VRRP: Increasing Reliability and Failover with the Virtual Router Redundance Protocol

2.10. A Few Words About Router Virtuality

So far we have been discussing VRRP without talking about the adjective “virtual” in the name of protocol. Yes, we have defined the specific use of the term “virtual router” as it is intended in VRRP terminology. Now that we have an overall understanding of the protocol, we may say a few words about router virtuality in VRRP and other uses.

Encarta World English Dictionary^[1] describes the first usage of virtual as “being something in effect even if not in reality.” The origin of the term goes back to Latin virtualis of the 14th century, derived from virtus (virtue). From “having the power” comes “so in effect.” Encarta also defines virtual to mean “generated by computer.” We may say that in computer ...