Ieee 802.1Q Vlans - D-Link DGS-3700 Series User Manual

DGS-3700-12/DGS-3700-12G Series Layer 2 Gigabit Ethernet Switch User Manual

IEEE 802.1Q VLANs

Some relevant terms:
Tagging – The act of putting 802.1Q VLAN information into the header of a packet.
Untagging – The act of stripping 802.1Q VLAN information out of the packet header.
Ingress port – A port on a switch where packets are flowing into the Switch and VLAN decisions must be
made.
Egress port – A port on a switch where packets are flowing out of the Switch, either to another switch or to an
end station, and tagging decisions must be made.
IEEE 802.1Q (tagged) VLANs are implemented on the Switch. 802.1Q VLANs require tagging, which enables them to
span the entire network (assuming all switches on the network are IEEE 802.1Q-compliant). VLANs allow a network to
be segmented in order to reduce the size of broadcast domains. All packets entering a VLAN will only be forwarded to
the stations (over IEEE 802.1Q enabled switches) that are members of that VLAN, and this includes broadcast,
multicast and unicast packets from unknown sources.
VLANs can also provide a level of security to your network. IEEE 802.1Q VLANs will only deliver packets between
stations that are members of the VLAN.
Any port can be configured as either tagging or untagging. The untagging feature of IEEE 802.1Q VLANs allows
VLANs to work with legacy switches that don't recognize VLAN tags in packet headers. The tagging feature allows
VLANs to span multiple 802.1Q-compliant switches through a single physical connection and allows Spanning Tree to
be enabled on all ports and work normally.
The IEEE 802.1Q standard restricts the forwarding of untagged packets to the VLAN of which the receiving port is a
member.
The main characteristics of IEEE 802.1Q are as follows:
Assigns packets to VLANs by filtering.
Assumes the presence of a single global spanning
tree.
Uses an explicit tagging scheme with one-level
tagging.
802.1Q VLAN Packet Forwarding
Packet forwarding decisions are made based upon the
following three types of rules:
Ingress rules – rules relevant to the classification of
received frames belonging to a VLAN.
Forwarding rules between ports - decides whether to
filter or forward the packet.
Egress rules – determines if the packet must be sent
tagged or untagged.
Figure 3 - 2 IEEE 802.1Q Packet Forwarding
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