SMC Networks TigerSwitch SMC6948L2, Management Manual

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4-3
The following figure gives an illustration of how the Spanning Tree
Algorithm assigns bridging device ports.
Virtual LANs
Switches do not inherently support broadcast domains, which can
lead to broadcast storms in large networks that handle a lot of IPX
or NetBeui traffic. In conventional networks with routers,
broadcast traffic is split up into physically separate domains to
confine broadcast traffic to the originating group and provide a
much cleaner network environment. This switch creates segregated
broadcast domains based on easily configurable VLANs, these
VLANs are then linked, as required, using a router or Layer 3
switch.
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 video conferencing).