Improved Path Exploration in shim6-based Multihoming

The shim6 host-based solution to IPv6 multihoming was designed within the IETF to provide a solution to the multihoming problem by using several IPv6 addresses per host. In this paper, we briefly describe our Linux implementation of shim6. One of the novel mechanisms introduced by shim6 is the REAchability Protocol (REAP) that allows multihomed hosts to switch to an alternate path when a failure occurs. We evaluate the performance of this protocol in a lab environment and show that it performs well in the case of unidirectional or bidirectional failures. We also show that the recovery time can be reduced by allowing REAP to send multiple probes upon failure detection