MAC classes provide a new functionality to the existing Classifier policy feature. MAC classes allow for the matching on Ethernet header information: source MAC address, destination MAC address, EtherType, CoS, or VLAN. MAC classes open up the ability to match traffic that the existing IPv4 and IPv6 classes were unable to match. After the class is configured the class can be added into a policy and be associated with an action (IE. remark, rate limits or mirroring). MAC classes can be included in QoS and Mirror policies and be applied to port, trunk and VLAN interfaces.

There are some limitations to using MAC classes with the existing IPv4 and IPv6 classes, they cannot be both used in the same policy. However it is possible to have a policy that contains MAC classes applied to a port interface and also have a Policy that contains IPv4 and IPv6 classes applied to a VLAN. The user interface to configure MAC classes will work very similar to the way classes are defined for IP based traffic.

To utilize a MAC class this feature requires the class to be configured, the policy to be configured and the policy to be applied to an interface. This section will describe how to configure each of these items and provide useful example on using this feature.