GE P4A, Technical Manual, Page: 397 / 850

5.10.7 MIRRORING FUNCTION
Port mirroring is a method of monitoring network traffic that forwards a copy of each incoming and outgoing
packet from one port of the repeater to another port where the data can be studied. Port mirroring is managed
locally and a network administrator uses it as a diagnostic tool.
To set up port mirroring:
1. Select the address of the device in the main window.
2. Click the Mirroring button, a new screen appears.
3. Click the checkbox to assign a a mirror port. A mirror port copies the incoming and outgoing traffic of the
port.
5.10.8 PORTS ON/OFF
To enable or disable ports:
1. Select the address of the device in the main window.
2. Click Ports On/Off, a new screen appears.
3. Click the checkbox to enable or disable a port. A disabled port has an empty checkbox.
5.10.9 VLAN
The Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) is a technique used to split an interconnected physical network into several
networks. This technique can be used at all ISO/OSI levels. The VLAN switch is mainly at OSI level 1 (physical VLAN)
which allows communication only between some Ethernet physical ports.
Ports on the switch can be grouped into Physical VLANs to limit traffic flooding. This is because it is limited to ports
belonging to that VLAN and not to other ports.
Port-based VLANs are VLANs where the packet forwarding decision is based on the destination MAC address and
its associated port. You must define outgoing ports allowed for each port when using port-based VLANs. The VLAN
only governs the outgoing traffic so is unidirectional. Therefore, if you wish to allow two subscriber ports to talk to
each other, you must define the egress port for both ports. An egress port is an outgoing port, through which a
data packet leaves.
To assign a physical VLAN to a set of ports:
1. Select the address of the device in the main window.
2. Click the VLAN button, a new screen appears.
3. Use the checkboxes to select which ports will be in the same VLAN. By default all the ports share the same
VLAN.
5.10.10 END OF SESSION
To finish the session:
1. In the main window, click the Quit button, a new screen appears.
2. If a database backup is required, click Yes, a new screen appears.
3. Click the ... button to browse the path. Enter the name in the text box.
P54A/B/C/E Chapter 17 - Communications
P54xMED-TM-EN-1 371