3Com WX2200 3CRWX220095A Switch User Manual


 
6
CONFIGURING AND MANAGING IP
INTERFACES AND SERVICES
This chapter describes how to configure IP interfaces and services.
MTU Support Mobility System Software (MSS) supports standard maximum
transmission units (MTUs) of 1514 bytes for standard Ethernet packets
and 1518 bytes for Ethernet packets with an 802.1Q tag. MSS does not
support changing of the MTU through software configuration, and MSS
does not do path MTU discovery.
Communication between WX switches is supported over any path MTU,
and the Mobility Domain itself can run over the minimum IP path MTU
(PMTU). However, tunnels between two WX switches require a path MTU
of at least 1384 bytes.
This minimum MTU path is required because MSS uses IP tunnels to
transport user traffic between WX switches and to transport user traffic
and control traffic between switches and MAPs. Encapsulation of the
packets for tunneling adds an additional 44 bytes to the packet headers,
so MSS does fragment and reassemble the packets if necessary to fit
within the supported MTUs. However, MSS does not support
defragmentation except at the receiving end of an IP tunnel, and only to
reassemble fragments created by another WX switch device for
tunneling.
If the path MTU between WX switches is less than 1384 bytes, a device in
the path might further fragment or drop a tunneled packet. If the packet
is further fragmented, the receiving WX switch will not be able to
reassemble the fragments, and the packet is dropped.