| 摘要 |
The present invention provides a method of limiting the frequency of floods within a data network, the floods arising as a data frame is routed to an unknown destination, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving (42) on an ingress port a data frame intended for a destination station and containing a MAC address of that station; (b) checking (50) the destination MAC address with the contents of a MAC table; and thereby (c) determining (50, 54, 58, 62) whether the data frame is to be routed (56), discarded (60, 66) or flooded (52, 64) to all ports except the ingress port; and (d) respectively routing (56), discarding (60, 66) or flooding (52, 64) the data frame to all ports except the ingress port, as determined in Step (c). The present invention further provides a method of populating a MAC table within an Ethernet network with entries relating a MAC station address to a port to which it is connected, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving (42) on an ingress port a data frame intended for a destination station and containing a MAC address of that station; (b) checking (50) the destination MAC address with the contents of a MAC table; and thereby (c) determining (50, 54, 58, 62) whether the destination MAC address and ingress port are to be written to the MAC table and, if so (d) writing the destination MAC address and ingress port to the MAC table; and (e) flooding (52) the data frame to all ports except the ingress port.
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