Operating State - HP 10:10 LAN Bridge MB Installation And Reference Manual

Operating State

The bridge has five possible operating states: Learning, Learning/STP, Secure, Secure/STP, and
Bridge Off. The default operating state is Learning. The current operating state can be
changed through the bridge console interface, or from an HP network management station.
Learning. The bridge automatically learns the addresses of the nodes communicating through
the bridge and which side of the bridge each node is on. The bridge learns the node addresses
from the source address field in each packet it receives. It learns which side the node is on by
noting which port receives the packet. The bridge adds entries to the bridge address table for
each new address it sees. The address table is described later in this chapter.
Learning/STP. The bridge functions the same as under the Learning operating state, and it
supports the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). It can therefore operate as a backup bridge in a
network with multiple possible paths between nodes on the LANs. STP is described later in
this chapter.
Secure. The bridge allows communication only between those nodes whose addresses are
manually entered in the address table (static addresses).
Secure/STP. The bridge functions the same as under the Secure operating state, and it
supports the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
Bridge Off. The bridge discards all received packets except for those packets that are
explicitly addressed to the bridge (for example, SNMP network management packets). Use this
operating state when you are performing certain diagnostic tests on the bridge. (See chapter 5,
"Troublshooting".)
6-2 How the Bridge Works