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#32914
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jeffs7
Participant

With all due respect, I do not see why it is not possible, at least in hardware.

From a networking standpoint, A&H says that ACE is layer 2 Ethernet compliant. This means that frames with layer 2 MAC addresses are sent across that link, which may or may not encapsulate higher layer data (such as IP addresses, port numbers, etc.). From my own investigations with the editor, it would seem that control data, metering data, and other information is transmitted over layer 3 IP packets, which are encapsulated into layer 2 frames and sent over the link. Audio data (I am not positive on this yet, but if you give me a few days to run a test, I can verify) is sent via layer 2 directly.

Frames are identified by their MAC address; at this layer, IP addresses are irrelevant. Network switches make forwarding decisions based on MAC address alone*. This means that any network switch can be inserted into the ACE link and correctly switch frames, so long as every surface has a unique MAC address. Therefore, it would be up to a software implementation to make use of those packets frames. At least in theory.

~Jeff
Cisco CCNA

*Note that layer 3 switches might include features such as static routing and IGMP snooping which also incorporate some IP address-based logic.