3Com CoreBuilder 2500 User Manual - page 47
What Is Routing?
3-3
Integrating Bridging
and Routing
The CoreBuilder 2500 system integrates bridging and routing. You can
assign multiple switch ports to each subnetwork. See Figure 3-3.
Figure 3-3
Multiple Ethernet Ports per Subnetwork
Transparent bridging or Express switching (described in the
CoreBuilder
2500 Operation Guide
) switches traffic between ports that are assigned
to the same subnetwork. Traffic traveling to different subnetworks is
routed using one of the supported routing protocols.
In the following descriptions of bridging and routing on the CoreBuilder
2500 system, the term
MAC address
refers to a physical hardware
address. The term
network address
refers to a logical address that
applies to a specific protocol.
Because the CoreBuilder 2500 model of bridging and routing allows
several segments to be connected to the same subnetwork, you can
increase the level of segmentation in your network without creating new
subnetworks or assigning new network addresses. Instead, you can use
additional Ethernet ports to expand existing subnetworks.
This model differs from traditional bridging and routing, in which at most
one port is connected to any subnetwork. Traditionally, to increase the
level of segmentation in your network, you must create additional
subnetworks and assign new network addresses to existing hosts.
Subnetwork 1
Subnetwork 2
Subnetwork 3
Subnetwork 4
FDDI ports
CoreBuilder™ 2500 system
Ethernet ports