Allied Telesis AT-PC232/POE, Installation Manual

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Chapter 1: Overview
30
A Few Basics about Ethernet Switching
The AT-PC232/POE Media Converter interconnects network devices,
such as workstations, printers, routers, and other Ethernet switches, so
that they can communicate with each other by sending and receiving
Ethernet frames.
MAC Address
Table
The operation of the AT-PC232/POE Media Converter’s MAC address
table reduces the amount of unnecessary traffic by not forwarding packets
with a destination address that has been learned on the same port.
Store and
Forward
The AT-PC232/POE Media Converter supports store and forward
switching at Fast Ethernet full-wire speed in 100 Mbps, half- or full-duplex
mode. Packets entering each port are stored in buffers. Once the full
packet is received, the media converter will forward or discard the packet,
depending on its destination address and error status. This ensures the
only error-free packets destined for another segment will be transferred
across the media converter, reducing network load.
The AT-PC232/POE Media Converter will discard CRC errors, misaligned,
runt, and under-oversized packets. When the packet has dribble bits at the
end, the media converter will truncate to octet boundary and check for a
good FCS before forwarding.