5 - Analyzing Ethernet LAN Switching

Question 1

broadcast frame

Answer 1

An Ethernet frame sent to destination address FFFF.FFFF.FFFF, meaning that the frame should be delivered to all hosts on that LAN.

Question 2

flood/flooding

Answer 2

The result of the LAN switch forwarding process for broadcasts and unknown unicast frames. Switches forward these frames out all interfaces, except the interface in which the frame arrived. Switches also flood multicasts by default, although this behavior can be changed.

Question 3

forward

Answer 3

forward
To send a frame received in one interface out another interface, toward its ultimate destination.

Question 4

known unicast frame

Answer 4

known unicast frame
An Ethernet frame whose destination MAC address is listed in a switch’s MAC address table, so the switch will forward the frame out the one port associated with that entry in the MAC address table.

Question 5

MAC address table

Answer 5

A table of forwarding information held by a Layer 2 switch, built dynamically by listening to incoming frames and used by the switch to match frames to make decisions about where to forward the frame.

Question 6

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Answer 6

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
A protocol defined by IEEE standard 802.ID. Allows switches and bridges to create a redundant LAN, with the protocol dynamically causing some ports to block traffic, so that the bridge/switch forwarding logic will not cause frames to loop indefinitely around the LAN.

Question 7

unknown unicast frame

Answer 7

unknown unicast frame
An Ethernet frame whose destination MAC address is not listed in a switch’s MAC address table, so the switch must flood the frame.