Switching and bridging in Computer Networks - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding Switching and Bridging in Computer Networks

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a small office network. You want to understand how devices communicate within the network using switches and bridges.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple conceptual model that shows how switching and bridging work to connect devices in a network.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of devices with their MAC addresses

Define a switch table to map MAC addresses to ports

Simulate the process of forwarding frames based on MAC addresses

Add a bridging rule to filter traffic between two network segments

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Switches and bridges are essential in local area networks (LANs) to connect devices and control traffic efficiently.

💼 Career

Understanding switching and bridging helps network technicians and engineers design and troubleshoot network connectivity and performance.

1

Create a list of devices with MAC addresses

Create a list called devices containing these exact entries as dictionaries with keys 'name' and 'mac': {'name': 'PC1', 'mac': '00:11:22:33:44:55'}, {'name': 'PC2', 'mac': '66:77:88:99:AA:BB'}, and {'name': 'Printer', 'mac': 'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11'}.

Computer Networks

# Create the list of devices with their MAC addresses
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary should have keys 'name' and 'mac' with the exact values given.

2

Define a switch table mapping MAC addresses to ports

Create a dictionary called switch_table that maps MAC addresses to port numbers as follows: '00:11:22:33:44:55' to 1, '66:77:88:99:AA:BB' to 2, and 'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11' to 3.

Computer Networks

devices = [
    {'name': 'PC1', 'mac': '00:11:22:33:44:55'},
    {'name': 'PC2', 'mac': '66:77:88:99:AA:BB'},
    {'name': 'Printer', 'mac': 'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11'}
]
# Create the switch_table dictionary mapping MAC addresses to ports
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary with MAC addresses as keys and port numbers as values.

3

Simulate forwarding frames based on MAC addresses

Write a function called forward_frame that takes a dest_mac address and returns the port number from switch_table if the MAC address exists; otherwise, return 'Flood to all ports'.

Computer Networks

devices = [
    {'name': 'PC1', 'mac': '00:11:22:33:44:55'},
    {'name': 'PC2', 'mac': '66:77:88:99:AA:BB'},
    {'name': 'Printer', 'mac': 'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11'}
]
switch_table = {
    '00:11:22:33:44:55': 1,
    '66:77:88:99:AA:BB': 2,
    'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11': 3
}
# Define the function forward_frame(dest_mac) below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Check if dest_mac is in switch_table. Return the port if found, else return the string 'Flood to all ports'.

4

Add a bridging rule to filter traffic between two segments

Create a list called segment1_macs containing '00:11:22:33:44:55' and '66:77:88:99:AA:BB'. Then, write a function called bridge_filter that takes src_mac and dest_mac and returns true if both MAC addresses are in segment1_macs, otherwise false.

Computer Networks

devices = [
    {'name': 'PC1', 'mac': '00:11:22:33:44:55'},
    {'name': 'PC2', 'mac': '66:77:88:99:AA:BB'},
    {'name': 'Printer', 'mac': 'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11'}
]
switch_table = {
    '00:11:22:33:44:55': 1,
    '66:77:88:99:AA:BB': 2,
    'CC:DD:EE:FF:00:11': 3
}
def forward_frame(dest_mac):
    if dest_mac in switch_table:
        return switch_table[dest_mac]
    else:
        return 'Flood to all ports'

# Create segment1_macs list and bridge_filter function below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Create the list with the two MAC addresses. The function should return true only if both source and destination MACs are in that list.