D-Link DGS-1224T [8/59] Ieee 802 q vlan

Switching Technology

Another approach to pushing beyond the limits of Ethernet technology

is the development of switching technology. A switch bridges

Ethernet packets at the MAC address level of the Ethernet protocol

transmitting among connected Ethernet or Fast Ethernet LAN

segments.

Switching is a cost-effective way of increasing the total network

capacity available to users on a local area network. A switch increases

capacity and decreases network loading by dividing a local area

network into different segments, which don’t compete with each other

for network transmission capacity.

The switch acts as a high-speed selective bridge between the

individual segments. The switch, without interfering with any other

segments, automatically forwards traffic that needs to go from one

segment to another. By doing this the total network capacity is

multiplied, while still maintaining the same network cabling and

adapter cards.

IEEE 802.1Q VLAN

A Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) is a group of end-stations that

are not constrained by their physical location and can communicate as

if located on a common broadcast domain, or a LAN. The primary

utility of using VLAN is to reduce latency and need for routers, in

favor of using faster switching technologies instead. The IEEE 802.1Q

specification provides a standard for tagging Ethernet frames with

VLAN membership information. The 802.1Q standard is intended to

address the problem of how to break large networks into smaller parts