Transmitting Non-Ip Traffic; Merging Two Remote Networks; Spanning Tree Protocol - HP ProCurve 7000dl Series Basic Management And Configuration Manual

Bridging—Transmitting Non-IP Traffic or Merging Two Networks
Overview
10-4
The ProCurve Secure Router supports bridging using the IEEE 802.2 stan-
dards. You would configure a ProCurve Secure Router to act as a remote
bridge to allow it to:
transmit non-IP traffic
merge two remote networks

Transmitting Non-IP Traffic

The ProCurve Secure Router only routes IP traffic. If one or more of the
networks in a WAN use a different Layer 3 protocol, you must configure the
router to bridge this traffic. The router will simply pass the traffic through
interfaces in the bridge group without examining or modifying the Layer 3
header.
Layer 3 protocols that must be bridged include:
NetBIOS
IPX
AppleTalk
DecNet

Merging Two Remote Networks

When you configure the ProCurve Secure Router to act as a bridge, you extend
a LAN through WAN connections. In essence, the WAN becomes a single LAN.
The distance between the bridges does not matter; they connect segments of
a single network.
However, practically, LAN connections transmit at much higher speeds than
WAN connections. As you design your network, you should take this difference
into account. While flooding messages between remote segments is logically
equivalent to flooding them between local segments, sending messages to a
remote segment costs more in terms of time and relative bandwidth as well
as money.

Spanning Tree Protocol

When you configure the ProCurve Secure Router as a bridge, it loses its routing
capabilities. Like a switch, it must run a spanning tree protocol to eliminate
loops and respond to network topology changes. Bridged interfaces on the
ProCurve Secure Router automatically run rapid spanning tree protocol
(RSTP), IEEE 802.1W. If necessary, you can alter the default spanning tree
settings. See "Configuring Spanning Tree" on page 10-11.