Manual
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Москва, Новозаводская ул., 18, стр. 1 
162 
MAC Table dynamic learning 
The topology of the figure above: 4 PCs connected to switch, where PC1 and PC2 belongs to 
a same physical segment (same collision domain), the physical segment connects to port 1/5 
of switch; PC3 and PC4 belongs to the same physical segment that connects to port 1/12 of 
switch. 
The initial MAC table contains no address mapping entries. Take the communication of PC1 
and PC3 as an example, the MAC address learning process is as follow: 
1.  When PC1 sends message to PC3, the switch receives the source MAC address 00-01-11-
11-11-11 from this message, the mapping entry of 00-01-11-11-11-11 and port 1/5 is added 
to the switch MAC table. 
2.  At the same time, the switch learns the message is destined to 00-01-33-33-33-33, as the 
MAC table contains only a mapping entry of MAC address 00-01-11-11-11-11 and port1/5, 
and no port mapping for 00-01-33-33-33-33 present, the switch broadcast this message to 
all the ports in the switch (assuming all ports belong to the default VLAN1). 
3.  PC3 and PC4 on port 1/12 receive the message sent by PC1, but PC4 will not reply, as the 
destination MAC address is 00-01-33-33-33-33, only PC3 will reply to PC1. When port 1/12 
receives the message sent by PC3, a mapping entry for MAC address 00-01-33-33-33-33 
and port 1/12 is added to the MAC table. 
4.  Now the MAC table has two dynamic entries, MAC address 00-01-11-11-11-11 - port 1/5 
and 00-01-33-33-33-33 -port1/12. 
5.  After the communication between PC1 and PC3, the switch does not receive any message 
sent  from  PC1  and  PC3.  And  the  MAC  address  mapping  entries  in  the  MAC  table  are 
deleted in 300 to 2*300 seconds (ie, in single to double aging time). The 300 seconds here 
is the default aging time for MAC address entry in switch. Aging time can be modified in 
switch. 
19.1.2 Forward or Filter 
The  switch  will  forward  or  filter received  data frames  according to the  MAC table. Take the 
above figure as an example, assuming switch have learnt the MAC address of PC1 and PC3, 
and  the user  manually configured  the  mapping relationship  for  PC2 and  PC4  to ports. The 
MAC table of switch will be: 
MAC Address 
Port number 
Entry added by 
00-01-11-11-11-11 
1/5 
Dynamic learning 
00-01-22-22-22-22 
1/5 
Static configuration 
00-01-33-33-33-33 
1/12 
Dynamic learning 
00-01-44-44-44-44 
1/12 
Static configuration 
1.  Forward data according to the MAC table 










