D-Link DES-3208 manual Packet Forwarding

10/100 Fast Ethernet Switch User’s Guide

Read-write MIBs are variables usually related to user-customized configurations. Examples of these are the Switch’s IP Address, Spanning Tree Algorithm parameters and port status.

If you use a third-party vendors’ SNMP software to manage the Switch, a diskette listing the Switch’s propriety enterprise MIBs can be obtained by request. If your software provides functions to browse or modify MIBs, you can also get the MIB values and change them (if the MIBs’ attributes permit the write operation). This process however can be quite involved, since you must know the MIB OIDs and retrieve them one by one.

Packet Forwarding

The Switch looks at the network configuration to forward packets. This reduces the traffic congestion on the network, because packets, instead of being transmitted to all segments, are transmitted to the destination only. Example: if Port 1 receives a packet destined for Port 2, the Switch transmits that packet through Port 2 only, and transmits nothing through Port 1.

♦Filtering Database. A Switch filters frames, i.e., does not relay frames received by a Switch Port to other Ports on that Switch, in order to prevent the duplication of frames. Frames transmitted between a pair of end stations can be confined to LANs that form a path between those end stations.

The functions that support the use and maintenance of filtering database information are:

1.Permanent configuration of reserved addresses.

2.Explicit configuration of static filtering information.

3.Automatic learning of dynamic filtering information through observation of Switched Local Area Network traffic.

4.Aging out of filtering information that has been automatically learned.

24 Switch Management