Enabling Port Bridge
Context
By default, an interface does not forward packets whose source and destination MAC addresses are the same. When the interface receives this kind of a packet, it discards the packet as an invalid packet.
After the port bridge function is enabled on the interface, the interface can forward the packet if the destination MAC address of the packet is in the MAC address table.
The port bridge function is used in the following scenarios:
- The switch connects to devices that do not support Layer 2 forwarding. When users connected to the devices need to communicate, the devices send packets of the users to the switch for packet forwarding. Because source and destination MAC addresses of the packets are the same, a port bridge needs to be enabled on the interface so that the interface can forward such packets.
- The switch is used as an access device in a data center and is connected to servers. Each server is configured with multiple virtual machines. The virtual machines need to transmit data to each other. If servers perform data switching for virtual machines, the data switching speed and server performance are reduced. To improve the data transmission rate and server performance, enable a port bridge on the interfaces connected to the servers so that the switch forwards data packets between the virtual machines.