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Introduction to Vanguard IP and LAN Feature Protocols
IP and LAN Protocol Support
LAN Forwarding Options
Introduction
The Vanguard products supports three forwarding options for carry traffic and
interconnecting LANs. The Vanguard can act as a:
• Bridge
• Router
• Bridge Router (BRouter)
Bridging
Bridges work at the Data Link layer providing connectionless service. Vanguard
products support bridging of data traffic for Token Ring and Ethernet LANs.
Bridging LAN traffic minimizes your networking costs by eliminating the need for
redundant networks and maximizes the availability of dedicated facilities such as
servers and printers, as well as public Frame Relay and X.25 services, across
multiple LANs. The Vanguard supports these types of bridging
• Translational Bridging
• Source Route Bridging for Token Ring
• Transparent Bridging
Routing
Router interconnect network segments and transport data across an network from a
source to a destination. Routers store and forward data in an network regardless of
network topology. Routers operate at the Network layer and, therefore, offer some
flexibility in choosing several network level services.
Bridge Routing
When configured as a bridging router, the Vanguard supports both bridging and
routing within the same node concurrently. The Vanguard provide bridging router
functions including
• Routing packets if a specific routing protocol is globally enabled.
• Filtering packets if you configure specific protocol filters.
• Bridging packets if they are not routed or filtered. In this case, they are
forwarded according to their destination MAC address.
