Source-based and destination-based self-learning forwarding paradigm

摘要

The present invention relates to an access node comprising:- subscriber interfaces (11 to 17) for coupling to subscriber devices,- at least one network interface (21, 22) for coupling to an aggregation network (41),- a forwarding means (31) adapted to forward data units between the subscriber interfaces and the at least one network interface according to a forwarding table (32),- a forwarding configuration means (33) adapted, in the event of a first incoming data unit (frame2) being received through a particular subscriber interface (11) and having a particular hardware address (S=MAC@A) as source hardware address, to encode the particular hardware address into the forwarding table as being associated with the particular subscriber interface,and in the event of a further incoming data unit (frame3) being received through a particular network interface (21) and having the particular hardware address as source hardware address, to re-encode the particular hardware address into the forwarding table as being associated with the particular network interface.;An access node according to the invention is characterized in that the re-encoding is in dependence of whether a destination hardware address (D=MAC@E) of the further incoming data unit is encoded into the forwarding table as being associated with a subscriber interface or a network interface of the access node.;The present invention also relates to a method for configuring a forwarding table (32) in an access node (1).