Chapter 5
Workgroup Configuration
Workgroups explained; adding and deleting workgroups from this window
The virtual workgroups feature of the ATX allows you to restrict multicast or broadcast traffic from being propagated through every bridge port on your device. This optimizes bandwidth by limiting the subnet broadcast traffic — such as IP ARPs, or IPX Get Nearest Server Requests and Service Advertisement Protocol packets — to only those ports that require the traffic. You define a virtual workgroup by specifying a subset of device ports, the network protocols in effect at the ports (IP, IPX, or All — any other frame type), and any IP or IPX network identifier for the “broadcast domain” that you want to restrict. Each port can belong to more than one workgroup (e.g., if both IP and IPX traffic are broadcast over the same network segment). In all, you can create up to 100 virtual workgroups per switch.
NOTE |
The ATX does not support workgroups in firmware versions earlier than 3.2.
The following provides a brief overview of how the virtual workgroups feature works:
•When a Spanning Tree Forwarding port on an ATX receives a broadcast packet, the ATX first determines the frame type of the packet: IP, IPX or ALL (any other frame type). (Refer to the Tools Guide for more information on bridging and Spanning Tree.)
•If no workgroups are defined on the ATX, the packet will be sent out all other ports on the bridge that are in a Spanning Tree forwarding state.
•If the receiving port is part of at least one defined workgroup, the ATX determines whether the workgroups to which the port belongs are configured for the packet’s frame type (i.e., IP, IPX, or ALL).
