Q. How does the SDNv2 MUX optimize East-West internal load balanced traffic?
A. In the Windows Server 2016 network virtualization solution (Software Defined Network v2) a new component is included, the Software Load Balancer MUX which acts as the front end point for requests and then the data is forwarded to the VMSwitch on the Hyper-V host that is hosting the VM DIP that is the target. When the load balancer is internal which means the traffic is east-west (staying within the datacenter as opposed to north-south which is in/out of the datacenter) there is an additional optimization. For east-west traffic once the initial packet is sent via the MUX (which has the VIP of the load balancer), the MUX then sends the VMSwitch that hosts the source VM a redirect instruction so that all subsequent packets to the target now bypass the MUX completely and are sent to the VMSwitch of the Hyper-V host with the VM DIP.
