Why MLS?
The first Cisco switches did not have any Layer 3 routing capability. They merely switched frames at Layer 2 between hosts on the same VLAN. All inter-VLAN switching was forwarded to the router. The switch was many times faster in switching packets than the router. A router had greater latency when it had to forward packets at Layer 3. To get around this problem, as mentioned in earlier chapters, VLANs were extended throughout the LAN campus, minimizing the role of routers in the LAN network.
The actual connection between the switch and the router came in two forms. The first was one physical link per VLAN that was configured on the switch. The second method involved one physical cable between the switch and router with trunking enabled. ...
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