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Cisco Small Business 300 Series Managed Switch Administration Guide  232
 
Access Control
The Access Control List (ACL) feature is part of the security mechanism. ACL 
definitions serve as one of the mechanisms to define traffic flows that should be 
given a specific Quality of Service (QoS). For more information see the 
Configuring QoS section in the Configuring Quality of Service chapter. 
ACLs enable network managers to define patterns (filter and actions) for ingress 
traffic. Packets, entering the switch on a port or LAG with an active ACL, are either 
admitted or denied entry.
This chapter contains the following topics:
• Access Control Lists
• Defining MAC-based ACLs
• IPv4-based ACLs
• IPv6-based ACLs
• Defining ACL Binding
Access Control Lists
An Access Control List (ACL) is an ordered list of classification filters and actions. 
Each single classification rule, together with its action, is called an Access Control 
Element (ACE). 
Each ACE is made up of filters that determine traffic groups and associated 
actions. A single ACL may contain one or more ACEs, which are matched against 
the contents of incoming frames. Either a DENY or PERMIT action is applied to 
frames whose contents match the filter. 
The switch support a maximum of 512 ACLs, and a maximum of 512 ACEs.