P2MP (switch to switch) topology

In a multipoint topology with N nodes, each node needs a single TxSC and N RxSC, one for each one of the peers. As such, 64 max RX-SA per security zone translates to 32 Rx-SCs, which breaks down to only 32 peers (for example, only 33 nodes in the multipoint topology per security zone, from each node perspective there is one TxSC and 32 RxSC).

Figure 1. Switch multi-point to switch multi-point topology

In Figure 1, when the 34rd node joins the multi-point topology, all other 33 nodes that are already part of this domain do not have any SAs to create an RxSC for this 34th node. However, the 34th node has a TxSC and accepts 32 peers. The 34th node starts to transmit and encrypt the PDUs based on its TxSC. However, because all other nodes do not have a SC for this SAI, they drop all Rx PDUs.

It is recommended to ensure that a multicast domain, for a single security zone, does not exceed 32 peers or the summation of all the nodes, in a security zone's CA domain, do not exceed 33. This is the same is if a security zone has four CAs, the summation of all nodes in the four CAs should be 33 or less.