SMC Networks TigerCard 1000 manual Traffic Priority

CONFIGURING AND TESTING THE NETWORK CARD

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 connections. VLANs can be easily organized to reflect departmental groups (such as Marketing or R&D) or usage groups (such as e-mail or video conferencing).

VLANs provide greater network efficiency by reducing broadcast traffic, but also allow you to make network changes without having to update IP addresses or IP subnets. VLANs inherently provide a high level of network security, since traffic must pass through a router or a Layer 3 switch to reach a different VLAN.

Usually VLANs are configured within IEEE 802.1Q VLAN-enabled switches in the network where ports are assigned to specific VLAN IDs. The TigerCard 1000 allows up to 16 VLAN IDs to be configured directly within the card, so a network server can share its resources with up to 16 VLANs through just one switch link. This avoids the expense of having multiple adapters in a server, and significantly reduces the latency between clients and the server.

Note: The VLAN IDs configured within the card must match those in the IEEE 802.1Q-compliant switches throughout the network. Also, the card must be attached to a switch port that permits overlapping VLANs.

Traffic Priority

The TigerCard 1000 network card supports the IEEE 802.1p Quality of Service standard. Each VLAN is assigned a priority level in the VLAN ID table. Defining priority levels in the network card allows it to work with other network devices to deliver higher priority packets first.

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