Mac Address Supported Features; Layer 2 Features - Dell PowerConnect 2708 User Manual

MAC Address Supported Features

MAC Address Capacity Support
The PowerConnect 2708, 2716, and 2724 switches support a total of 8K MAC addresses, and the
PowerConnect 2748 supports a total of 16K MAC addresses.
Auto-Learning MAC Addresses
The switch enables MAC address auto-learning from incoming packets. The MAC addresses are
stored in the Bridging Table.
Automatic Aging for MAC Addresses
MAC addresses from which no traffic is received for a given period of time are aged out. This
prevents the Bridging Table from overflowing.
Managed and Secure Modes VLAN-aware MAC-based Switching
In Managed or Secure mode, the switch system always performs VLAN-aware bridging. Classic
bridging (IEEE802.1D) is not performed (where frames are forwarded based only on their
destination MAC address). However, a similar functionality may be configured for untagged
frames. Addresses are associated with ports by learning them from the incoming frames source
address.
Unmanaged Mode Classic Bridging
In Unmanaged Mode, the switch performs classic bridging. Frames are forwarded based on their
destination MAC address only, regardless of the VLAN tag.

Layer 2 Features

Port Mirroring
The port mirroring mechanism monitors and mirrors network traffic by forwarding copies of
incoming and outgoing packets from a monitored port to a monitoring port. Users can specify
which target port receives copies of all traffic passing through one or more source ports.
Storm Control
Storm Control enables limiting the amount of Multicast and Broadcast frames accepted and
forwarded by the switch. When Layer 2 frames are forwarded, Broadcast and Multicast frames are
flooded to all ports on the relevant VLAN. All nodes connected to these ports accept and attempt
to process these frames, thus placing load on both the network links and the host operating system.
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