Smt frame classes and types – Sun Microsystems 1.0 User Manual
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SunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’s Guide—May 1997
8
SMT Frame Classes and Types
SMT frames are used for peer-to-peer (station-to-station) management. They
are divided into classes, which define the function of the frame. Each class is
then divided into up to three types, which define whether the frame is an
announcement (information only), a request for service, or a response to a
request. Refer to the ANSI/FDDI Station Management (SMT) X3.299 R7.3
Specification for a detailed description of
SMT
frames and their functions.
The
pf_smtmon
utility is used to monitor the following SMT frame classes:
NIF (Neighbor Information Frames)
These are the most common frames displayed when you run
pf_smtmon
. As
the name suggests, they carry information about a neighboring station (for
example, address, description, state,
MAC
capabilities) and are used as
keep-alive notifications that a station is still attached to the ring and
functioning. An
NIF
frame can be an announcement, a request, or a response.
SIF (Status Information Frames)
These frames carry more detailed information about a station.
SIF
configuration frames describe the station configuration (for example, number
of ports, number of
MAC
entities, connection policy);
SIF
operation frames
describe the current status of the station. A
SIF
frame can be either a request
or a response.
ECF (Echo Frames)
These frames are equivalent to ICMP
ping
packets and are used to test
connectivity between stations. An
ECF
frame can be either a request or a
response.
RDF (Request Denied Frame)
These frames are used to indicate that the request is rejected. If an
SMT
agent
(such as the SunNet Manager proxy agent delivered with SunFDDI/P) receives
an unsupported or unrecognized request, it issues an
RDF
frame to indicate
that the request is rejected. An
RDF
frame is always a response.