Benefits and Restrictions
12-4 VLAN Operation and Network Applications
12.3 BENEFITS AND RESTRICTIONS
The primary benefit of the 802.1Q VLAN technology is that it provides localization of traffic. This
function also offers improvements in security and performance to stations assigned to a VLAN.
While the localization of traffic to VLANs can improve security and performance, it imposes some
restrictions on network devices that participate in the VLAN. Through the use of Filtering
Database IDs (FDB IDs) security can be implemented to enable or prevent users from one or more
VLANs from communicating with each other.
One or more VLANs can be assigned to an FDB ID so that all the users that share a common
FDB ID can communicate with each other regardless of their VLAN affiliation. However, for the
sake of security, the members of one FDB ID cannot communicate with the members of another
FDB ID.
To set up a VLAN, all the network switch devices that are assigned to the VLAN must support the
IEEE 802.1Q specification for VLANs. Before you attempt to implement a VLAN strategy, ensure
that the switches under consideration support the IEEE 802.1Q specification.
12.4 VLAN TERMS
To fully understand the operation and configuration of port based VLANs, it is essential to
understand the definitions of several key terms.
Table 12-1 VLAN Terms and Definitions
VLAN Term Definition
VLAN ID A unique number (between 1 and 4094) that identifies a
particular VLAN. Up to 1000 VLANs can be created on one
SmartSwitch.
VLAN Name A 32-character alphanumeric name associated with a VLAN ID.
The VLAN Name is intended to make user-defined VLANs
easier to identify and remember.
Egress Output direction of data from a network device.
Ingress Incoming direction of data to a network device.