MAC MOBILITY FOR 802.1x ADDRESSES FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES

Abstract

A system and method for provisionally authenticating a host moving from one router to another router in a network using border gateway protocol (BGP) is disclosed. A host is initially authenticated at a first BGP router, this discovery is advertised to a second BGP router pursuant to BGP with a new extended community indicating successful authentication (or pre-authentication) of the host at the first BGP router. An indication for re-authentication of the host at the second BGP router is then received, which blocks network traffic from the host to the second BGP router. Due to the notification of a previous authentication of the host, the second BGP router begins a provisional authentication session. In response to a successful completion of the provisional authentication session, the host is authorized to transmit network traffic on the second BGP router and subsequently blocked from doing the same at the first BGP router.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.