Asante Technologies 39240 Switch User Manual


 
/19 32 Class C 8,192 Hosts
/18 64 Class C 16,384 Hosts
/17 128 Class C 32,768 Hosts
/16 256 Class C OR 1 Class B 65,536 Hosts
/13 2,048 Class C 524,288 Hosts
6.1 Establish Address Resolution
A device in the IP can have both a local address (which uniquely identifies the device on its local segment or LAN)
and a network address (which identifies the network to which the device belongs). The local address is more properly
known as a data link address because it is contained in the data link layer (Layer 2 of the OSI model) part of the
packet header and is read by data link devices (bridges and all device interfaces, for example). The more technically
inclined will refer to local addresses as MAC addresses, because the Media Access Control (MAC) sub-layer within
the data link layer processes addresses for the layer.
To communicate with a device on Ethernet, you first must determine the 48-bit MAC or local data link address of that
device. The process of determining the local data link address from an IP address is called address resolution. The
IntraCore 39240/480 software uses the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for address resolution. ARP is used to
associate IP addresses with media or MAC addresses. Taking an IP address as input, ARP determines the
associated media address.
Once a media or MAC address is determined, the IP address/media address association is stored in an ARP cache
for rapid retrieval. Then the IP datagram is encapsulated in a link-layer frame and sent over the network.
47 Asante IntraCore IC39240/480 User’s Manual