3com WX3000 Manuel D’Utilisation

 

1-6 

Setting aging time properly helps effective utilization of MAC address aging. The aging time that is too 

long or too short affects the performance of the device. 

z 

If the aging time is too long, excessive invalid MAC address entries maintained by the device may 

fill up the MAC address table. This prevents the MAC address table from being updated with 

network changes in time. 

z 

If the aging time is too short, the device may remove valid MAC address entries. This decreases 

the forwarding performance of the device. 

Follow these steps to set the aging time of MAC address entries: 

Enter system view 

— 

Set the aging time of MAC 
address entries 

mac-address timer { aging 
age | no-aging } 

Required 

The default aging time is 300 
seconds. 

 

Normally, you are recommended to use the default aging time, namely, 300 seconds. The no-aging 

keyword specifies that MAC address entries do not age out. 

 

MAC address aging configuration applies to all ports, but only takes effect on dynamic MAC addresses 

that are learnt or configured to age. 

 

The MAC address learning mechanism enables the device to acquire the MAC addresses of the 

network devices on the segment connected to the ports of the device. By searching the MAC address 

table, the device directly forwards the packets destined for these MAC addresses through the hardware, 

improving the forwarding efficiency. A MAC address table too big in size may prolong the time for 

searching MAC address entries, thus decreasing the forwarding performance of the device. 

By setting the maximum number of MAC addresses that can be learned from individual ports, the 

administrator can control the number of the MAC address entries the MAC address table can 

dynamically maintain. When the number of the MAC address entries learnt from a port reaches the set 

value, the port stops learning MAC addresses. 

Follow these steps to set the maximum number of MAC addresses a port can learn: 

Enter system view 

system-view 

— 

Enter Ethernet port view 

interface interface-type 
interface-number 

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