Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)

The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, VRRP for short, is a procedure developed in 1998. In this procedure, redundant routers are used to increase the availability of important gateways in local networks. The redundant gateway routers form a group and a virtual router is set up. The virtual router is equipped with its own IP or MAC address. All data runs through the imaginary router. If the network is heavily loaded, VRRP uses backup routers as load distributors. These prevent the master router from failing. If, nevertheless, a connection loss or failure is imminent, the incoming and outgoing data streams are redistributed to the remaining backup routers. The VRRP thus offers fail-safe data paths.