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Dimension ES-3148 User’s Guide
Chapter 8 VLAN 77
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H A P T E R
8
VLAN
The type of screen you see here depends on the VLAN Type you selected in the Switch Setup
screen. This chapter shows you how to configure 802.1Q tagged and port-based VLANs.
8.1 Introduction to IEEE 802.1Q Tagged VLAN
A tagged VLAN uses an explicit tag (VLAN ID) in the MAC header to identify the VLAN
membership of a frame across bridges - they are not confined to the switch on which they were
created. The VLANs can be created statically by hand or dynamically through GVRP. The
VLAN ID associates a frame with a specific VLAN and provides the information that switches
need to process the frame across the network. A tagged frame is four bytes longer than an
untagged frame and contains two bytes of TPID (Tag Protocol Identifier, residing within the
type/length field of the Ethernet frame) and two bytes of TCI (Tag Control Information, starts
after the source address field of the Ethernet frame).
The CFI (Canonical Format Indicator) is a single-bit flag, always set to zero for Ethernet
switches. If a frame received at an Ethernet port has a CFI set to 1, then that frame should not
be forwarded as it is to an untagged port. The remaining twelve bits define the VLAN ID,
giving a possible maximum number of 4,096 (212) VLANs. Note that user priority and VLAN
ID are independent of each other. A frame with VID (VLAN Identifier) of null (0) is called a
priority frame, meaning that only the priority level is significant and the default VID of the
ingress port is given as the VID of the frame. Of the 4096 possible VIDs, a VID of 0 is used to
identify priority frames and value 4095 (FFF) is reserved, so the maximum possible VLAN
configurations are 4,094.
8.1.1 Forwarding Tagged and Untagged Frames
Each port on the switch is capable of passing tagged or untagged frames. To forward a frame
from an 802.1Q VLAN-aware switch to an 802.1Q VLAN-unaware switch, the switch first
decides where to forward the frame and then strips off the VLAN tag. To forward a frame from
an 802.1Q VLAN-unaware switch to an 802.1Q VLAN-aware switch, the switch first decides
where to forward the frame, and then inserts a VLAN tag reflecting the ingress port's default
VID. The default PVID is VLAN 1 for all ports, but this can be changed.
TPID
2 Bytes User Priority
3 Bits CFI
1 Bit VLAN ID
12 bits