MAC notification

The switches track clients on a network by storing MAC addresses in the Ethernet switching table on the switch. When switches learn or unlearn a MAC address, SNMP notifications can be sent to the network management system at regular intervals to record the addition or removal of the MAC address. This process is known as MAC notification. The MAC Notification MIB controls MAC notification for the network management system. The MAC notification interval defines how often these SNMP notifications are sent to the network management system. The MAC notification interval works by tracking all MAC address additions or removals on the switch over a period of time and then sending all tracked MAC address additions or removals to the network management server at the end of the interval. Enabling MAC notification allows you to monitor the addition and removal of MAC addresses from the Ethernet switching table remotely using a network management system. The advantage of setting a high MAC notification interval is that the amount of network traffic is reduced because updates are sent less frequently. The advantage of setting a low MAC notification interval is that the network management system is better synchronized with the switch.