IP Routing Features

Configuring IP Parameters for Routing Switches

table or forwarding cache. The routing switch needs to know the MAC address that corresponds with the IP address of either the packet’s locally attached destination or the next-hop router that leads to the destination.

For example, to forward a packet whose destination is multiple router hops away, the routing switch must send the packet to the next-hop router toward its destination, or to a default route or default network route if the IP route table does not contain a route to the packet’s destination. In each case, the routing switch must encapsulate the packet and address it to the MAC address of a locally attached device, the next-hop router toward the IP packet’s destination.

To obtain the MAC address required for forwarding a datagram, the routing switch does the following:

■First, the routing switch looks in the ARP cache (not the static ARP table) for an entry that lists the MAC address for the IP address. The ARP cache maps IP addresses to MAC addresses. The cache also lists the port attached to the device and, if the entry is dynamic, the age of the entry. A dynamic ARP entry enters the cache when the routing switch receives an ARP reply or receives an ARP request (which contains the sender’s IP address and MAC address). A static entry enters the ARP cache from the static ARP table (which is a separate table) when the interface for the entry comes up.

To ensure the accuracy of the ARP cache, each dynamic entry has its own age timer. The timer is reset to zero each time the routing switch receives an ARP reply or ARP request containing the IP address and MAC address of the entry. If a dynamic entry reaches its maximum allowable age, the entry times out and the software removes the entry from the table. Static entries do not age out and can be removed only by you.

■If the ARP cache does not contain an entry for the destination IP address, the routing switch broadcasts an ARP request out all its IP interfaces. The ARP request contains the IP address of the destination. If the device with the IP address is directly attached to the routing switch, the device sends an ARP response containing its MAC address. The response is a unicast packet addressed directly to the routing switch. The routing switch places the information from the ARP response into the ARP cache.

ARP requests contain the IP address and MAC address of the sender, so all devices that receive the request learn the MAC address and IP address of the sender and can update their own ARP caches accordingly.

Note: The ARP request broadcast is a MAC broadcast, which means the broadcast goes only to devices that are directly attached to the routing switch. A MAC broadcast is not routed to other networks. However, some

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