AVOIDING GRATUITOUS ADDRESS RESOLUTION PROTOCOL AND UNSOLICITED NEIGHBORHOOD DISCOVERY DURING HOST MOBILITY EVENTS

Systems and methods are described for maintaining communication between hosts that, due to the roaming of a host, are no longer in the same LAN segment within a network. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an address resolution request from the first host, the address resolution request requesting an actual media access control (MAC) address associated with an internet protocol (IP) address of the second host, obtaining the actual MAC address of the second host, the second host having roamed from away from a first network location where a first host is located, receiving a data packet from the first host that is to be delivered to the second host, and routing the data packet to the second host at its current location, the current location of the second host being determined by its actual MAC address.