Intel® Ethernet Controller E810 eSwitch Switchdev Mode
Technology and Configuration Guide
Bridge-Based Slow Data Path
A bridge-based slow data path is enabled by adding all the PR netdevs (VF_PR) to a Linux bridge. The bridge learns the MAC Addresses on the ports from the packets received through the exception path and maintains a table of MAC Address-to-port combinations. This table is used to forward the packets to the right port based on the DMAC, or flood to all the other ports if the DMAC is a BUM (broadcast, multicast, or unknown unicast) address. This is an example of classical L2 switching.