Garp&Gvrp Configuration; Configuring Garp - 3Com 8807 Configuration Manual

GARP&GVRP C
ONFIGURATION
12

Configuring GARP

GARP Overview Generic attribute registration protocol (GARP) offers a mechanism that is used by
the members in the same switching network to distribute, propagate and register
such information as VLAN and multicast addresses.
GARP dose not exist in a switch as an entity. A GARP participant is called GARP
application. The main GARP applications at present are GVRP (GARP VLAN
registration protocol) and GMRP. For details, refer to section "Configuring GVRP"
"Configuring GVRP" and section "Configuring Multicast". When a GARP
participant is on a port of the switch, this port corresponds to a GARP participant.
The GARP mechanism enables the configuration information on one GARP
member to be propagated rapidly across the whole switching network. A GARP
member can be a terminal workstation or a bridge. The GARP member can notify
other members to register or remove its attribute information by sending
declarations or withdrawing declarations. It can also register or remove the
attribute information of other GARP members according to the received
declarations/withdrawn declarations.
GARP members exchange information by sending messages. There are mainly
three types of GARP messages, Join, Leave, and LeaveAll. When a GARP
participant wants to register its attribute information with other switches, it sends
the Join message outward. When it wants to remove some attribute information
from other switches, it sends the Leave message. The LeaveAll timer is started
simultaneously when each GARP participant is enabled and the LeaveAll message
is sent upon expiration. The Join and Leave messages cooperate to ensure the
logout and the re-registration of a message. The message exchange enables all the
to-be-registered attribute information to be propagated to all the switches across
the same switching network.
The destination MAC addresses of the packets of the GARP participants are
specific multicast MAC addresses. A GARP-supporting switch classifies the packets
received from the GARP participants and processes them with corresponding
GARP applications (GVRP or GMRP).
GARP and GMRP are described in details in the IEEE 802.1P standard (which has
been added to the IEEE802.1D standard). 3Com series switches fully support the
GARP compliant with the IEEE standards.
The following section describes the GARP configuration task:
"Setting the GARP Timer"
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