3Com NETBuilder SI, SuperStack II manual Basic Configuration of Ports Paths

BASIC CONFIGURATION OF PORTS

6 AND PATHS

This chapter contains conceptual information about ports and paths and contains basic configuation procedures for each of the interfaces on your SuperStack II NETBuilder SI bridge/router.

Paths, Ports, and Ports and paths are the fundamental interface units on the bridge/router,

Virtual Ports and understanding the concept of ports and paths is important. This section defines ports and paths and explains how they are numbered.

The fundamental difference between paths and ports is that the path is the physical interface and the port is the logical interface in the software that is mapped to the physical path. Figure 6 illustrates the relationship between paths and ports.

Figure 6 Relationship Between Physical Paths and Logical Ports

Physical connectors

NETBuilder bridge/router chassis

Physical path !<path>

Logical port

!<port>

Physical path	Logical port
!<path>	!<port>

Paths and Ports A path is the physical interface that connects a bridge/router to a physical network medium such as Ethernet or a serial line. Each path is associated with a connector. If you have a built-in ISDN connector, each B channel is assigned a separate path, for instance 3.1 and 3.2.