator split solution space is seen as one way for reducing such negative impact. We present an evaluation of host-multihoming as a prototype implementation of the Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP) on FreeBSD, as a superset of IPv6 - called ILNPv6. We demonstrate load-balancing using ILNPv6 multihoming and compare performance with IPv6 forwarding at the end host.