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CCNP SWITCH 642-813 Official Certification Guide

The first two bytes are used as a Tag Protocol Identifier (TPID) and always have a value of
0x8100 to signify an 802.1Q tag. The remaining two bytes are used as a Tag Control Information (TCI) field. The TCI information contains a three-bit Priority field, which is used to
implement class-of-service (CoS) functions in the accompanying 802.1Q/802.1p prioritization standard. One bit of the TCI is a Canonical Format Indicator (CFI), flagging whether
the MAC addresses are in Ethernet or Token Ring format. (This also is known as canonical
format, or little-endian or big-endian format.)
The last 12 bits are used as a VLAN identifier (VID) to indicate the source VLAN for the
frame. The VID can have values from 0 to 4095, but VLANs 0, 1, and 4095 are reserved.
Note that both ISL and 802.1Q tagging methods have one implicationthey add to the
length of an existing Ethernet frame. ISL adds a total of 30 bytes to each frame, whereas
802.1Q adds 4 bytes. Because Ethernet frames cannot exceed 1518 bytes, the additional
VLAN tagging information can cause the frame to become too large. Frames that barely
exceed the MTU size are called baby giant frames. Switches usually report these frames
as Ethernet errors or oversize frames.

Note: Baby giant, or oversize, frames can exceed the frame size set in various standards.
To properly handle and forward them anyway, Catalyst switches use proprietary hardware
with the ISL encapsulation method. In the case of 802.1Q encapsulation, switches can
comply with the IEEE 802.3ac standard, which extends the maximum frame length to 1522
bytes.

Dynamic Trunking Protocol

You can manually configure trunk links on Catalyst switches for either ISL or 802.1Q
mode. In addition, Cisco has implemented a proprietary, point-to-point protocol called
Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP) that negotiates a common trunking mode between
two switches. The negotiation covers the encapsulation (ISL or 802.1Q) and whether the
link becomes a trunk at all. This allows trunk links to be used without a great deal of manual configuration or administration. The use of DTP is explained in the next section.

Tip: You should disable DTP negotiation if a switch has a trunk link connected to a nontrunking router or firewall interface because those devices cannot participate in DTP negotiation. A trunk link can be negotiated between two switches only if both switches belong
to the same VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) management domain or if one or both switches have not defined their VTP domain (that is, the NULL domain). VTP is discussed in
Chapter 5.
If the two switches are in different VTP domains and trunking is desired between them, you
must set the trunk links to on mode or nonegotiate mode. This setting forces the trunk to
be established. These options are explained in the next section.