4
Using System Tools and Viewing Information
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Forward Table
The forward table displays the MAC addresses that have been detected by the wireless
bridge. The table lists the interface, wire (10BASE-T) or radio (Wireless), on which each
MAC address was observed. The time for each entry indicates the number of seconds until
that entry will be removed from the table.
The forward table helps the wireless bridge make efficient use of the radio bandwidth.
The wireless bridge uses the forward table to decide if packets received on the wired
interface should be sent to the radio and transmitted to remote bridges.
The local wireless bridge attached to your LAN uses the forward table to identify traffic
that remains on the local side of the wireless link. The local wireless bridge does not
forward those packets to remote wireless bridges because the forwarding table “knows”
that the source and destination computers are on the local network.
When the wireless bridge detects a new source MAC address, it adds that address to the
forward table and the interface value is set to the interface on which the packet was
received. If there is no further activity for this MAC address, the time for the entry will
decrease until it reaches zero. When the time for an entry reaches zero it is removed from
the forward table.
The forward table can hold 1024 entries; however, the Bridge Manager displays only the
first 20 to 30 entries. These top entries are the MAC addresses with the most recent
activity. To see the complete forward table you must use the terminal configuration
interface, described in Appendix B, “Using the Terminal Configurator.”
