Routing on the host: the next evolution in data center networking
Harnessing BGP at the host level for scalability, performance, and simplified operations
In today’s data center networking landscape, traffic patterns are evolving faster than traditional architectures can adapt. AI training, big data analytics, and distributed computing demand unprecedented bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and rapid failover capabilities. This is where routing on the host (RoH), integrating Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) directly onto the servers, emerges as a game-changing approach.
RoH shifts routing intelligence from network switches to the endpoints themselves, unlocking:
- Greater scalability with full layer 3 underlays
- Near-instant convergence during link failures
- Simplified workload mobility without IP renumbering
- Optimized link utilization through equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routing
This white paper explores the technical foundations, implementation strategies, and operational benefits of RoH, and provides a practical guide for deploying it on Ubuntu using industry-standard open source tools like FRRouting (FRR).
Key takeaways from this white paper
In this guide you’ll learn:
- The limitations of traditional layer 2 based data center networking and why it’s being phased out
- How modern Clos and fat-tree topologies support high-parallelism workloads
- The role of BGP in creating a resilient, scalable, and vendor-neutral layer 3 fabric
- How RoH simplifies network architecture, reduces operational overhead, and enables dynamic workload placement
- Step-by-step guidance for deploying RoH on Ubuntu, including BGP unnumbered peering to eliminate address management headaches