Context Bridge: SW Bridge Introduction
32
CopperLink CL2300 User Manual
4
• CL2300 Bridging Contexts
Bindings
Bindings form the association between circuits or ports and the interfaces configured on a context. No user
data can flow on a circuit or Ethernet port until some higher-layer service is configured and associated with it.
Bindings are configured statically in the port configuration.
Context Bridge: SW Bridge Introduction
Context Bridge is the software MAC switching (conceptual entity) side of the
Trinity Embedded Device.
This
allows the configuration of the unit to be highly flexible and perform all the switching level functions that any
normal switch can do but at a software or CPU level. This can be used like the context switch-group entity to
perform the same functions such as isolate, manage or dictate the traffic flow of all IP traffic at the MAC layer.
If you are unable or need a more complex configuration than the Context switch-group can perform then you
may need the flexibility of using software enabled bridge functions to get the job done.
When setting up the device you must decide the best and most efficient way to pass traffic from the Ethernet
Ports to the WAN (EFM) ports. In routed modes the traffic path will always be routed at layer 3 from one
interface to the other before it passes correctly. In the bridging mode all traffic will pass transparently though
either a context switch or context bridge. Context Bridge can be used in combination with Context IP as you
can see the in the example below. Bridging traffic is more efficient and easier to maintain when you need to
pass the traffic between two Trinity Embedded Devices that are on the same network, such as the diagram
below
.
Figure 11. Bridge Network