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Presentation Overview
Filtering Database
general concepts history the learning Bridge
Presentation Overview
Spanning Tree Algorithm
general concepts overview of procedures operation at bridge boot time operation during LAN topology reconfiguration
More terms
Bridge: a layer 2 device that allows 2 separate LANs to exchange traffic. Switch: another name for Bridge. Im not sure what other terms Ill cover that you have not heard of or do not understand, but please feel free to interrupt me if you need clarification on something.
History
Back in the days before Ethernet was the clear winning technology on the LAN, Token Ring and FDDI were popular.
There were 2 competing technologies for bridging. Source Route Bridging Used with Token Ring and FDDI
Transparent Bridging
Used with Ethernet
Server
Switch 3
Transparent Bridging
The transparent bridging method follows the plug and play philosophy.
Each bridge contains one (or more) Filtering Databases that learn and remember MAC addresses on its networks. Forwarding decisions are then made with consultation of the Filtering Database. If a destination MAC address has been learned, the packet is then forwarded out of that port. These addresses then will be cleared from the Filtering Database if they are not active for a specific amount of time. This range is defined by Aging Time, which can be set in the management.
Learning of addresses
The Filtering Database learns a stations location from the source address on an incoming frame.
This source address is Frame with source address learned by the is filtering 002222333344 received database. All future frames on Port 1. Port 1 Frames with the destination destined for this MAC address address 002222333344 are will be forwarded ONLY out of Switch only forwarded on port 1 this Port. Port 4 Frame with destination address 002222333344 is received on Since this is not learned, it is Port 4. FLOODED out all of the other ports.
Multicast Frames
Multicast Frames originate from one source and have the possibility of going to more than one destination. An example of this is the Spanning Tree BPDU.
Switch 2 Switch 3 Switch 4
Shared LAN
Switch 1
Currently only 3 of these multicast addresses are standardized. The rest are reserved for future use. Frames containing these addresses in the source are never learned or forwarded.
Aging Time
Aging time is defined as a range of 10 to one million seconds
One million seconds is 11 days 13 hours 46 minutes and 40 seconds
LAN Connection
A Incoming broadcast frame B
More Reasons
Spanning Tree Disables one of these connections.
It also keeps track of each of these connections. If the active connection becomes disconnected, it will reactivate it.
General Concepts
Bridges share information through Bridge Protocol Data Units or BPDUs.
Two important parameters that are passed in the BPDUs are the Bridge Identifier and the Root Identifier. Each Identifier value is composed of a Bridge Priority and the Bridge MAC address. The Bridge Priority is settable in management so that Spanning Tree can be configured.
Upon Initialization all Bridges assume that they are root. The Bridge Identifier and the Root Identifier are thus equal upon initialization.
Port States
Bridge ports operate the Spanning Tree algorithm using the following states: Blocking - incoming frames are discarded. Listening - incoming frames are discarded, but the port is in the process of transitioning to Learning. Learning - incoming frames are discarded, but their source addresses and ports are placed in the Filtering Database. Forwarding - Incoming frames are forwarded, source addresses are learned.
Path Cost
Varying networking technologies have a path cost associated with their speed.
Link Speed Recommended Recommended value range 4 Mb/s 250 1001000 10 Mb/s 100 50600 16 Mb/s 62 40400 100 Mb/s 19 1060 1 Gb/s 4 310 10 Gb/s 2 15 Range 165 535 165 535 165 535 165 535 165 535 165 535
Initialization Procedure
Used by all bridges on startup to make each bridge think that it is the root bridge.
Root ID set to Bridge ID for each bridge.
TCA
Reserved
Root Identifier Root Path Cost
TC
Bridge Identifier Port Identifier Message Age Max Age Hello Time Forward Delay
More on Learning
Thus, address learning for the Filtering Database is dependent upon the state of Spanning Tree.
When a bridge is alerted to a topology change, addresses are aged out according to the Spanning Tree Forward Delay time.
Make Forwarding
If the port we wish to make forwarding is currently in the blocking state, then set the ports state to listening and start the forward delay timer for that port.
Make Blocking
If the current port state is not disabled or blocking
If the current port state is forwarding or learning If the change_detection_enabled is set to True
A Quick Example
Root
Tick
This is the procedure that checks every clock tick to see whether any of the Spanning Tree Timers have expired. The timers involved are the hello_timer, tcn_timer, topology_change_timer, message_age_timer, forward_delay_timer, and the hold_timer.
If we are the root bridge now but werent before the message age timer expired
Update the max_age, hello_time, and forward_delay parameters to those stored on this bridge Call topology_change_detection Stop the tcn_timer
B2 B3
2 2
15 25
- All Ports on each bridge have the same Path Cost in this example. - The Max Age, Hello Time, and Forward Delay parameters are left at their default values of 20.0, 2.0, and 15.0 respectively.
B1
LAN B B2
15
25
B3
LAN C
B1
LAN B B2
15
25
B3
LAN C
B4
15
- All Ports on each bridge have the same Path Cost in this example. - The Max Age, Hello Time, and Forward Delay parameters are left at their default values of 20.0, 2.0, and 15.0 respectively.
B1
LAN B
15
B2
New B4 30 40 LAN C
B3
25
B1
LAN B
15
B2
New B4 30 LAN C
B3
25
Future Additions
The IEEE is currently working on a Rapid Reconfiguration Standard. This will interoperate with the current Spanning Tree by making the Rapid Reconfiguration network appear to the Spanning Tree network as one bridge. It is currently only a draft, but the next update will clarify some foggy details.