An Efficient Bridging Support Mechanism Using the Cache Table in the RPR-Based Metro Ethernet

Abstract

RPR (Resilient Packet Ring) is a protocol proposed for the efficient delivery of frames over the metro network and is required to provide the bridging functionality for the interconnection of other external LANs. To do this, the node with the RPR capability should broadcast frames received from external networks to the entire RPR network. Since the RPR is proposed to operate in a metro network, most of RPR nodes are not hosts but bridges. Therefore broadcasting of all frames from external networks may significantly deteriorate the performance of the RPR network. In this paper, we propose a mechanism in which an RPR bridge node can efficiently support the bridging functionality by using a cache table with the information on external nodes.