3Com LANPLEX 2500 EXTENDEDPLEX®2500 EXTENDED User Manual page 37

What Is Routing? 3-3
Integrating The LANplex system integrates bridging and routing. Multiple switch
Bridging and ports can be assigned to each subnet. See Figure 3-3. Traffic between
Routing ports assigned to the same subnet is switched transparently using
transparent bridging or Express switching (described in the LANplex®
2500 Operation Guide). Traffic traveling to different subnets is routed
using one of the supported routing protocols.
In the following descriptions of bridging and routing on the LANplex
system, the term MAC address refers to a physical hardware address.
The term network address refers to a logical address that applies to a
specific protocol.
Subnet 4
LANplex 2500
FDDI ports
Ethernet ports
Subnet 3
Subnet 1
Subnet 2
Figure 3-3 Multiple Ports per Subnets with the LANplex 2500 System
Because the LANplex model of bridging and routing allows several
segments to be connected to the same subnet, you can increase the
level of segmentation in your network without having to create new
subnets or assign network addresses. Instead, you can use additional
Ethernet ports to expand your existing subnets. This is in contrast to
more traditional forms of bridging and routing where, at most, one port
is connected to any subnet.