Cabletron Systems 7C04 Workgroup manual Operations, Traditional Switch, SecureFast Packet Switch

Introduction

1.3.3 Operations

Data entering through a front panel of a SmartSwitch interface module in the 7C04 Chassis is converted by the module’s hardware into a common “canonical” format. Canonical frames are forwarded along the chassis’ SmartSwitch Bus to the 7X00 Module in slot one. The configuration of the 7X00 Module (either traditional switch or SecureFast Packet Switch) determines the manner in which frames are filtered or forwarded.

Traditional Switch

When operating as a traditional switch (a store-and-forward switch using the 802.1d Spanning Tree protocol), the 7X00 Module’s SmartSwitch Core searches for the frame’s destination address in the module’s connection table.

If the frame’s destination address is found in the connection table, the frame is forwarded to that specific destination via the chassis’ SmartSwitch Bus.

If the frame’s destination address is not found in the connection table, the frame is flooded to all of the SmartSwitch interface modules in the chassis via the chassis’ SmartSwitch Bus. The frame’s destination address is added to the module’s connection table.

SecureFast Packet Switch

When operating as a SecureFast Packet Switch, the 7X00 Module’s SmartSwitch Core searches for the frame’s destination address- source address (DA-SA) pair and receive port in the module’s connection table.

If the frame’s entry is found in the connection table, the frame is forwarded to a specific destination via the chassis’ SmartSwitch Bus.

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