ZyXEL Communications Prestige 652, User Manual, Page: 327 / 521

Prestige 652 Series User’s Guide
Bridging Setup 31-1
Chapter 31
Bridging Setup
This chapter shows you how to configure the bridging parameters of your Prestige.
31.1 Bridging in General
Bridging bases the forwarding decision on the MAC (Media Access Control), or hardware address, while
routing does it on the network layer (IP) address. Bridging allows the Prestige to transport packets of
network layer protocols that it does not route, for example, SNA, from one network to another. The caveat
is that, compared to routing, bridging generates more traffic for the same network layer protocol, and it also
demands more CPU cycles and memory.
For efficiency reasons, do not turn on bridging unless you need to support protocols other than IP on your
network. For IP, enable the routing if you need it; do not bridge what the Prestige can route.
31.2 Bridge Ethernet Setup
Basically, all non-local packets are bridged to the WAN. Your Prestige does not support IPX.
31.2.1 Remote Node Bridging Setup
Follow the procedure in another section to configure the protocol-independent parameters in Menu 11.1 –
Remote Node Profile . For bridging-related parameters, you need to configure Menu 11.3 – Remote Node
Network Layer Options .
To setup Menu 11.3 – Remote Node Network Layer Options shown in the next figure, follow these steps:
Step 1.
In menu 11.1, make sure the Bridge field is set to
Yes
.