Table of Contents
Advertisement
The type of VLAN depends upon one criterion: how a received frame is classified as
belonging to a particular VLAN. VLANs can be categorized into the following types:
•
Port-based
•
MAC address-based
•
Protocol-based
•
Subnet-based
•
Policy-based
Detailed information about these types of VLANs is beyond the scope of this manual.
Each type of VLAN is briefly explained in the following subsections.
Port-Based VLANs
Ports of Layer-2 devices (switches, bridges) are assigned to VLANs. Any traffic received
by a port is classified as belonging to the VLAN to which the port belongs. For example, if
ports 1, 2, and 3 belong to the VLAN named Marketing, then a broadcast frame received by
port 1 is transmitted on ports 2 and 3. It is not transmitted on any other port.
MAC Address-Based VLANs
In this type of VLAN, each switch (or a central VLAN information server) keeps track of
all MAC addresses in a network and maps them to VLANs based on information
configured by the network administrator. When a frame is received at a port, its
destination MAC address is looked up in the VLAN database. The VLAN database
returns the name of the VLAN to which this frame belongs.
This type of VLAN is powerful in the sense that network devices such as printers and
workstations can be moved anywhere in the network without the need for network
reconfiguration. However, the administration is intensive because all MAC addresses on
the network need to be known and configured.
Protocol-Based VLANs
Protocol-based VLANs divide the physical network into logical VLANs based on
protocol. When a frame is received at a port, its VLAN is determined by the protocol of
the packet. For example, there could be separate VLANs for IP and AppleTalk. An IP
broadcast frame will only be sent to all ports in the IP VLAN.
Internet Appliance User Reference Manual
Chapter 2: Bridging Configuration Guide
37
Advertisement
Table of Contents
