Dell N3200-ON Networking N-Series Switches User Guide version 6.8.0 - Page 1113

29 MAC Addressing and Forwarding Dell Networking N-Series Switches Dell Networking N-Series switches implement a MAC Learning Bridge in compliance with IEEE 802.1Q. The N-Series switches implement independent VLAN learning (IVL). Dynamically learned MAC addresses are used to filter the set of ports on which a frame is forwarded within a VLAN; that is, the destination MAC address and ingress VLAN for a frame entering the switch are looked up in the MAC address table and if, a match is found, the frame is forwarded out the matching port(s). If no match is found, the frame is flooded out all ports in the VLAN except for the ingress port. This chapter describes the Layer-2 MAC address table the switch uses to forward L2 frames between ports. The topics covered in this chapter include: • MAC Address Table Overview • Default MAC Address Table Values • Managing the MAC Address Table (Web) • Managing the MAC Address Table (CLI) MAC Address Table Overview The MAC address table keeps track of the MAC addresses that are associated with each port to allow the switch to forward unicast traffic through the appropriate port. This table is sometimes called the bridge table or the forwarding database. How Is the Address Table Populated? The MAC address table can contain two types of addresses: • Static: The address has been manually configured and does not age out. • Dynamic: The address has been automatically learned by the switch and will age out if no frames with the learned MAC address (and VLAN) have been forwarded by the switch during the aging time interval. MAC Addressing and Forwarding 1113