Chapter 36 Mac Table; Overview; Figure 144 Mac Table Flowchart - ZyXEL Communications ZyXEL Dimension GS-4012F User Manual

This chapter introduces the MAC Table screen.

36.1 Overview

The MAC Table screen (a MAC table is also known as a filtering database) shows how
frames are forwarded or filtered across the switch's ports. It shows what device MAC address,
belonging to what VLAN group (if any) is forwarded to which port(s) and whether the MAC
address is dynamic (learned by the switch) or static (manually entered in the Static MAC
Forwarding screen).
The switch uses the MAC table to determine how to forward frames. See the following figure.
1 The switch examines a received frame and learns the port on which this source MAC
address came.
2 The switch checks to see if the frame's destination MAC address matches a source MAC
address already learned in the MAC table.

Figure 144 MAC Table Flowchart

Chapter 36 MAC Table

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• If the switch has already learned the port for this MAC address, then
it forwards the frame to that port.
• If the switch has not already learned the port for this MAC address,
then the frame is flooded to all ports. Too much port flooding leads to
network congestion.
• If the switch has already learned the port for this MAC address, but
the destination port is the same as the port it came in on, then it filters
the frame.
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