Embedding Switch Number, Port Number, and MAC Address (ESPM) within the IPv6 Address

IPv4 protocol, the famous 32-bit address, has been used in networks for many decades [1] and would not have sustained its usability without NAT. IPv6 protocol with its 128-bit address, provides slight routing information [2]. In this paper, we present ESPM, Embedding Switch ID, Port number and MAC Address within IPv6 protocol and SDN technology, imposing a device connectivity hierarchy upon the address space. We amend the IPv6 global addressing scheme for hosts to include their MAC address as well as the switch ID and Switch port number that they are connected to. This scheme encodes information that would ordinarily require a lookup or query packets(ARP) and decrease CAM table entries on the switch by forwarding the packets using the ESPM algorithm. After processing ESPM algorithm to check for OF controller ID, OF switch ID, and the port ID, the amount of total packets transferred on the network to fulfill an ICMP request-reply process decreased by 28.1% in 1-switch-2 hosts. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of such an addressing scheme, we use POF controller and POF switch [3] to emulate ESPM implementation and then measure the impact on the number of network management packets transferred between hosts during connectivity tests.