A method for centralized address resolution in a data center comprising at least one processing resource, at least one processing resource controller, at least one networking resource, and at least one networking resource software-defined network controller, comprises the steps of:
- maintaining a local address resolution database (LDB1) associated to a processing resource controller, for storing all the MAC address - IP address associations of the processing resources controlled by this controller;
- maintaining a local address resolution database (LDB2) associated to a networking resource software-defined network controller, for storing all the MAC address - IP address associations of the networking resources controlled by this controller;
- maintaining a centralized address resolution database (CARDB) for storing all the MAC address - IP address associations within the data center;
- when a resource requests the resolution of an IP address, sending a unicast read message from this resource to its controller, this controller checking whether the associated local database (LDB1, LDB2) stores a MAC address associated to this IP address, and:
-- if a MAC address, associated to this IP address MAC address, is stored in this local database, then supplying the MAC address to the resource that requested the resolution of this IP address;
-- if no MAC address, associated to this IP address MAC address, is stored in this local database, then forwarding the unicast read message to the centralized address resolution database (CARDB).