VRRP is an election protocol that dynamically assigns responsibility for a virtual router to one of the VRRP routers on a LAN. This elected router is called the master router, and others are called backup routers. The master router is responsible for forwarding data packets received for the VRRP MAC address. Backup routers listen for the advertisement packet from the master router. If backup routers do not receive advertisement packets for a certain period, the backup routers elect a new master router. VRRP is designed to provide a highly available default first hop route for end-hosts on the LAN.
VRRP version 3 extends capability to IPv6 in addition to IPv4. Version 3 supports sub-second operation. It also supports accept-mode configuration.