MikroTik Bridging Fundamentals: Optimizing Your Network Connectivity

welcome back to our microtic tutorial series have you ever wondered how networks can be connected together using Bridges or how a switch differs from a router in your network maybe you're curious about the hidden features inside your microtic device can supercharge your networks's efficiency well you're about to discover the answers to these questions and Reveal Your devic's capabilities because today we're exploring the fascinating world of microtic bridging We Begin by understanding that Bridges operate at layer 2 of The OSI model meaning they forward packets based on the Mac addresses of the source and destination hosts these transparent devices typically connect Network segments within the same broadcast domain to grasp these Concepts consider a traditional land setup with an ethernet hub where all hosts share the same collision domain this means that every packet sent by one host is received by all all other hosts creating unnecessary traffic and congestion moreover if Two Hosts try to send packets at the same time a collision occurs resulting in packet loss and retransmission however by introducing a bridge we can segment this collision domain enhancing Network performance and reducing unnecessary traffic a bridge learns the Mac addresses of the hosts connected to its ports and builds a MAC address table then it forwards packets only to the port where the destination host is connected this way a bridge reduces the number of packets that reach each host and also prevents collisions from occurring microtic router OS takes bridging one step further by implementing a software bridge that can incorporate ethernet Wireless SFP interfaces and even tunnels as previously mentioned in our videos by default on microtic router boards all ports except ether 1 are usually grouped into a single bridge for demonstration purposes we will begin from scratch to create a bridge in router OS go to bridge in the main menu and click on the plus sign to add a new bridge give your bridge and name and click okay the MAC address for the newly created Bridge interface will be randomly generated by router OS if you create multiple Bridge interfaces there is the potential risk that two Bridges will have the same Mac address therefore you may overwrite the automatically generated Mac with a static one next you need to add the interfaces that you want to include in the bridge go to the ports Tab and click on the plus sign to add a new Port select the interface from the drop-down menu and click okay repeat this step for each interface you want to add to the bridge once you have added the ports you can see the bridge status by going to the bridge tab you can also see the port status by going to the ports tab now let's take a look at the differences between routers and switches just like the network Bridges switches also operate at layer two of The OSI model and forward packets based on the Mac addresses of the source and destination hosts each switch Port acts as an individual Bridge creating separate Collision domains for connected devices which enhances Network efficiency by preventing packet collisions switches are usually used to connect different segments of the same Network that use the same protocol such as Ethernet or VLAN switches have less processing power and memory than routers but they also consume less energy and have higher throughput routers are devices that operate at layer three of the OSI model meaning that they forward packets based on the IP addresses of the source and destination hosts and are used to connect different networks we will explore routing in the upcoming tutorial routers have more processing power and memory than switches but they also consume more energy and have lower throughput microtic devices can act as both routers and switches depending on the configuration and features that you enable however not all microtic devices have the same Hardware capabilities and performance therefore an understanding of block diagrams is crucial when choosing the right device a block diagram is a graphical representation of the internal structure and connections of a device it shows the component components and interfaces of the device such as CPU Ram switch chip ethernet ports wireless cards and so on it also shows how these components and interfaces are connected to each other and how the traffic flows between them by looking at the block diagram of a device you can determine its capabilities and limitations in earlier router OS versions microtic routers handled all bridging with the CPU leading to high load and reduce throughput to address this micro used a Master Slave Port configuration offloading some tasks to the switch chip and bypassing the CPU while this improved performance it also introduced complexity and feature limitations recent router OS updates have streamlined this process by replacing the master slave setup with Hardware offloading this allows the switch chip to manage essential bridging functions reducing CPU strain and enhancing overall throughput in the microtic interface navigate to the bridge menu and go to the ports tab select a port and check if Hardware offload is turned on this indicates that the port is taking advantage of the switch Chip's capabilities you can verify if Hardware offloading is working by looking at the flag column in the ports tab for the bridge it should indicate H for the ports where offloading is active disabling Hardware offloading is necessary for utilizing certain Network functions that the switch chip can't handle transferring the processing to the CPU different switch chips support different features with Hardware offloading it's crucial to know which switch chip your routerboard uses to understand the capabilities and limitations of your device to identify the switch chip on your microtic device you can navigate to the switch section in the menu here you can see the specific model of the switch chip used in your device once you have this information you can refer to the capabilities table for your switch chip Hardware offloading is typically enabled by default but can be turned off when needed this includes implementing Bridge filter rules which provide granular control over the traffic passing through a bridge these rules can filter based on Mac addresses IP addresses protocols and ports to enable these rules Hardware offload must be disabled on the affected Bridge ports as packet inspection and matching required by the rules exceed the switch chips capabilities for the application of Ip firewall rules which offer Advanced filtering capabilities Hardware offload should also be disabled by enabling the use IP firewall option within the bridge settings you can apply firewall rules to traffic passing through specific Bridge ports details on firewall rules will be explored in upcoming tutorial packet sniffer and torch are analytical tools used for Network troubleshooting and monitoring they provide insights into the traffic passing through your network allowing you to capture and analyze packets to effectively capture this traffic the CPU needs to process the packets which requires disabling Hardware offloading their usage and benefits will be covered in dedicated tutorials keep in mind that when Hardware offloading is disabled the CPU will take over these tasks although this allows for a broader range of functions it also means increased CPU load which could affect the router's performance therefore deactivating Hardware offloading should be done carefully and only when necessary and the CPU load and usage should be monitored and optimized remember mastering micronic Bridges can significantly improve your network performance and management we hope you have enjoyed this video and learned something new thank you for watching and see you in the next video

Channel: Network Wander

Views: 2,288

Keywords: MikroTik, MikroTik RouterBOARD, Bridging, RouterOS, Network Tutorial, Networking Basics, MTCNA, Network Management, MikroTik Tutorial, Network Configuration, RouterOS Bridging, Hardware Offload, Network Optimization, Network Performance, MikroTik Configuration, Learning Networking

Id: M4venU7CfKc

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2024