# ARP with EVPN Asymmetric IRB

DevFeed: [ARP with EVPN Asymmetric IRB](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/arp-with-evpn-asymmetric-irb-11376.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ipspace.net/2026/05/arp-issues-evpn-asymmetric-irb/>)

Published: 2026-05-14T05:45:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [ipSpace.net blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ipspace-net-blog.md>)

Topics: [evpn](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/evpn.md>), [VXLAN](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vxlan.md>), [networking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/networking.md>), [BGP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bgp.md>)

Tags: [arp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/arp.md>), [bgp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bgp.md>), [bridging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bridging.md>), [evpn](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/evpn.md>), [netlab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/netlab.md>), [vxlan](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vxlan.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains ARP behavior in EVPN asymmetric Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB). It identifies prerequisites for forwarding between VLANs, including creating ARP entries from MAC+IP routes and having end hosts send an early ARP request for their first-hop gateway. It also describes how to verify the behavior with a netlab topology and EVPN route and ARP-table inspection.

## Source excerpt

In a previous blog post, I described the ARP issues you'll encounter when using centralized routing (on a spine switch) between two EVPN MAC-VRF instances (a fancy name for a VLAN encapsulated in VXLAN or MPLS). That blog post established a baseline that will help us unravel the ARP behavior in a more realistic scenario: asymmetric Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB). That's a mouthful, but it's really quite a simple concept; the following diagram explains the asymmetric forwarding behavior: Packet forwarding in an EVPN asymmetric IRB design Read more ...