Consider an institutional LAN shown in the figure below that

Consider an institutional LAN shown in the figure below, that is composed of five hosts (A, B, C, D, and E) and two transparent switches (Switch 1 and Switch Assume that five frames are exchanged between the hosts as follows: A sends to B, D sends to E, E sends to C, B sends to A, and C sends to E, Show the detailed learning process and contents of switch tables of each of the two switches in each step of the process.

Solution

Learning process:

A switch begins learning the local MAC addresses as soon as it is connected to other devices or to a network. This learning capability makes switches easy to use on a network.

The initial communication to a switch is an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request. The ARP request contains the sender’s MAC address, and the switch adds that address to its lookup table. The ARP Response contains the MAC address of the intended target. The ARP response also updates the switch’s lookup table.