Using the BayStack 410-24T 10BASE-T Switch1-12 309985-B Rev 00Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs)In a traditional shared-media network, traffic generated by a station is propagatedto all other stations on the local segment. Therefore, for any given station on theshared Ethernet, the local segment is the collision domain because traffic on thesegment has the potential to cause an Ethernet collision. The local segment is alsothe broadcast domain because any broadcast is sent to all stations on the localsegment. Although Ethernet switches and bridges divide a network into smallercollision domains, they do not affect the broadcast domain. In simple terms, avirtual local area network provides a mechanism to fine-tune broadcast domains.Your BayStack 410-24T switch allows you to create two types of VLANs:• Port-based VLANsA port-based VLAN is a VLAN in which the ports are explicitly configured tobe in the VLAN. When you create a port-based VLAN, you assign a PortVLAN Identifier (PVID) and specify which ports belong to the VLAN. ThePVID is used to coordinate VLANs across multiple switches.• Protocol-based VLANsA protocol-based VLAN is a VLAN in which you assign your switch ports asmembers of a broadcast domain, based on the protocol information within thepacket. Protocol-based VLANs can localize broadcast traffic and assure thatonly the protocol-based VLAN ports are flooded with the specified protocoltype packets.Your switch ports can be members of multiple protocol-based VLANs that arenot based on the same protocol. Only tagged ports can be members ofmultiple protocol-based VLANs that are based on the same protocol.BayStack 410-24T switches support up to 64 port-based or protocol-basedVLANs. When a switch port is configured to be a member of a VLAN, it is addedto a group of ports (workgroup) that belong to one broadcast domain. You canassign different ports (and therefore the devices attached to these ports) todifferent broadcast domains. This feature allows network flexibility because youcan reassign VLANs to accommodate network moves, additions, and changes,eliminating the need to change physical cabling.For more information about VLANs, see “IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Workgroups” onpage 1-36.
