HP BL e-Class Internet Group Management Protocol Snooping, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or Bootstrap Protocol

Introduction

IEEE 802.1p-Based Class of Service for Packet Prioritization

Class of Service (CoS) for packet prioritization allows switch administrators to set priority levels on the interconnect switch for forwarding packets based on the priority setting information in the packets. The interconnect switch supports four classes of traffic (buffers or queues) for implementing priority. The interconnect switch allows administrators to map eight priority levels to four classes. Traffic from a specific server port can be given priority over packets from other devices according to this range of priority levels. For example, with multiple packets in a buffer, the packet with the highest priority would be forwarded first, regardless of when it was received.

Internet Group Management Protocol Snooping

Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping, when enabled and configured properly, manages multicast traffic in a switch module by allowing directed switching of the IP multicast traffic. The interconnect switch can use IGMP snooping to configure switch module ports dynamically, so that IP multicast traffic is forwarded only to those ports associated with IP multicast hosts.

IGMP snooping allows the switch module to recognize IGMP queries and reports sent between network stations or devices and an IGMP host that belongs to a specific multicast group. When enabled for IGMP snooping, the switch module can open or close a port to a specific device based on IGMP messages passing through the module. This feature further limits unnecessary broadcasts. The GbE Interconnect Switch can be configured to use either IGMP version 1 or version 2 when making queries

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or Bootstrap Protocol

A switch module can be configured to obtain an IP address from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) server during the boot process. By default, the interconnect switch is configured for DHCP. The IP settings can be manually configured through the console interface. The IP settings are also configurable from other interfaces, such as the Web, but since the connection is based on an IP address for these interfaces, users have to reconnect with the newly assigned IP address.

1-8 HP ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch User Guide