Netgear M6100 – Campus Edge and SMB Core Chassis Switches Software Guide

NETGEAR Managed Switch software references physical entities such as cards and ports by 
using a unit/slot/port naming convention. The NETGEAR Managed Switch software 
also uses this convention to identify certain logical entities, such as Port-Channel interfaces.

The slot number has two uses. In the case of physical ports, it identifies the card containing 
the ports. In the case of logical and CPU ports it also identifies the type of interface or port.

The port identifies the specific physical port or logical interface being managed on a given 
slot.

In the CLI, loopback and tunnel interfaces do not use the 
unit/slot/port

 format. To specify a loopback interface, you use 

the loopback ID. To specify a tunnel interface, you use the tunnel ID.

Physical slot numbers 

Physical slot numbers begin with zero, and are allocated up to the maximum 
number of physical slots.

Logical slot numbers 

Logical slots immediately follow physical slots and identify port-channel 
(LAG) or router interfaces. The value of logical slot numbers depend on the 
type of logical interface and can vary from platform to platform.

CPU slot numbers

The CPU slots immediately follow the logical slots.

Physical Ports

The physical ports for each slot are numbered sequentially starting from one. 
For example, port 1 on slot 0 (an internal port) for a switch is 1/0/1, port 2 is 
1/0/2, port 3 is 1/0/3, and so on. 

Logical Interfaces

Port-channel or Link Aggregation Group (LAG) interfaces are logical 
interfaces that are only used for bridging functions. 

VLAN routing interfaces are only used for routing functions.

Loopback interfaces are logical interfaces that are always up.

Tunnel interfaces are logical point-to-point links that carry encapsulated 
packets.

CPU ports

CPU ports are handled by the driver as one or more physical entities located 
on physical slots.