Broadcast Radiation - Prevention

Prevention

• Switching loops are largely addressed with spanning tree protocol. In Metro Ethernet rings it is prevented using the Ethernet Automatic Protection System (EAPS) protocol.

• Filtering broadcasts by Layer 3 equipment, typically routers (and even switches that employ advanced filtering called brouters).

• Physically segmenting the broadcast domains using routers at Layer 3 (or logically with VLANs at Layer 2) in the same fashion switches decrease the size of collision domains at Layer 2.

• Routers and firewalls can be configured to detect and prevent maliciously inducted broadcast storms (e.g. due to a magnification attack).

• Broadcast storm control is a feature of many managed switches in which the switch intentionally ceases to forward all broadcast traffic if the bandwidth consumed by incoming broadcast frames exceeds a designated threshold. Although this does not resolve the root broadcast radiation problem, it limits broadcast radiation intensity and thus allows a network manager to communicate with network equipment to diagnose and resolve the root problem.