The IP network multipathing or IPMP is a facility provided by
Solaris to provide fault-tolerance and load spreading for
network interface card
A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface, and by similar terms) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.
Ear ...
s (NICs). With IPMP, two or more NICs are dedicated for each network to which the host connects. Each interface can be assigned a static "test"
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
, which is used to assess the operational state of the interface. Each virtual IP address is assigned to an interface, though there may be more interfaces than virtual IP addresses, some of the interfaces being purely for standby purposes. When the failure of an interface is detected its virtual IP addresses are swapped to an operational interface in the group.
The IPMP load spreading feature increases the machine's bandwidth by spreading the outbound load between all the cards in the same IPMP group.
''in.mpathd'' is the daemon in the Solaris OS responsible for IPMP functionality.
See also
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Multihoming
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Multipath routing
Multipath routing is a routing technique simultaneously using multiple alternative paths through a network. This can yield a variety of benefits such as fault tolerance, increased bandwidth, and improved security.
Mobile networks
To improve pe ...
*
Multipath TCP
Multipath TCP (MPTCP) is an ongoing effort of the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) Multipath TCP working group, that aims at allowing a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection to use multiple paths to maximize throughput and inc ...
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Common Address Redundancy Protocol
The Common Address Redundancy Protocol or CARP is a computer networking protocol which allows multiple hosts on the same local area network to share a set of IP addresses. Its primary purpose is to provide failover redundancy, especially when use ...
External links
Enterprise Networking Article, February 2, 2006
Networking standards
Sun Microsystems software
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