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16 Managing 802.1Q Groups

This chapter documents User Interface (UI) commands to manage 802.1Q groups. For docu-
mentation on Command Line Interface (CLI) commands to manage 802.1Q groups, see the
Text-Based Configuration CLI Reference Guide.
♦ Important Notes ♦
In Release 4.4 and later, the Omni Switch/Router is
factory-configured to boot up in CLI (Command Line
Interface) mode, rather than in UI (User Interface)
mode. See Chapter 4, “The User Interface,” for docu-
mentation on changing from CLI mode to UI mode.
In Release 4.5 and later, Mammoth-based Ethernet
modules are no longer supported.
802.1Q is an IEEE standard for sending frames through the network tagged with VLAN identifi-
cation. Alcatel has developed its own implementation of VLANs that closely follows the IEEE
standard (and enhances it). However, Alcatel VLANs and 802.1Q VLANs cannot interoperate
without special configuration.
If your network uses 802.1Q tagging, you will need to create 802.1Q groups and specify ports
that will handle 802.1Q traffic. This can be done for 10/100, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ether-
net Kodiak ASIC-based modules. Up to 64 groups can be supported using multiple spanning
tree on an 802.1Q link for Kodiak ASIC-based Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet modules.
For Release 4.4 and later, Kodiak ASIC-based 10/100 Ethernet modules support 802.1Q traffic
over OmniChannel in multiple spanning tree mode. However, you must first create an
OmniChannel before creating 802.1Q groups. See Chapter 15, “Managing Ethernet Modules” for
information about OmniChannel. See Single vs. Multiple Spanning Tree on page 16-4 for infor-
mation on single and multiple spanning tree.
Support for 802.1Q in the Omni Switch/Router allows you to set up port-based groups that
interoperate with 802.1Q-compliant equipment from other networking vendors.
Ports added to an 802.1Q group are done using Ethernet switch services. When using the
service commands to add ports to an 802.1Q group, multiple spanning tree instances on a
single port are supported. See Single vs. Multiple Spanning Tree on page 16-4 for additional
information on the differences between single and multiple spanning tree.
The 802.1Q specification defines trunk and access ports (and links). Trunk links are LAN
segments used for multiplexing VLANs between VLAN bridges. All devices that are directly
connected to a trunk link must be VLAN-aware. Access links are LAN segments used to multi-
plex one or more VLAN-unaware devices into a port of a VLAN bridge. (This also includes a
hybrid with some tagged and some untagged Groups.)
♦ Note ♦
The use of the word trunk in this document should not
be confused with the IEEE use of trunking with link
aggregation (such as OmniChannel and IEEE 802.3ad).
The general meaning of a trunk is an inter-switch link
over which different types of traffic are multiplexed.