118Figure 28 Allocating virtual MAC addressesAs shown in Figure 28, the virtual IP address of the VRRP group is 10.1.1.1/24; Router A is themaster; Router B and Router C are the backups. Router A allocates different virtual MACaddresses to Routers A, B and C.Host A, Host B, and Host C send ARP requests to obtain the MAC address corresponding to thegateway with the virtual IP address 10.1.1.1. The master (Router A) replies to ARP requests fromthe hosts with different virtual MAC addresses based on the load balancing algorithm.• The MAC address obtained by Host A is the virtual MAC address of Router A, that is, HostA takes the virtual MAC address of Router A as the MAC address of the gateway, to ensurethat the packets from Host A are forwarded by Router A.• The MAC address obtained by Host B is the virtual MAC address of Router B, to ensure thatthe packets from Host B are forwarded by Router B.• The MAC address obtained by Host C is the virtual MAC address of Router C, to ensure thatthe packets from Host C are forwarded by Router C.Virtual forwarderWhen working in load balancing mode, VRRP uses VFs for load balancing. Each VF is associatedwith a virtual MAC address of the VRRP group and forwards packets destined to this virtual MACaddress.The master allocates virtual MAC addresses to all routers (including the master and the backups)in the VRRP group. After obtaining its virtual MAC address, a router in the VRRP group will create
