If a packet matches an ACE in an ACL, what occurs with the subsequent entries?

When a packet matches an Access Control Entry (ACE) in an Access Control List (ACL), the behavior of the ACL is to take action based on that match and then immediately conclude processing for that packet. This means that subsequent entries in the ACL are skipped entirely.

In ACLs, the entries are evaluated in a top-down approach: the system checks each ACE one by one in the order they are configured. Upon matching an ACE, the specified action (allow, deny, etc.) is enforced, and there is no need to check the remaining entries because a definitive action has already been decided. This design ensures efficiency in ACL processing, as it prevents unnecessary evaluations after a decision has been made.

This process of skipping subsequent entries avoids additional overhead and helps maintain the performance of the network devices. Thus, the correct outcome after an ACE match is that the subsequent entries do not get evaluated or processed.