Address resolution protocol (arp) table – Allied Telesis AT-S63 User Manual

Page 381

Advertising
background image

AT-S63 Management Software Features Guide

Section VII: Routing

381

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Table

The switch maintains an ARP table of IP addresses and the matching
Ethernet MAC addresses. It refers to the table when routing packets to
determine the destination MAC addresses of the nodes, as well as
interfaces and ports from where the nodes are reached.

The ARP table can store both static and dynamic entries. Static entries are
entries you add yourself. This type of entry is never removed by the switch
from the ARP table, even when the corresponding nodes are inactive.

Dynamic entries are entries that the switch learns on it own. Dynamic
entries of inactive nodes are periodically removed from table to prevent the
table from filling with entries of inactive nodes.

The switch learns addresses by sending out ARP requests. It generates
an ARP request whenever it receives a packet that needs to be routed
across a subnet, but lacks the destination MAC address in its ARP table.
The switch, after receiving the ARP response from the destination node,
adds the IP address and MAC address of the node to its ARP table and
begins to route packets to the device. It should be noted that until it
receives a respond to its ARP request, the switch discards all routed
packets intended to a destination node.

The switch can also learn addresses when it is the destination of an ARP
request from another node, such as when it is pinged by a management
station. The switch adds the source IP address and MAC address in the
request from the node to the table when it responds to the ARP request.

Dynamic ARP entries are aged from the table according to the ARP cache
timeout value to protect the table from filling with entries for hosts which
are no longer active. The default setting for the timeout value is 150
seconds. This value is adjustable with the SET IP ARP TIMEOUT
command. Static ARP entries are not aged and are retained in the table
even when the nodes are inactive.

The commands for managing the ARP table are ADD IP ARP, DELETE IP
ARP, SET IP ARP, SET IP ARP TIMEOUT, and SHOW IP ARP.

Note

The switch does not support Proxy ARP.

The storage capacity of the ARP table in the AT-9400 Switch is:

1024 static entries

1024 dynamic entries

Advertising