-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hello there, I've been studying routing protocol during my studies, like OSPF, BGP, EGP, IGP, RIP, OLSR...... All those protocols are based on the routing table concept and each of them has its own way to compute routing table which is then used by the Linux kernel. But this is for IPv4 (or IPv6), ie layer 3. I'm new at layer2 and I've read 802.1D-2004, learning STP and RSTP. I'd like to know if there are some other protocols (be it standard or proprietary) that achieve this goal of connecting layer2 cloud. Is there a concept of routing table at layer2? Regards, Benoit -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFIMdl+OR6EySwP7oIRArESAJ4w5908pH7Z9IRAQOwz3wdcftA84wCePfkK vBX9yupof+1IXip3C8q0OOo=rLUK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
At 21:48 yesterday, Benoit PAPILLAULT wrote:> I'm new at layer2 and I've read 802.1D-2004, learning STP and RSTP. I'd > like to know if there are some other protocols (be it standard or > proprietary) that achieve this goal of connecting layer2 cloud. Is there > a concept of routing table at layer2?This is somewhat off-topic for the list but I'll answer anyway... Most existing layer 2 protocols don't do routing. The closest thing an Ethernet switch/bridge has to a routing table is the MAC address table, indicating on which port a particular host can be found. There have been efforts to add IP-style routing to layer 2 (Rbridges etc., and indeed my own work which is yet to be published) but they're not in common use and were never adopted as standards. If you're interested in this topic, I suggest we continue this discussion off-list. Malcolm -- Malcolm Scott Research Assistant University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory