Reconciling zero-conf with efficiency in enterprises

T A conventional enterprise or campus network comprises Ethernet-based IP subnets interconnected by routers. Although each subnet runs with minimal (or zero) configuration by virtue of Ethernet's flat-addressing and self-learning capability, interconnecting subnets at the IP-level introduces significant amount of configuration overhead on both end-hosts and routers. The configuration problem becomes more serious as an enterprise network grows by merging multiple remote sites and by supporting more number of portable end-hosts. Deploying enterprise-wide Ethernet, however, cannot solve this problem because Ethernet bridging does not scale. As an alternative, we propose a scalable and efficient zero-conf architecture (SEIZE) for enterprise networks. SEIZE provides "plug-andplay" capability via flat addressing and allows for scalability and efficiency through a combination of enhanced information dissemination schemes, such as link-state protocols and consistent hashing. SEIZE also supports backward compatibility and partial deployment.