Terms you'll need to understand:
Techniques you'll need to master:
There are many definitions for a virtual LAN (or VLAN, for short). A VLAN can be described as a grouping of ports on a switch or a grouping of ports on different switches. It can also be characterized as a group of related users in a data network or as a group of users at the same geographic location (which is the most common). In the simplest terms, a VLAN is a broadcast domain. In a bridged network, all devices are in the same broadcast domain. One of the problems of using bridges for LAN segmentation is that they solve bandwidth problems, but not broadcast problems. Switches, even though they act like bridges, have some additional features that make them more robust in solving your networking problems. The remainder of this chapter focuses on three areas: VLANs, trunking, and the Virtual Trunk Protocol (VTP). All three of these areas play an integral part in the setup of VLANs in your network. |