Chapter 7 Basic Setting

7.4 Introduction to VLANs

A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) allows a physical network to be partitioned into multiple logical networks. Devices on a logical network belong to one group. A device can belong to more than one group. With VLAN, a device cannot directly talk to or hear from devices that are not in the same group(s); the traffic must first go through a router.

In MTU (Multi-Tenant Unit) applications, VLAN is vital in providing isolation and security among the subscribers. When properly configured, VLAN prevents one subscriber from accessing the network resources of another on the same LAN, thus a user will not see the printers and hard disks of another user in the same building.

VLAN also increases network performance by limiting broadcasts to a smaller and more manageable logical broadcast domain. In traditional switched environments, all broadcast packets go to each and every individual port. With VLAN, all broadcasts are confined to a specific broadcast domain.

Note that VLAN is unidirectional; it only governs outgoing traffic.

See the chapter on VLAN for information on port-based and 802.1Q tagged VLANs.

7.5 Switch Setup Screen

Click Basic Setting and then Switch Setup in the navigation panel display the screen as shown. The VLAN setup screens change depending on whether you choose 802.1Q or Port Based in the VLAN Type field in this screen. Refer to the chapter on VLANs.

Figure 32 Switch Setup

 

75

GS-3012/GS-3012F User’s Guide