SMC Networks 8748L2 Management Manual page 32

I
NTRODUCTION
Virtual LANs – The switch supports up to 255 VLANs. A Virtual LAN is
a collection of network nodes that share the same collision domain
regardless of their physical location or connection point in the network.
The switch supports tagged VLANs based on the IEEE 802.1Q standard.
Members of VLAN groups can be dynamically learned via GVRP, or ports
can be manually assigned to a specific set of VLANs. This allows the
switch to restrict traffic to the VLAN groups to which a user has been
assigned. By segmenting your network into VLANs, you can:
• Eliminate broadcast storms which severely degrade performance in a
flat network.
• Simplify network management for node changes/moves by remotely
configuring VLAN membership for any port, rather than having to
manually change the network connection.
• Provide data security by restricting all traffic to the originating VLAN.
• Use private VLANs to restrict traffic to pass only between data ports
and the uplink ports, thereby isolating adjacent ports within the same
VLAN, and allowing you to limit the total number of VLANs that need
to be configured.
Traffic Prioritization – This switch prioritizes each packet based on the
required level of service, using eight priority queues with strict or Weighted
Round Robin Queuing. It uses IEEE 802.1p and 802.1Q tags to prioritize
incoming traffic based on input from the end-station application. These
functions can be used to provide independent priorities for delay-sensitive
data and best-effort data.
This switch also supports several common methods of prioritizing layer 3/
4 traffic to meet application requirements. Traffic can be prioritized based
on the DSCP field in the IP frame. When these services are enabled, the
priorities are mapped to a Class of Service value by the switch, and the
traffic then sent to the corresponding output queue.
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