Retro networking / WAN communities

[Paul Koning]

> On Apr 12, 2022, at 9:56 AM, Todd Goodman via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> ...
> The big difference in my mind between bridge and switch is:
> 
> * Switches learn what port given MACs are on and only sends unicast
>   traffic destined for that MAC address on that port and not all
> * Bridges send unicast traffic to all ports

Absolutely not.  The only standard device that forwards unicast to all ports is the repeater.  I don't know of any packet forwarding device that sends unicast traffic to all ports; certainly no such thing can be found in any standard.

Learning was introduced by DEC in the DECbridge 100 (along with spanning tree); IEEE later standardized this, with some small mods, in 802.1d.

	paul