Method, system, and apparatus for proxying intra-subnet traffic across multiple interfaces within networks

A system comprising:

• a creation module, stored in memory, that creates, at a proxy node within an Internet Protocol (IP) network, a proxy group that includes a plurality of network nodes within a subnet of the IP network that are represented by a pseudo Media Access Control (MAC) address;
• a receiving module, stored in memory, that receives, at the proxy node, a neighbor solicitation from a first network node included in the proxy group;
• an identification module, stored in memory, that identifies, within the neighbor solicitation, a link-layer address of the first network node that sent the neighbor solicitation received at the proxy node;
• a modification module, stored in memory, that modifies the neighbor solicitation by replacing, within the neighbor solicitation, the link-layer address of the first network node with the pseudo MAC address of the proxy group;
• a forwarding module, stored in memory, that forwards the modified neighbor solicitation to a second network node included in the proxy group to facilitate completion of a Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) process in which the second network node responds to the modified neighbor solicitation with a neighbor advertisement proxied by the proxy node to establish a proxy communication channel between the first network node and the second network node included in the proxy group;
• and
• at least one physical processor that executes the creation module, the receiving module, the identification module, the modification module, and the forwarding module.

An apparatus comprising:

• a storage device that stores a routing table that includes entries that identify routes to a plurality of network nodes within a subnet of an Internet Protocol (IP) network;
• at least one physical processor communicatively coupled to the storage device at a proxy node within the IP network, wherein the physical processor:
• creates, at the proxy node, a proxy group that includes the plurality of network nodes and is represented by a pseudo Media Access Control (MAC) address;
• receives, at the proxy node, a neighbor solicitation from a first network node included in the proxy group;
• identifies, within the neighbor solicitation, a link-layer address of the first network node that sent the neighbor solicitation received at the proxy node;
• modifies the neighbor solicitation by replacing, within the neighbor solicitation, the link-layer address of the first network node with the pseudo MAC address of the proxy group;
• and
• forwards the modified neighbor solicitation to a second network node included in the proxy group to facilitate completion of a Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) process in which the second network node responds to the modified neighbor solicitation with a neighbor advertisement proxied by the proxy node to establish a proxy communication channel between the first network node and the second network node included in the proxy group.