ZyXEL Communications P870HNU-51B User Manual page 112

Chapter 5 WAN Setup
the external host's IP address and port. So in the example, only 3, C is allowed to send packets to
2, B and only 4, D is allowed to send packets to 2, M.
Figure 34 Symmetric NAT
3, C
2, B
4, D
1, A 2, M
4, E
5, B
Introduction to VLANs
A Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) allows a physical network to be partitioned into multiple logical
networks. Devices on a logical network belong to one group. A device can belong to more than one
group. With VLAN, a device cannot directly talk to or hear from devices that are not in the same
group(s); the traffic must first go through a router.
In Multi-Tenant Unit (MTU) applications, VLAN is vital in providing isolation and security among the
subscribers. When properly configured, VLAN prevents one subscriber from accessing the network
resources of another on the same LAN, thus a user will not see the printers and hard disks of
another user in the same building.
VLAN also increases network performance by limiting broadcasts to a smaller and more
manageable logical broadcast domain. In traditional switched environments, all broadcast packets
go to each and every individual port. With VLAN, all broadcasts are confined to a specific broadcast
domain.
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
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P-870HNU-51b User's Guide