5 VIRTUAL LAN S (VLANS)Setting up Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) on the Switch 3800eases many time-consuming tasks of network administration whileincreasing efficiency in network operations.This chapter describes the VLAN concepts and explains how toimplement VLANs on the Switch 3800.Overview of VirtualLANsA VLAN is a group of location- and topology-independent devices, forexample a group of users (workstations) and the server to which theyconnect, that communicate as if they are on the same physical LAN.This means that LAN segments are not restricted by the hardware thatphysically connects them. The segments are defined by flexible usergroups that you create with the command-line interface.Benefits Implementing VLANs on your networks has the following advantages:n It eases the change and movement of devices.With traditional networks, network administrators spend much oftheir time dealing with moves and changes. If users move to adifferent subnetwork, the addresses of each endstation must beupdated manually.For example, with a VLAN, if an endstation in VLAN Marketing ismoved to a port in another part of the network, and retains itsoriginal subnet membership, you only need to specify that the newport is in VLAN Marketing.
