Re: Home stretch on new network - if_bridge looking better

[Matthew Dillon <dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

:
:Great news!
:
:Is there any chance to support more features in the bridge code? RSTP,
:span port , filtering based on mac address ?.
:
:Godot

    RSTP would be doable as a GSOC project, I think it would be
    very easy to implement.  Perhaps almost too easy but if someone
    were to do it I would require significant testing to make sure the
    protocol operates properly.  I have to move onto other things myself.

    (RSTP is STP with a faster recovery time in case of link failure.
    STP takes about 30 seconds to transition to a new topology while
    RSTP takes about 10 seconds).

    The span port is theoretically operational but it has NOT been tested
    in any way, so something might blow if you try to use it.  This would
    be more of a bug-fix type of thing, not worthy of a GSOC project.

    MAC based filtering would be worthy of a GSOC project.  We don't have
    it now but IPFW at least already has hooks for ethernet-level
    firewalling.  Doing it w/PF would be a lot more difficult as PF is
    designed as a routed packet filter (routing vs switching).

						-Matt