Chapter 8
Virtural LAN
Setting up Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) on the FS3-1600 eases many time-consuming tasks of network administration while increasing efficiency in network operations.
This chapter describes the concept of VLANs and explains how to implement VLANs on the FS3-1600.
The term VLAN is used to refer to a collection of devices that communicate as if they were on the same physical LAN. Any set of ports (including all ports on the switch) is considered a VLAN. LAN segments are not restricted by the hardware that physically connects them. The segments are defined by flexible user groups you create with the command-line and Web-based interface.
Implementing VLANs on your networks has the following advantages:
With traditional switched networks, congestion can be caused by broadcast traffic that is directed to all network devices, regardless of whether they require it. VLANs increase the efficiency of your network because each VLAN can be set up to contain only those devices that must communicate with each other.
Devices within each VLAN can only communicate with member devices in the same VLAN. If a device in VLAN Marketing must communicate with devices in VLAN Sales, the traffic must cross a routing device.
With traditional networks, network administrators spend much of their time dealing with moves and changes. If users move to a different sub-network, the addresses of each end station must be updated manually. For example, with a VLAN, if an end station in VLAN Marketing is moved to a port in another part of the network, and retains its original subnet membership; you must only specify that the new port is in
The FS3-1600 supports a maximum of 32 VLANs. FS3-1600 VLANs can be created according to the following criteria:
In a port-based VLAN, a VLAN name is given to a group of one or more ports on the switch. A switch port can be a member of only one port-based VLAN. For example, ports 1, 2, and 5 are part of VLAN Marketing; ports 3, 4, and 6 are part of VLAN Sales; and ports 7 and 8 are in VLAN Finance.
Even though they are physically connected to the same switch, for the members of the different VLANs to communicate, the traffic must go through the extra routers.
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