ZyXEL Communications Dimension ES-3148, User Manual, Page: 35 / 282

Dimension ES-3148 User’s Guide
Chapter 1 Getting to Know Your Switch 33
Switching to higher-speed LANs such as ATM (Asynchronous Transmission Mode) is not
feasible for most people due to the expense of replacing all existing Ethernet cables and
adapter cards, restructuring your network and complex maintenance. The switch can provide
the same bandwidth as ATM at much lower cost while still being able to use existing adapters
and switches. Moreover, the current LAN structure can be retained as all ports can freely
communicate with each other.
Figure 3 High Performance Switched Application
1.4.4 IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Application Examples
This section shows a workgroup and a shared server example using 802.1Q tagged VLANs.
A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) allows a physical network to be partitioned into
multiple logical networks. Stations on a logical network belong to one group. A station can
belong to more than one group. With VLAN, a station cannot directly talk to or hear from
stations that are not in the same group(s) unless such traffic first goes through a router.
For more information on VLANs, refer to Chapter 8 on page 77 .
1.4.4.1 Tag-based VLAN Example
Ports in the same VLAN group share the same frame broadcast domain thus increase network
performance through reduced broadcast traffic. VLAN groups can be modified at any time by
adding, moving or changing ports without any re-cabling.