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====== Mikrotik Switch Ports vs. Bridge ======

FIXME need test

===== Faster Packet Processing =====

You may get significantly faster packet processing and lower CPU utilization by removing ports from a bridge, where possible, to add them to a switch group.

**When router ports are bridged, all packets going through these interface are processed using the router's CPU**.  However, **if the ports are in the same switch group, the special switch chip processes those packets, decreasing load on CPU**.

===== Example =====

So, in the case of an RB2011 with two switches and ten Ethernet ports, you could:

  * make ''ether1-gateway'' the Internet (WAN) gateway
  * make ''ether2-master'' to be a 'master' port for ''ether3'' through ''ether5''
  * make ''ether6-master'' the master for ''ether7'' through ''ether10''

:!: Don't forget that before assigning master port you must remove them from any bridge.

<file>
/interface
  set ether1 name=ether1-gateway
  set ether2 name=ether2-master
  set ether3 name=ether3-slave
  set ether4 name=ether4-slave
  set ether5 name=ether5-slave
  set ether6 name=ether6-master
  set ether7 name=ether7-slave
  set ether8 name=ether8-slave
  set ether9 name=ether9-slave
  set ether10 name=ether10-slave

/interface ethernet
  set ether1 master-port=none
  set ether2 master-port=none
  set ether3 master-port=ether2
  set ether4 master-port=ether2
  set ether5 master-port=ether2
  set ether6 master-port=none
  set ether7 master-port=ether6
  set ether8 master-port=ether6
  set ether9 master-port=ether6
  set ether10 master-port=ether6
</file>

After doing that you'll have a WAN (gateway) port plus two separate and independent switch groups.  Assuming you want them to be connected (LAN bridge), there are two options:

  - Use a software bridge
    * Perhaps ''sfp1'' + ''ether2-master'' + ''ether6-master''
  - Connect them using a cable
    * Wastes physical ports

===== Software (CPU) bridging =====

In this case, traffic between switch groups ''switch1'' and ''switch2'' will be processed using the CPU, so any packet going from any interface in group 1 to group 2, or vice versa, will be processed using CPU.

<file>
/interface bridge
  add name=bridge-local
  port add interface=ether2 bridge=bridge-local
  port add interface=ether6 bridge=bridge-local
  port add interface=sfp1 bridge=bridge-local
</file>

<note>Don't forget to assign an IP address to the bridge and, if you're using DHCP server on Mikrotik, change its interface to ''bridge-local'' as well.</note>

<file>
/ip address add interface=bridge-local address=192.168.1.1/24
/ip dhcp-server add interface=bridge-local address-pool=[name of your address pool]
</file>

===== Patch Cord =====

While rarely done, you //can// just connect any port from group 1 (ether2-5) to any port in group 2 (ether6-10).

Generally, we suggest using the first option (bridging).
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