Overview of LAN Emulation

Simple LAN Emulation Network

Physical Network

Logical Network

Figure 14. Physical and Logical Views of a Simple LAN Emulation Network

The network management bene®ts of emulated LANs (ELANs) come from increased ¯exibility in handling moves, adds, and changes. Membership in an ELAN is not based on physical location; instead, logically-related stations are grouped to form an ELAN (stations can also be members of multiple ELANs).

As long as ELAN memberships are retained, no recon®guration is needed when stations move to new physical locations. Similarly, no wiring modi®cations are needed to move stations from one ELAN to another.

LAN Emulation Components

The following components implement an ELAN:

LAN emulation (LE) clients (LECs)

LAN emulation components that represent users of the Emulated LAN.

LE con®guration server (LECS)

A LAN emulation service component that centralizes and disseminates con®guration data.

LE server (LES)

A LAN emulation service component that resolves LAN destinations to ATM addresses.

256MRS V3.2 Software User's Guide

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IBM SC30-3681-08 manual Simple LAN Emulation Network, LAN Emulation Components, Overview of LAN Emulation