C H A P TER 7

Bridging Configurations
This chapter describes how to configure bridging for your switch router. For more information about
the Cisco IOS commands used in this chapter, refer to the Cisco IOS command references.This
chapter includes the following sections:
• About Bridging
• Configuring Bridging
• Administering Bridging
• About Integrated Routing and Bridging

Note You are at step 5 in the suggested process for configuring your switch router (see Table 2-1).
You should have already configured the networking and routing protocols, and should be ready to
proceed with configuring bridging.

About Bridging
Cisco IOS software supports transparent bridging for Ethernet. In addition, Cisco supports all the
mandatory Management Information Base (MIB) variables specified for transparent bridging in
RFC 1286.
Cisco IOS software bridging functionality combines the advantages of a spanning-tree bridge and a
full multiprotocol router. This combination provides the speed and protocol transparency of an
adaptive spanning-tree bridge, along with the functionality, reliability, and security of a router.
The switch router can be configured to serve as both an IP and IPX router and a MAC-level bridge,
bridging any traffic that cannot otherwise be routed. For example, a router routing IP traffic can also
bridge the Digital local-area transport (LAT) protocol or NetBIOS traffic.
To configure bridging, you must perform the following tasks:
• In Global configuration mode:
— Select Spanning-Tree Protocol.
— Assign a priority to the bridge (optional).
• In Interface configuration mode:
— Determine which interfaces belong to the same bridge group.
These interfaces will be part of the same spanning tree. This allows the switch router to
bridge all nonrouted traffic among the network interfaces comprising the bridge group.
Interfaces not participating in a bridge group cannot forward bridged traffic.

Bridging Configurations 7-1

Configuring Bridging

If the packet's destination address is known in the bridge table, it is forwarded on a single
interface in the bridge group. If the packet's destination is unknown in the bridge table, it is
flooded on all forwarding interfaces in the bridge group. The bridge places source addresses
in the bridge table as it learns them during the process of bridging.
A separate spanning-tree process runs for each configured bridge group. Each bridge group
participates in a separate spanning tree. A bridge group establishes a spanning tree based on
the BPDUs it receives on only its member interfaces.
— Assign a cost to the outgoing interface (optional).

Configuring Bridging
Table 7-1 shows an example of configuring bridging for a router and an interface.

Table 7-1 Configuring a Bridge Group

Step Command Description

1 Router(config)# bridge bridge_group_number From global configuration mode, assign a
protocol {ieee | dec} # bridge group number and define a
Spanning-Tree Protocol as either the IEEE
802.1D standard or DEC.
Note The IEEE 802.1D Spanning-Tree
Protocol is the preferred way of running the
bridge.
2 Router(config)# bridge bridge_group_number The bridge priority command assigns a
priority number specific priority to the bridge, assisting in the
spanning tree root definition. The lower the
priority, the more likely the bridge will be
selected as the root.
3 Router(config)# interface fa x/0/z Enter Ethernet interface configuration mode to
configure the Fast Ethernet interface.
4 Router(config-if)# bridge-group Assign a network interface to a bridge group.
bridge_group_number
5 Router(config-if)# interface fa x/0/y If you need to assign additional interfaces to a
bridge group, then choose the next interface
and assign it to a bridge group.
6 Router(config-if)# Ctrl-Z Return to privileged EXEC mode.
7 Router# copy running-config startup-config Save your configuration changes to NVRAM.

For additional transparent bridging configuration tasks, such as configuring bridged VLANs and
routing between VLANs, as well as adjusting the Spanning-Tree Protocol, refer to the Cisco IOS
documents on those subjects.

7-2 Layer 3 Switching Software Feature and Configuration Guide

 Administering Bridging

Administering Bridging
Once you have set up the switch router for bridging, you can administer its operation using the
commands in Table 7-2.

Table 7-2 Administering Bridging

Command Displays
clear bridge bridge_group_number Remove any learned entries from the forwarding
database and clear the transmit and receive counts
for any statically configured forwarding entries.
clear vlan statistics Remove virtual LAN statistics from any static or
system configured entries.
show bridge bridge_group_number | interface address | mask Display classes of entries in the bridge forwarding
database.
show bridge bridge_group circuit-group circuit_group | Display the interfaces configured in each circuit
src_mac_address | dest_mac_address group and show whether they are participating in
load distribution.
show bridge group verbose Display information about configured bridge groups.
show bridge vlan Display IEEE 802.10 transparently bridged virtual
LAN configuration.
show span Display the spanning-tree topology known to the
Catalyst 8500 campus switch router.
show vlans Display a summary of virtual LAN subinterfaces.

About Integrated Routing and Bridging

Your network may require you to bridge local traffic within several segments while having hosts on
the bridged segments reach the hosts or routers on routed networks. For example, if you are
migrating bridged topologies into routed topologies, you may want to start by connecting some of
the bridged segments to the routed networks.
Using the integrated routing and bridging (IRB) feature, you can route a given protocol between
routed interfaces and bridge groups within a single switch router. Specifically, local or unroutable
traffic will be bridged among the bridged interfaces in the same bridge group, while routable traffic
will be routed to other routed interfaces or bridge groups.
Because bridging is in the data-link layer (Layer 2) and routing is in the network layer (Layer 3),
they have different protocol configuration models. With IP, for example, bridge group interfaces
belong to the same network and have a collective IP network address. In contrast, each routed
interface represents a distinct network and has its own IP network address. Integrated routing and
bridging uses the concept of a Bridge-Group Virtual Interface (BVI) to enable these interfaces to
exchange packets for a given protocol.
A BVI is a virtual interface within the campus switch router that acts like a normal routed interface.
A BVI does not support bridging, but it actually represents the corresponding bridge group to routed
interfaces within the switch router. The interface number is the link between the BVI and the bridge
group.
Layer 3 switching software supports the routing of IP and IPX between routed interfaces and bridged
interfaces in the same router, in both fast-switching and process-switching paths.

Bridging Configurations 7-3

About Integrated Routing and Bridging

Before Configuring IRB

Consider the following before configuring IRB:
• The default route/bridge behavior in a bridge group (when IRB is enabled) is to bridge all
packets. Make sure you explicitly configure routing on the BVI for protocols that you want
routed.
• Packets of nonroutable protocols such as local-area transport (LAT) are always bridged. You
cannot disable bridging for the nonroutable traffic.
• When using IRB to bridge and route a given protocol, no protocol attributes should be configured
on the bridged interfaces. Bridging attributes cannot be configured on the BVI.
• Because bridges link several segments into one big and flat network and you want to bridge the
packet coming from a routed interface among bridged interfaces, the whole bridge group should
be represented by one network-layer segment—in the switch router, an interface.
• The BVI has default data-link and network-layer encapsulations. These encapsulations are the
same as on the Ethernet, except that you can configure the BVI with some encapsulations that are
not supported on a normal Ethernet interface.

Configuring IRB
Configuring integrated routing and bridging consists of the following two key tasks and subtasks:
Step 1 Configure bridge groups and routed interfaces.
(a) Enable bridging.
(b) Assign bridge groups to interfaces.
(c) Configure routing for desired protocols.
Step 2 Configure IRB and the BVI.
(a) Enable IRB.
(b) Configure the BVI.
(c) Enable the BVI to accept routed packets.
(d) Enable routing on the BVI for desired protocols.
Step 3 Verify IRB configuration.
When you configure the BVI and enable routing on it, packets that come in on a routed interface
destined for a host on a segment that is in a bridge group complete the following process.
The packet is routed to the BVI and forwarded to the bridging engine. From the bridging engine, the
packet exits through a bridged interface. Similarly, packets that come in on a bridged interface but
are sent to a host on a routed interface go first to the BVI. Then the BVI forwards the packets to the
routing engine before sending them out on the routed interface.
Table 7-3 shows an example of defining a bridge group and configuring an interface.

7-4 Layer 3 Switching Software Feature and Configuration Guide

 Configuring IRB

Table 7-3 Configuring Bridge Groups and Routed Interfaces

Step Command Description

1 Router(config)# bridge bridge_group From global configuration mode, define one or
protocol ieee more bridge groups.
2 Router(config)# interface fa x/0/z Enter Ethernet interface configuration mode to
Router(config-if)# configure the Fast Ethernet interface.

3 Router(config-if)# bridge-group Assign a bridge group number to the

bridge_group designated interface.
4 Router(config-if)# exit Return to global configuration mode.

Table 7-4 shows an example of enabling and configuring IRB and BVI.

Table 7-4 Configuring IRB and BVI

Step Command Description

1 Router(config)# bridge irb Enable IRB. Allows routing of traffic from the
bridged interfaces.
2 Router(config)# interface bvi bridge_group Configure the BVI by assigning the
corresponding bridge group’s number to the
BVI. Each bridge group can only have one
corresponding BVI.
3 Router(config)# bridge bridge_group route Enable a BVI to accept and route routable
protocol packets received from its corresponding bridge
group.
You must issue this command for each protocol
that you want the BVI to route from its
corresponding bridge group to other routed
interfaces.
4 Router(config-if)# ip address Configure protocol addresses on routed
ip_address_mask interfaces. This step shows an example for IP.
5 Router(config)# Optionally, you can configure additional
routing attributes to the BVI.
6 Router# copy running-config startup-config Save your configuration changes to NVRAM.

Table 7-5 shows an example of verifying the IRB configuration.

Table 7-5 Verifying the IRB Configuration

Command Displays
show interfaces bvi interface_name BVI information, such as the BVI MAC address and processing statistics
show interfaces irb BVI information:
• Protocols that this bridged interface can route to the other routed interface
if this packet is routable
• Protocols that this bridged interface bridges
• Entries in the software MAC-address filter

Bridging Configurations 7-5

About Integrated Routing and Bridging

When you have completed the configuration tasks for bridging, see Chapter 8, “EtherChannel
Configurations.”

7-6 Layer 3 Switching Software Feature and Configuration Guide