ZyXEL Communications ZyXEL Dimension GS-2024 - Manual (Page 211)

GS-2024 User’s Guide
211
C
H A P T E R
29
MAC Table
This chapter introduces the MAC Table screen.
29.1 MAC Table Overview
The MAC Table screen (a MAC table is also known as a filtering database) shows how frames
are forwarded or filtered across the Switch’s ports. When a device (which may belong to a
VLAN group) sends a packet which is forwarded to a port on the Switch, the MAC address of
the device is shown on the Switch’s MAC Table. It also shows whether the MAC address is
dynamic (learned by the Switch) or static (manually entered in the Static MAC Forwarding
screen).
The Switch uses the MAC Table to determine how to forward frames. See the following
figure.
1 The Switch examines a received frame and learns the port from which this source MAC
address came.
2 The Switch checks to see if the frame's destination MAC address matches a source MAC
address already learned in the MAC Table.
• If the Switch has already learned the port for this MAC address, then it forwards the frame
to that port.
• If the Switch has not already learned the port for this MAC address, then the frame is
flooded to all ports. Too much port flooding leads to network congestion.
• If the Switch has already learned the port for this MAC address, but the destination port is
the same as the port it came in on, then it filters the frame.