How is a frame sent from PCA forwarded to PCC if the MAC address table on switch SW1 is empty?
If the MAC address table on switch SW1 is empty, the switch will use a process called the flooding or broadcast and learn mechanism to forward a frame from PCA to PCC.
When PCA sends a frame to PCC, it doesn’t have the MAC address of PCC in its MAC address table. Therefore, the switch doesn’t have information about which port PCC is connected to.
In this scenario, the switch will flood the frame to all of its ports, except the port from which the frame was received from PCA. This flooding ensures that the frame reaches all devices connected to the switch.
Now, when the frame is received by PCC, PCC will read the destination MAC address from the frame header and compare it with its own MAC address. If the MAC address matches, PCC will process the frame; otherwise, it will ignore the frame.
Additionally, as the frame is received on each port of the switch (except the port it was received from), the switch will learn the source MAC address of the frame and the port from which it was received. It will update its MAC address table with this information for future reference.
This flooding mechanism allows switches to dynamically learn and populate their MAC address tables as frames are sent across the network. Once the switch learns the MAC address of PCC, subsequent frames with the same destination MAC address will be forwarded directly to PCC using the MAC address table.
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