V

IRTUAL

LAN

S

4-3

The following figure gives an illustration of how the Spanning Tree
Algorithm assigns bridging device ports.
Virtual LANs
Switches do not inherently support broadcast domains, which can lead to
broadcast storms in large networks that handle a lot of IPX or NetBeui
traffic. In conventional networks with routers, broadcast traffic is split up
into physically separate domains to confine broadcast traffic to the
originating group and provide a much cleaner network environment. This
switch creates segregated broadcast domains based on easily configurable
VLANs, these are then linked, as required, via a router or Layer 3 switch.
An IEEE 802.1Q VLAN is a group of ports that can be located anywhere
in the network, but communicate as though they belong to the same
physical segment. VLANs help to simplify network management by
allowing you to move devices to a new VLAN without having to change
any physical connections. VLANs can be easily organized to reflect
departmental groups (such as Marketing or R&D), usage groups (such as
e-mail), or multicast groups (used for multimedia applications such as
video conferencing).
VLANs provide greater network efficiency by reducing broadcast traffic,
but also allow you to make network changes without having to update IP