Abstract
Abstract First hop redundancy protocols (FHRP) are an essential tool for improving IP networks’ availability. FHRP are protocols used to manage and maintain the network default gateway router by using one or more redundant routers that will take over in case of default router failure. In this paper we present the first hop redundancy concept and the means for its realization in IPv6 network. We evaluate three FHRP protocols, namely, the Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRPv6), Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRPv3), and Gateway Load Balancing (GLBPv6) using GNS3 tools. The First Hop Redundancy Protocols have been implemented, tested, optimized, and compared to one another in terms of convergence time, packet loss and convergence time. The comparison indicates which protocol is the best in each scenario and which is the best overall among the three protocols