PC-----E1----CORESxn-----E2----PC PC in vlan 10 sends a packet to E1, a BEB E1 does a 'look-up' and finds that vlan 10 is mapped to i-sid 100

(i-sid is ser vice identifier) E1 again does a 'look-up' and finds that E2 is other member participating in i-s id 100 Now E1 adds another header to the packet received form the PC. Header = source BMAC(BMAC of E1) + destination BMAC(BMAC of E2) CORE In core switches, we only configure back-bone vlan and ISIS is configured on all cores as well as edges. Each switch that is participating in ISIS(all cores and edges), is given a Syste m ID(just like router ID in OSPF). ISIS routers use TLVs(type-length-value packe ts- just like LSAs used by OSPF ) to advertise their System-IDs. IS-IS is also used to advertise the i-sid membership. After IS-IS is configured, it uses cost as the parameter to calculate the best p ath to all other switches in the network. So, every brigde calculates and stores the best path to reach a particular desti nation System ID. Here, there is no traditional learning and flooding used. Packets are forwarded based on the pre-calculated best paths.

The moment an i-sid is created on an edge, its membership is flodded through out the network. Hence, after IS-IS convergence, every brigde(core and edge) knows the system-id of every other bridge in the network and every edge knows all the i-sids configu red on all other edges. PCA----SW1---SW2(EDGE)---SWA(CORE)---SWB(CORE)---SWC(CORE)---SW2(EDGE)-----PCB 1- Frame from PCA to SW1 : packet+MACpca+MACpcb (packet= payload+ip addresses) 2- Frame from SW1 to SW2: packet +MACpca+MACpcb 3- Frame from SW2 to SWA: Packet+MACpca+MACpcb+isidValue+BMACsw1+BMACsw2 // SW2 is the edge and knows the isid the vlan that contains PCa is mapped to. Further, it determines that this particular isid is available on SW2 edge. Thus, the sys tem id of SW2 becomes the destination BMAC. 4- Frame from SWB to SWC to SW2: No change occurs in the frame. Forwarding is do ne based on the pre-populated FIB(forwarding information base, just like routers route the packets based on the destination network ip address. Here, each core brigde desides the out-going port based on the destination system-id) 5- Frame from SW2 to PCB: SW2, edge strips off the spbm header and finds that th e particaular frame is destined for MACpcb on some particular VLAN and then send s out the port PCB is connected. This is the most basic implementation of SPB--- called L2 VSN. Its also important to know other implementations on SPB. 1. SPB on IST+SMLT 2. VRRP on SPB 3. L3 VSN 4. Inter-VSN etc