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Re: [EFM] TEST frames MAC_Control vs MAC client



At 01:01 PM 9/5/01 -0700, Denton Gentry wrote:

 This means a couple things:
1. if you send a TEST frame, you can get multiple responses.
   This is manageable, though unwieldy. I doubt the service providers
   want to get a response from the subscriber's printer, for example.
2. if there is nothing connected to the bridge, you will get no response.
   This would be bad. There is no way to distinguish between a failed link
   and an unutilized link.

OR it would be turned around by the bridge. Bridges have MAC addresses. In particular, if there is a management entity in a bridge (e.g. the one you need for OA&M) then it would be a reasonable TEST target


 We could define TEST as an ethertype

It's been done, 9000h

and hope that all the bridge vendors
implement MAC Clients to handle it... but I doubt this would happen.

Denton Gentry
Dominet Systems

PS: I just noticed an earlier response from Tony Jeffree also mentioning
bridges, but I'm gonna send this one anyway.


Geoff