Packet Guide to Routing and Switching

Chapter 4. VLANs and Trunking

The move from hubs (shared networks) to switched networks was a big improvement. Control over collisions, increased throughput, and the additional features offered by switches all provide ample incentive to upgrade infrastructure. But Layer 2 switched topologies are not without their difficulties. Extensive flat topologies can create congested broadcast domains and can involve compromises with security, redundancy, and load balancing. These issues can be mitigated through the use of virtual local area networks, or VLANs. This chapter provides the structure and operation of VLANs as standardized in IEEE 802.1Q. This discussion will include trunking methods used for interconnecting devices on VLANs.

Problem: Big Broadcast Domains

With any single shared media LAN segment, transmissions propagate through the entire segment. As traffic activity increases, more collisions occur and transmitting nodes must back off and wait before attempting the transmission again. While the collision is cleared, other nodes must also wait, further increasing congestion on the LAN segment.

The left side of Figure 4-1 depicts a small network in which PC 2 and PC 4 attempt transmissions at the same time. The frames propagate away from the computers, eventually colliding with each other somewhere in between the two nodes as shown on the right. The increased voltage and power then propagate away from the scene of the collision. Note that the collision does not continue past the switches ...