SMC Networks TigerSwitch 100, Management Manual

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C
ONFIGURING THE
S
WITCH
2-62
An IEEE 802.1Q VLAN is a group of ports that can be located anywhere
in the network, but communicate as though they belong to the same
physical segment.
VLANs help to simplify network management by allowing you to move
devices to a new VLAN without having to change any physical
connections. VLANs can be easily organized to reflect departmental
groups (such as Marketing or R&D), usage groups (such as e-mail), or
multicast groups (used for multimedia applications such as
videoconferencing).
VLANs provide greater network efficiency by reducing broadcast traffic,
and allow you to make network changes without having to update IP
addresses or IP subnets. VLANs inherently provide a high level of network
security since traffic must pass through a configured Layer 3 link to reach a
different VLAN.
• Up to 255 VLANs based on the IEEE 802.1Q standard
• Distributed VLAN learning across multiple switches using explicit or
implicit tagging and GVRP protocol
• Port overlapping, allowing a port to participate in multiple VLANs
• End stations can belong to multiple VLANs
• Passing traffic between VLAN-aware and VLAN-unaware devices
• Priority tagging
Assigning Ports to VLANs
Before enabling VLANs for the switch, you must first assign each port to
the VLAN group(s) in which it will participate. By default all ports are
assigned to VLAN 1 as untagged ports. Add a port as a tagged port if you
want it to carry traffic for one or more VLANs, and any intermediate
network devices or the host at the other end of the connection supports
VLANs. Then assign ports on the other VLAN-aware network devices