Brocade Communications Systems Brocate Ethernet Access Switch 6910 - Manual (Page 769)

Brocade 6910 Ethernet Access Switch Configuration Guide 719
53-1002581-01
Chapter
34
VLAN Configuration
In this chapter
This chapter includes the following topics:
• IEEE 802.1Q VLANs – Configures static and dynamic VLANs.
• IEEE 802.1Q Tunneling – Configures QinQ tunneling to maintain customer-specific VLAN and
Layer 2 protocol configurations across a service provider network, even when different
customers use the same internal VLAN IDs.
• Protocol VLANs – Configures VLAN groups based on specified protocols.
• IP Subnet VLANs – Maps untagged ingress frames to a specified VLAN if the source address is
found in the IP subnet-to-VLAN mapping table.
• MAC-based VLANs – Maps untagged ingress frames to a specified VLAN if the source MAC
address is found in the IP MAC address-to-VLAN mapping table.
• VLAN Mirroring – Mirrors traffic from one or more source VLANs to a target port.
• VLAN Translation – Maps VLAN IDs between the customer and the service provider.
IEEE 802.1Q VLANs
In large networks, switches are used to isolate broadcast traffic for each subnet into separate
domains. This switch provides the service at Layer 2 by using VLANs to organize any group of
network nodes into separate broadcast domains. VLANs confine broadcast traffic to the originating
group, and can eliminate broadcast storms in large networks. This also provides a more secure and
cleaner network environment.
An IEEE 802.1Q VLAN is a group of ports that can be located anywhere in the network, but
communicate as though they belong to the same physical segment.
VLANs help to simplify network management by allowing you to move devices to a new VLAN
without having to change any physical connections. VLANs can be easily organized to reflect
departmental groups (such as Marketing or R&D), usage groups (such as e-mail), or multicast
groups (used for multimedia applications such as video conferencing).
VLANs provide greater network efficiency by reducing broadcast traffic, and allow you to make
network changes without having to update IP addresses or IP subnets. VLANs inherently provide a
high level of network security since traffic must pass through a configured Layer 3 link to reach a
different VLAN.
This switch supports the following VLAN features:
• Up to 4093 VLANs based on the IEEE 802.1Q standard
• Distributed VLAN learning across multiple switches using explicit or implicit tagging and GVRP
protocol
• Port overlapping, allowing a port to participate in multiple VLANs