Vlan; Chapter 8 Vlan; Overview; What You Need To Know - ZyXEL Communications GS1200 SERIES User Manual

8.1 Overview

This chapter shows you how to configure 802.1Q tagged and port-based VLANs.

8.1.1 What You Need to Know

Read this section to know more about VLAN and how to configure the screens.
8.1.1.1 IEEE 802.1Q Tagged VLANs
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
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.
C
CFI VLAN ID
1 Bit 12 bits
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H A PT ER
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VLAN