H3C S7500 Series Ethernet Switches Operation Manual

Operation Manual – MAC Address Table

H3C S7500 Series Ethernet Switches Chapter 1 MAC Address Table Management

1-1

Chapter 1 MAC Address Table Management

When configuring MAC address table management, go to these sections for

information you are interested in:

z Overview

z Configuring MAC Address Table Management

z Displaying MAC Address Configuration

z Configuration Example

 Note:

This chapter describes the management of static and dynamic MAC address entries.

For information on the management of multicast MAC address entries, refer to the

section related to multicast protocol in H3C S7500 Series Ethernet Switches Operation

Manual.

1.1 Overview

1.1.1 Introduction to MAC Address Learning

An Ethernet switch maintains a MAC address table to forward packets quickly. A MAC

address table is a port-based Layer 2 address table. It is the base for Ethernet switch to

perform Layer 2 packet forwarding. Each entry in a MAC address table contains the

following fields:

z Destination MAC address

z ID of the VLAN which a port belongs to

z Forwarding port number

Upon receiving a packet, a switch queries its MAC address table for the forwarding port

number according to the destination MAC address carried in the packet and then

forwards the packet through the port.

The dynamic address entries (not configured manually) in the MAC address table are

learned by the Ethernet switch. When an Ethernet switch learns a MAC address, the

following occurs:

When a switch receives a packet from one of its ports (referred to as Port 1), the switch

extracts the source MAC address (referred to as MAC-SOURCE) of the packet and

considers that the packets destined for MAC-SOURCE can be forwarded through Port