[Bridge] mind-boggling questions

["Ireneusz Szcześniak" <irek.szczesniak@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I have a few questions on the Linux bridge, and I would appreciate it 
if someone could answer them.

1. Why does a bridge have a MAC address?  A bridge doesn't need a MAC 
address. I understand that a Linux box might offer more than a regular 
switch, and for that you need a MAC address. But the services should 
be provided by a new tap interface added to the bridge. I believe that 
the bridge should not even be shown by ifconfig.

2. Why does a bridge take the lowest MAC address of the interfaces 
connected to it?

3. When I send broadcast frames to a bridge interface (etherwake -b -i 
br0 00:00:00:00:00:00), the frames are received by the interfaces of 
the bridge.  But when I send the frames to one of the interfaces, they 
are not broadcasted to other interfaces.  I though that the bridge 
interface (br0) behaves the same as an interface added to the bridge, 
but I was mistaken.  What are the differences?


Thanks,
Irek

-- 
Ireneusz (Irek) Szczesniak
http://www.irkos.org