Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) - CISE

4-June-07 P1901_PRO_016_r0
Notes:
• Eth.req (802.3/EthernetII frame, BPL local ports list, PB, OVLAN word): This primitive requests the
transfer of an Ethernet frame from the local bridging block to a single peer bridging block or multiple peer
bridging blocks in the case of multi-port transfer requests (see 6.3.1).
• Eth.ind (802.3/EthernetII frame, BPL local port, LB, OVLAN word, Session ID): This primitive defines the
transfer of an Ethernet frame from the convergence layer to the bridging block.
• Eth.cnf: This primitive is used by the convergence layer to notify the bridging block of the results of the
Eth.req primitive.
• VLAN tag may be included in the 802.3/EthernetII frame
• The OVLAN word includes PCF, PCP, OVLANV and OVLANID
6.3.1 Multi-port transfer requests
Multi-port transfer requests correspond to Eth.req service primitives including several BPL local ports as argument.
Such requests are inherent to bridging in TDRs and HEs which manage several BPL ports. The multi-port requests
are solicited by standard transparent bridging actions such as:
1. Broadcast transmission: The IEEE 802.3 frame includes a Broadcast Ethernet address in its Destination
Address field. The multi-port request concerns all the BPL ports managed by the bridging function except
the one from which the Ethernet frame was received (if it was eventually received from a BPL port).
2. Multicast transmission: The IEEE 802.3 frame includes a Multicast Ethernet address in its Destination
Address field. The multi-port request might concern a subset of the BPL ports managed by the bridging
function or a single native multicast BPL port associated.
3. Bridge flooding: The bridging block could not find any association of a unicast Ethernet Destination
addresses with a specific bridge port, the request is then flooded to all the bridge ports. The multi-port
request concerns all the BPL ports managed by the bridging function.
6.4 BROADCAST/MULTICAST HANDLER FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
The convergence layer shall include a broadcast/multicast handler that shall perform the following functions:
1. Handling transfer of multicast management messages: Management messages can be unicast or multicast as
described in section 7.4. Multicast management messages can be received from the bridging fundtion through
primitives which are either single port requests or multi-port requests. Any multicast management message
received through these requests shall be transferred over the broadcast port using HURTO modulation.
2. Management of multi-port transfer requests which do not carry multicast management messages: upon
reception of such multi-port transfer request from the convergence layer, the block shall compute the best
method for handling the transfer. If the multi-port request concerns all the local ports of the Port Solver Table or
if the request includes a broadcast/multicast Ethernet Destination Address, depending on the bit-loading tables
associated to each local port, the block might consider transferring the Ethernet frame over the broadcast local
Submission page 172 UPA-OPERA