Dell PowerConnect 7048P User Manual - Page 77

Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) Optimization The iSCSI Optimization feature helps give traffic between iSCSI initiator and target systems special QoS treatment in the switch. This is accomplished by monitoring, or snooping traffic to detect packets used by iSCSI stations in establishing iSCSI sessions and connections. Data from these exchanges is used to create classification rules to assign the traffic between the stations to a configured traffic class. This affects how the packets in the flow are queued and scheduled for egress on the destination port. For information about configuring iSCSI settings, see "Configuring iSCSI Optimization" on page 431. Layer 2 Multicast Features For information about configuring L2 multicast features, see "Configuring L2 Multicast Features" on page 703. MAC Multicast Support Multicast service is a limited broadcast service that allows one-to-many and many-to-many connections. In Layer 2 multicast services, a single frame addressed to a specific multicast address is received, and copies of the frame to be transmitted on each relevant port are created. IGMP Snooping Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping is a feature that allows a switch to forward multicast traffic intelligently on the switch. Multicast IP traffic is traffic that is destined to a host group. Host groups are identified by class D IP addresses, which range from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Based on the IGMP query and report messages, the switch forwards traffic only to the ports that request the multicast traffic. This prevents the switch from broadcasting the traffic to all ports and possibly affecting network performance. Switch Features 77