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6
Overview
How Bridges Work
Organization of this
Chapter
B
RIDGING
This chapter identifies and describes the Bridging commands accessible from the
OfficeConnect Gateway CLI. A bridge connects two or more physical networks
together to function as one large network. The OfficeConnect Gateway can be
configured to be a learning bridge. A learning bridge does more than just link
networks; it separates network traffic and forwards only the packets that need to
be forwarded.
Bridges separate traffic by examining the Media Access Control (MAC) addresses
contained in the data packets. MAC addresses uniquely identify each machine
attached to a network segment. A data packet is not forwarded to another
segment if its destination MAC address resides on the same segment as its source.
To efficiently separate traffic, the bridge maintains a Bridge Forwarding Table. This
table contains a list of MAC addresses and their associated network segments. The
table is built dynamically from the source MAC addresses of data packets passing
through the bridge.
The OfficeConnect Gateway bridge function supports the Spanning Tree Protocol
(STP). This feature is used when two networks are joined by two bridges to form a
looped network. STP prevents the data packets from circling the two networks.
Additionally, the Bridge Firewall function of the OfficeConnect Gateway lets you
configure the unit to support simultaneous bridging and routing. For more
information on the Bridge Firewall function, see the Simultaneous Bridging and
Routing section of this chapter.
The information in this chapter is organized into the following sections:
Configure Bridging for the LAN and WAN
Bridging IP Traffic
Advanced Bridging Options
MAC-Encapsulated Routing
Simultaneous Bridging and Routing
C
OMMANDS
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