ADVANCED TOPICS
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
