Handling of Control Plane Traffic on Remote Network Device Interfaces

A network device operable in a network device aggregation group, the network device comprising:

• a first interface configured to communicate within the network device aggregation group;
• a second interface configured to communicate outside of the network device aggregation group;
• and
• a packet processor coupled to the first and second interfaces and configured to:
• receive, using the second interface, a control plane data unit for the network device aggregation group;
• and
• transmit, using the first interface, a version of the control plane data unit that contains a tunneling header identifying an additional network device in the network device aggregation group as a destination and that contains traffic-processing metadata generated by the packet processor.

A network device operable in a network device aggregation group, the network device comprising:

• memory circuitry;
• control plane processing circuitry coupled to the memory circuitry and configured to generate an egress control plane data unit for the network device aggregation group;
• a network device aggregation group fabric interface;
• and
• a packet processor coupled to the control plane processing circuitry and the network device aggregation group fabric interface and configured to transmit, using the network device aggregation group fabric interface, a version of the egress control plane data unit that contains tunneling header information identifying an interface of an additional network device in the network device aggregation group at which the egress control plane data unit exits the network device aggregation group.