11-1. Broadcast Suppression

• A network protocol can create a large amount of broadcast traffic.

• In Layer 2 networks, broadcasts must be forwarded on all ports except the receiving port; because of this, a large or excessive number of broadcasts can have an impact on network and device performance.

• Broadcast suppression enables you to control how a receiving port handles excessive broadcast traffic.

• By configuring a threshold, a port can be configured to stop flooding broadcasts for a predefined period or until the broadcasts fall below a certain level.

• Suppressing these broadcasts can prevent them from being forwarded out other switch ports and limit the effect they have on the network.

• Suppression of the broadcasts does not have any effect on the multicast or unicast traffic received by the port.

• Broadcast suppression is supported on Catalyst IOS platforms.

• In addition to broadcast suppression, unicast and multicast suppression can also be configured for some platforms.