10.1. Default Gateway
10.1. Default Gateway
When a PE needs to perform inter-subnet forwarding where each subnet is represented by a different broadcast domain (e.g., a different VLAN), the inter-subnet forwarding is performed at Layer 3, and the PE that performs such a function is called the default gateway for the EVPN instance. In this case, when the PE receives an ARP Request for the IP address configured as the default gateway address, the PE originates an ARP Reply.
Each PE that acts as a default gateway for a given EVPN instance MAY advertise in the EVPN control plane its default gateway MAC address using the MAC/IP Advertisement route, and each such PE indicates that such a route is associated with the default gateway. This is accomplished by requiring the route to carry the Default Gateway extended community defined in Section 7.8 ("Default Gateway Extended Community"). The ESI field is set to zero when advertising the MAC route with the Default Gateway extended community.
The IP Address field of the MAC/IP Advertisement route is set to the default gateway IP address for that subnet (e.g., an EVPN instance). For a given subnet (e.g., a VLAN or EVPN instance), the default gateway IP address is the same across all the participant PEs. The inclusion of this IP address enables the receiving PE to check its configured default gateway IP address against the one received in the MAC/IP Advertisement route for that subnet (or EVPN instance), and if there is a discrepancy, then the PE SHOULD notify the operator and log an error message.
Unless it is known a priori (by means outside of this document) that all PEs of a given EVPN instance act as a default gateway for that EVPN instance, the MPLS label MUST be set to a valid downstream assigned label.
Furthermore, even if all PEs of a given EVPN instance do act as a default gateway for that EVPN instance, but only some, but not all, of these PEs have sufficient (routing) information to provide inter-subnet routing for all the inter-subnet traffic originated within the subnet associated with the EVPN instance, then when such a PE advertises in the EVPN control plane its default gateway MAC address using the MAC/IP Advertisement route and indicates that such a route is associated with the default gateway, the route MUST carry a valid downstream assigned label.
If all PEs of a given EVPN instance act as a default gateway for that EVPN instance, and the same default gateway MAC address is used across all gateway devices, then no such advertisement is needed. However, if each default gateway uses a different MAC address, then each default gateway needs to be aware of other gateways' MAC addresses and thus the need for such an advertisement. This is called MAC address aliasing, since a single default gateway can be represented by multiple MAC addresses.
Each PE that receives this route and imports it as per procedures specified in this document follows the procedures in this section when replying to ARP Requests that it receives.
Each PE that acts as a default gateway for a given EVPN instance that receives this route and imports it as per procedures specified in this document MUST create MAC forwarding state that enables it to apply IP forwarding to the packets destined to the MAC address carried in the route.