Vlan - EnGenius EWS Series User Manual

VLAN

A Virtual LAN (VLAN) is a group of ports that form a logical Ethernet segment on a Layer 2 Switch which
provides better administration, security, and management of multicast traffic. A VLAN is a network
topology configured according to a logical scheme rather than a physical layout. When you use a VLAN,
users can be grouped by logical function instead of physical location. All ports that frequently
communicate with each other are assigned to the same VLAN, regardless of where they are physically on
the network. VLANs let you logically segment your network into different broadcast domains so that you
can group ports with related functions into their own separate, logical LAN segments on the same Switch.
This allows broadcast packets to be forwarded only between ports within the VLAN which can avoid
broadcast packets being sent to all the ports on a single Switch. A VLAN also increases network
performance by limiting broadcasts to a smaller and more manageable logical broadcast domain. VLANs
also improve security by limiting traffic to specific broadcast domains.
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