GE MDS ORBIT MCR, Technical Manual, Page: 189 / 463

MDS 05-6632A01, Rev. F MDS Orbit MCR/ECR Technical Manual 189
3.8 Networking Services and Routing
Network 3.8.1
Understanding
The unit supports multiple networking features that are either implemented as virtual network interfaces
(Bridge, VLAN, GRE, Bond) or as network services or applications operating on these virtual and other
physical interfaces (LAN, Cell, WiFi, 900Mhz). Following provides a brief overview of these networking
features:

Dynamic IP addressing
- DHCP Client - The units supports DHCP client operation on various physical and virtual
interfaces.
- DHCP Server - The units supports DHCP server operation to assign dynamic IP addresses to
other devices connected to it over various network interfaces.

Bridging - The unit supports bridging feature by creation of network interfaces of type 'bridge' that
can contain one or more network interfaces as members of this interface. The unit also supports
spanning tree protocol (STP) to prevent formation of loops in the bridged network.

VLAN - The unit supports VLAN feature by creation of network interface of type 'vlan' and
configuration of the other network interfaces in the system as members of this VLAN interface.

Firewall - The unit supports firewall feature to accept/drop incoming or outgoing traffic by
configuration of Access Control List (ACL) filters on the network interfaces.

Network Address Translation (NAT) - The unit supports following types of Network Address
Translation (NAT):
- Destination NAT (Port Forwarding) - Translating the destination address (and/or port) of
traffic ingressing the unit. Destination NAT allows forwarding of traffic directed to a public
(external network) IP address (and/or port) to a private (internal network) IP address (and/or
port).
- Source NAT (Masquerading) - Source NAT allows private (internal network) hosts to share
the same public (external net-work) IP addresses to enabling them to communicate with a host
on the public/external network.
- Static NAT (One to One NAT) - Translating a public (external network) address of traffic
ingressing to a private (internal network) address and egressing the unit vice versa. Static NAT
allows private (internal network) hosts to be accessible through a corresponding public
(external network) address. This feature can be used to help connect networks with overlapping
network address ranges.

Routing - The unit supports static routing by allowing configuration or one or more static routes to
various destination networks.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) - The unit supports VPN feature by use of following types of
tunnels:

IPsec Tunnel - IPsec enables secure tunneling of unicast IP traffic from one private network to
another over an untrusted (e.g. public) network.

GRE Tunnel - Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) enables tunneling of unicast and multicast IP
traffic (layer-3) or Ethernet (layer-2) traffic from one private network to another over another
network. GRE tunnels do not provide any security. GRE and IPsec can be combined to enable
following uses cases:
- Sending multicast IP traffic securely from one private network to another over an untrusted
network