What is the function of a switch

Asked By Hollis Riley 100 points N/A Posted on - 11/15/2012

 

Hi,

What is the function of a switch that receives a frame that has a destination MAC address? However, the address is currently not in the MAC table. Who has an idea?

Thanks. 

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Answered By Hammer Shepich 0 points N/A #133900

What is the function of a switch

 

Hello Hollis,

Once of the functions of a switch is to forward the network traffic from a device connected to one port of a Network Switch to another device connected to another port on the switch. The switch reads the source MAC address of the frame, and it also reads the destination MAC address. The destination MAC address determines the port number which the destination device is connected.

What if the MAC address is currently not in the MAC table?

The switch will duplicate the frame to all ports but not including the port where it came from. This is because the MAC table is built from the source MAC address and not from the destination MAC address.

The switch basically broadcasts the frame all throughout the broadcast domain. The end device with a matching MAC address will then respond to the broadcast. The switch now has a new source address to add to its MAC table.

I hope this helps!

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• Posted on - 11/19/2012
• Question Category: Hardware