Network Warrior

Chapter 5. Trunking

A trunk, using Cisco's terminology, is an interface or link that can carry frames for multiple VLANs at once. As we saw in the previous chapter, a trunk can be used to connect two switches so that devices in VLANs on one switch can communicate with devices in the same VLANs on another switch. Unless there is only one VLAN to be connected, switches are connected at layer two using trunks. Figure 5-1 shows two switches connected with a trunk.

Figure 5-1. A trunk connecting two switches

Trunking is generally related to switches, but a router can connect to a trunk as well. The router on a stick scenario described in Chapter 4 requires a router to communicate with a trunk port on a switch.

How Trunks Work

Figure 5-2 shows a visual representation of a trunk. VLANs 10, 20, 30, and 40 exist on both sides of the trunk. Any traffic from VLAN 10 on Switch-1 that is destined for VLAN 10 on Switch-2 must traverse the trunk. (Of course, the reverse is true as well.)

Figure 5-2. Visual representation of a trunk

For the remote switch to know how to forward the frame, the frame must contain a reference to the VLAN to which it belongs. IP packets have no concept of VLANs, though, and nor does TCP, UDP, ICMP, or any other protocol above layer two. Remember that a VLAN is a layer-two ...