User's Manual

PPLICATION

XAMPLES

2-5

Making VLAN Connections

These switches support VLANs which can be used to organize any group

of network nodes into separate broadcast domains. VLANs confine

broadcast traffic to the originating group, and can eliminate broadcast

storms in large networks. This provides a more secure and cleaner network

environment.

VLANs can be based on untagged port groups, or traffic can be explicitly

tagged to identify the VLAN group to which it belongs. Untagged VLANs

can be used for small networks attached to a single switch. However,

tagged VLANs should be used for larger networks, and all the VLANs

assigned to the inter-switch links.

These switches also support multiple spanning trees which allow VLAN

groups to maintain a more stable path between all VLAN members. This

can reduce the overall amount of protocol traffic crossing the network, and

provide a shorter reconfiguration time if any link in the spanning tree fails.

Figure 2-4 Making VLAN Connections

Note: When connecting to a switch that does not support IEEE 802.1Q

VLAN tags, use untagged ports.

Finance

Marketing

VLAN 3

Untagged Ports

VLAN

unaware

switch

Tagged Port

VLAN

aware

switch

Tagged

Ports

Finance

VLAN 3

R&D

VLAN 2

Testing

R&D

Testing

VLAN 1

VLAN 2

VLAN 4

VLAN 1

8.7A

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