Patent ID: 8787149

Claim:
A method comprising: establishing, with a router, a multi-chassis link aggregation group (LAG) in an active-active multi-homing configuration with a peer router to provide a layer two (L2) network with redundant layer three (L3) connectivity to an L3 network; receiving, with the router, a synchronization message that specifies an L2 address of the peer router; associating the L2 address of the peer router with a routing instance of the router without using a virtual gateway L2 address shared by the router and the peer router; receiving, with the router, an L2 packet data unit (PDU) from the L2 network; and routing, with the routing instance of the router when the PDU has an L2 destination address that matches the L2 address of the peer router, an L3 packet encapsulated at least in part by the PDU to the L3 network without switching the PDU toward the peer router according to the L2 destination address of the PDU.