Pre-populated FIB

An Ethernet network usually learns MAC addresses as frames are sent through the switch. This process is called reverse learning and is accomplished through broadcast.

SPBM does not allow any broadcast flooding of traffic on the B-VLAN in order to prevent looping accomplished through flooding packets with unknown destinations (although multicast traffic is supported). As such, MAC addresses must be distributed within SPBM. This is accomplished by carrying the necessary B-MAC addresses inside the IS-IS link state database. To that end, SPBM supports an IS-IS TLV that advertises the I-SID and B-MAC information across the network. This functionality enables the powerful end-point-provisioning of SPBM.

These Backbone MAC addresses are populated into the SPBM VLAN Forwarding Information Base (FIB) to maximize efficiency and to allow Reverse Path Forwarding Check (RPFC) to operate properly.