Virtual Local Area Network Technology and Applications
Dr. V. Rajaravivarma
Electronics & Computer Technology Department
Price Hall 118, School of Technology
North Carolina A&T State University
Greensboro, NC 274 11
Abstract - This paper gives the details of
VLAN technology and explains not only how
it works, but also explains the different types
of V L A N s and where they should be into a
network.Next some real world networks and
some of the common problems associated with
those traditional layouts are discussed. Then
we’ll integrate switches into those problem
networks and examine the effect.
1. INTRODUCTION
In almost every industry and every
type of application, data is being presented
through images rather than text. The World
Wide Web, documenting imaging, medical
technology, CAD,video training, and pre-
press editing are just a few of the
applications that are absorbing greater
amounts of bandwidth. It take 8 bytes to
transfer the word “airplane”. It takes 80,000
bytes to send a picture of an airplane. It
takes 8,000,000 bytes to send a simple video
sequence of one. Because of that today’s
corporations routinely buy the fastest
computers on the market and want those
machines to run on the fastest safest network
possible [ 11-[4]. The network switch was
invented to help networks to achieve these
precise characteristics. Virtual Local Area
Network (VLAN) technology is one of the
hottest areas of networking, but many people
understand what a VLAN really is.
The LAN switch/ATM switch
network allows users to be combined into as
“virtual LANs,” or “VLANs.” There are two
ways to think about V L A N s . A VLAN is a
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$10.000 1997 IEEE
0-8186-7873-9/97
logical, rather than a physical, collection of
users. In a router-based network users are
identified by their physical location in the
network. This is expressed in a network-
layer address, which tells the router which
physical segment or ring it must send data to.
Users in a physical LAN must therefore be in
one building or part of a building [ 5 ] . A
VLAN need not be restricted to a floor,
building, or even a city. V L A N s allow very
large mechanism, simply grouping physical
ports together, or they can provide a very
flexible toolkit, combining existing hubs,
routers and FDDI backbones with dedicated
switched ports, ATM backbones, wide area
networks, and more.
To understand better this paper gives
the details of VLAN technology and explains
not only how it works, but also explains the
different types of VLANs and where they
should be into a network. The Use of VLAN
technology, LAN switches, and the benefits
of VLANs are discussed in sections 2, 3, and
4 respectively. Next in section 5, a real world
network problem associated with those
traditional layout are discussed..
2. USE OF W A N
VLANs offer significant benefits in
term in terms effeiecient use of banwidth,
flexibility, performance and security. VLAN
technology functions by logically segmenting
the network into different broadcast domains
so that packets are only switched between
ports that are designated for the same
VLAN. Thus, by containg traffic originating
on a particular LAN only to ther LANs
within the same VLAN, switched virtual
networks avoid wasting bandwidth, a
drawback inherent in traditional
bridged/switched networs where packets are
often forwarded to LANs that are to LANs
that do not require them. This approach also
improve scalability, particularly in LAN
environments that support broadcast and
applicationsthat flood packets throughout
the network.
3. LAN SWITCHES
Switches are one of the core
components of VLAN communications.
They are the entry port for end-station
devices into the switched fabric and for
communications across the enterprise.
Switches provide the intelligence to make
filtering and forwarding decisions by packet,
based on VLAN metrics defined by network
managers, and to communicate this
information to other switches and routers
within the network. And while today LAN
switches are installed between shared
segment hubs and routers located within the
backbone, they will take on a larger, more
significant role for VLAN segmentation and
low-latency forwarding as they are deployed
in the wiring closet. LAN switches offer
significant increases in performance and
dedicated bandwidth across the network,
with the intelligence necessary for VLAN
segmentation.
The most common approaches for
logically grouping users into administratively
defined V L A N s include packet filtering and
paket identification. Packet filtering is a
technique that examines particular
information about each packet based on
user-defined offsets. Paket indentification
(tagging) uniquely assigns a user-defined ID
to each packet. Both of these techniques
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examine the packet when it is either received
or forwared by the switch. Based on the set
of rules defined by the administrator, these
techniques where the packet is to be sent,
filtered, and/or broadcast. These control
mechanisms can be centrally administered.
VLAN packet identification (packet tagging)
is a relatively new approach that has been
specifically developed for switched
communications. This approach places a
unique identifier in the header of each packet
as it is forwarded throughout the switech
fabric. The identifier is understood and
examined by each switch prior to any
broadcasts or transmissions to other
switches, routers, or end-station devices.
When the packet exists the switch fabric, the
switch removes the identifier before the
packet is transmitted to the target station.
The overall benefits of both approaches
allow VLAN architecturesthat are
nonintrusive to end-node applications and
protocols. Switches provide all the filtering,
identification, and forwarding without any
modification to the attached end station
devices. This delivers a VLAN architecture
that easily integrates with existing LAN
applicationswhile offering scalability and
migration t6 ATM networks.
4. BENEFITS OF VLAN
Unfortunately, if a device is moved
from one hub to another, its networkaddress
is no longer correct, and someone from the
networking group must go to the machine
and correct it. This isn’t much work if it
seldom happens, but in a larger network with
a high percentage of workstations moving
every year the process can eat up large
amounts of time. And until the update is
completed, thar machine can’t communicate.
A good VLAN capability elimiantes this
problem. A workstation or server remains in
the same VLAN, automatically, no matter
where in the network it’s connected.
Theoretically, network addresses can
be assigned in anyway the administrator
chooses. Unfortunately, that is not true in
practice in most networks today. The reason
is the Internet. In order to mesh a private
network with the Internet, it is necessary to
restrict network numbers to those assigned
by the Internet Number Autority. The
explosive growth in the worlwide network
[6] has used up a large percentage of the
possible network numbers, so that individual
organizations are very restricted in the
numbers available to them.
Until the widespread implementaion
of Internet Protocol, VLANs can be helphl
in reducing waste. VLAN makes it possible
to use a limited number of networ addresses
very effciently. In a hubhouter-based
network, each segement or ring needs its
own subnet number, so that the routers can
move data between them. In a VLAN based
network, any number of segments or rings
can be combined into a single VLAN, so
addresses need not be wasted.
There are variety of possible ways to
create VLANs.
(1) Port-Based VLANs is the simplest form
of VLAN. In this model a VLAN is a
collection of switch ports, sometimes only a
single switch, soometimes on a number of
switches.
(2) MAC-Based VLANs by using the MAC
source addresses. Here each VLAN is a list
of MACS. This approach solves some of the
limitations of the Port-Based VLANs.
(3) Layer Three-Based VLANs allow a
subnet to spread across a number of ports
and sometimes allow mgrq thqn one subnet
per port. This provides good flexibilty, and is
easier to manage than MAC-based VLANs.
(4) Policy-Based VLANs are the most
flexible VLANs. They assign devices to
VLANs using polices, established in network
management, which applies to all switches.
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Therefore when a device moves, it
automatically remains in the same VLAN.
5. APPLICATION
Let us take an example of an enterprise
network [7] which employed Ethemet and
token ring on individual segements
(sometimes on the same floor) and used 100
Mbps FDDI as its backbone technology.Here
the shared files were extremely large and low
router throughput caused a halt while large
files were passed. So the company decided
to upgrade their network. Instead of each
workstation as a dedicated port on a switch,
they replaced their current routers with
switeches and reallocate those routers to
other areas of of the network. The most
obvious improvement was in intranetwork
traffic. Now the data zipped through the
network without slowing down. The switch
automatically performs translation so 16
Mbps token rings can transmit data to
Ethernet segments or FFDI rings rapidly and
effectively. In addition, the switch solution
seamingly integrated the company’s existing
lOOMbps FDDI ring which allowed the
company to keep its original backbone in
place.
6. CONCLUSION
VLANs offer significant cost and
performance befits for a majority of the
LANs installed today. These benefits are
realized as network managers migrate to
switched LAN architectures across the
enterprise. V L A N s are more than simply a
shared hub, routing, switching, or networ
management solution. It is the combination
of all these components that provides
powerfhl segmentation and efficient
administration across the network.
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