Introduction to Virtual Wire

System supports VSwitch-based Virtual Wire. With this function enabled and Virtual Wire interface pair configured, two Virtual Wire interfaces form a virtual wire that connects the two subnetworks attaching to Virtual Wire interface pair together. The two connected subnetworks can communicate directly on Layer 2, without any requirement on MAC address learning or other sub network's forwarding. Furthermore, controls of policy rules or other functions are still available when Virtual Wire is used.

Virtual Wire operates in two modes, which are Strict and Non-Strict mode respectively, as detailed below:

Strict Virtual Wire mode: Packets can only be transmitted between Virtual Wire interfaces, and the VSwitch cannot operate in Hybrid mode. Any PC connected to Virtual Wire can neither manage devices nor access Internet over this interface.
Non-Strict Virtual Wire mode: Packets can be transmitted between Virtual Wire interfaces, and the VSwitch also supports data forwarding in Hybrid mode. That is, this mode only restricts Layer 2 packets' transmission between Virtual Wire interfaces, and does not affect Layer 3 packets' forwarding.

The table below lists packet transmission conditions in Strict Virtual Wire and Non-Strict Virtual Wire mode. You can choose an appropriate Virtual Wire mode according to the actual requirement.

Packet	Strict	Non-strict
Egress and ingress are interfaces of one Virtual Wire interface pair	Allow	Allow
Ingress is not Virtual Wire's interface	Deny	Deny
Egress and ingress are interfaces of different Virtual Wire interface pairs	Deny	Deny
Ingress of to-self packet is a Virtual Wire’s interface	Deny	Allow
Ingress is Virtual Wire's interface, and egress is a Layer 3 interface	Deny	Allow

Related Topics:

Configuring a Virtual Wire