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Configuring bridging
Through the Web interface, you can configure the following transparent bridging functions:
• Enabling a bridge set
• Adding an interface to a bridge set
Overview
A bridge is a store-and-forward device that connects and transfers traffic between LAN segments at
the data-link layer. In some small-sized networks, especially those with dispersed distribution of
users, the use of bridges can reduce the network maintenance costs without requiring the end users
to perform special configurations on the devices.
In applications, the following major kinds of bridging technologies apply: transparent bridging,
source-route bridging (SRB), translational bridging, and source-route translational bridging (SR/TLB).
The devices support only transparent bridging.
Transparent bridging bridges LAN segments of the same physical media type, primarily in Ethernet
environments. A transparent bridging device keeps a bridge table, which contains mappings
between destination MAC addresses and outbound interfaces.
For more information about transparent bridging, see HPE FlexNetwork MSR Router Series
Comware 5 Layer 2—WAN Configuration Guide.
Major functionalities of bridges
Maintaining the bridge table
A bridge relies on its bridge table to forward data. A bridge table consists two parts: MAC address list
and interface list. Once connected to a physical LAN segment, a bridge listens to all Ethernet frames
on the segments. When it receives an Ethernet frame, it extracts the source MAC address of the
frame and creates a mapping entry between this MAC address and the interface on which the
Ethernet frame was received.
As shown in Figure 282, Ho
st A, Host B,
Host C, and Host D are attached to two LAN segments. Host
A and Host B are connected to bridge interface 1. When Host A sends an Ethernet frame to Host B,
both bridging interface 1 and Host B receive this frame.
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