ZyXEL Communications NVG2053 User Manual page 91

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
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.
TPID User Priority
2 Bytes 3 Bits
Multicast
IP packets are transmitted in either one of two ways - Unicast (1 sender - 1
recipient) or Broadcast (1 sender - everybody on the network). Multicast delivers
IP packets to a group of hosts on the network - not everybody and not just 1.
Internet Group Multicast Protocol (IGMP) is a network-layer protocol used to
establish membership in a Multicast group - it is not used to carry user data. IGMP
version 2 (RFC 2236) is an improvement over version 1 (RFC 1112) but IGMP
version 1 is still in wide use. If you would like to read more detailed information
about interoperability between IGMP version 2 and version 1, please see sections
4 and 5 of RFC 2236. The class D IP address is used to identify host groups and
can be in the range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. The address 224.0.0.0 is not
assigned to any group and is used by IP multicast computers. The address
224.0.0.1 is used for query messages and is assigned to the permanent group of
all IP hosts (including gateways). All hosts must join the 224.0.0.1 group in order
to participate in IGMP. The address 224.0.0.2 is assigned to the multicast routers
group.
NVG2053 User's Guide
CFI VLAN ID
1 Bit 12 Bits
Chapter 7 Broadband
91