Switch Features Explained 13
For details of the auto-negotiation features supported by your Switch,
please refer to the Management Quick Reference Guide that
accompanies your Switch.
Duplex
Full duplex mode allows packets to be transmitted and received
simultaneously and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a link.
Flow Control
All Switch ports support flow control, which is a mechanism that
minimizes packet loss during periods of congestion on the network.
Flow control is supported on ports operating in half duplex mode, and is
implemented using the IEEE Std 802.3-2002 (incorporating 802.3x) on
ports operating in full duplex mode.
For more information about auto-negotiation and port capabilities, see
Chapter 2
“Optimizing Bandwidth”.
Multicast Filtering Multicast filtering allows the Switch to forward multicast traffic to only
the endstations that are part of a predefined multicast group, rather than
broadcasting the traffic to the whole network.
The multicast filtering system supported by your Switch uses IGMP
(Internet Group Management Protocol) snooping to detect the
endstations in each multicast group to which multicast traffic should be
forwarded.
For more information about multicast filtering, see Chapter 3
“Using
Multicast Filtering”.
Spanning Tree
Protocol and Rapid
Spanning Tree
Protocol
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP)
are bridge-based systems that make your network more resilient to link
failure and also provide protection from network loops — one of the
major causes of broadcast storms.
STP allows you to implement alternative paths for network traffic in the
event of path failure and uses a loop-detection process to:
■ Discover the efficiency of each path.
■ Enable the most efficient path.
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