Network loops pose a significant threat to Ethernet networks as they can quickly cause network failures. When a loop occurs, broadcast frames are endlessly circulated, resulting in duplicates and overloading connected devices' CPUs. This can escalate into a broadcast storm, where each broadcast frame is received on all ports and retransmitted. EdgeNXT IX addresses this issue by employing Mac-Filter, allowing only one MAC address on a peering port and rejecting frames with different source MAC addresses.

To ensure smooth operation of the EdgeNXT IX infrastructure, and network stability of all our connected participants, we impose a set of restrictions on what kind of traffic is allowed on the peering fabric. The EdgeNXT IX reserves the right to disable ports that violate the rules below.

1. Frames forwarded to EdgeNXT IX ports shall have one of the following ether types: 0x0800 – IPv4, 0x86dd – IPv6, 0x0806 – ARP, and restricts all other ether types.
2. It is NOT ALLOWED to use proxy ARP enabled on a router port connected to EdgeNXT IX.
3. Frames forwarded to EdgeNXT IX ports shall not be addressed to a multicast or broadcast MAC destination address except as follows:
   • broadcast ARP packets (But should be rate-limited to 1000kbps)
   • multicast ICMPv6 Neighbour Discovery. Please note that this does not include
   • Router Solicitation (IPv6-RA) or Advertisement packets.
4. Below list protocols / Traffic should be towards EdgeNXT IX peering fabric.
   • IRDP
   • ICMP redirects
   • IEEE 802 Spanning Tree

   Vendor proprietary protocols. These include, but are not limited to:

   • Discovery protocols: CDP, EDP, LLDP etc.
   • VLAN/trunking protocols: VTP, DTP
   • Interior routing protocol broadcasts (e.g. OSPF, ISIS, IGRP, EIGRP)
   • BOOTP/DHCP
   • PIM-SM
   • PIM-DM
   • DVMRP
   • ICMPv6 ND-RA
   • UDLD
   • L2 Keepalives