Allied Telesis FORMULA 8200 - Manual (Page 34)

Optimizing Functionality for Your Application
3-2
Optimizing Functionality for Your Application
The FORMULA 8200, unlike shared media switching hubs, allows you
to divide your LAN into smaller segments. This increases and uses full
LAN bandwidth for each segment. By providing high end devices
such as workstations, servers, and routers their own dedicated
connections to the switch, you can significantly increase throughput
and decrease latency.
In addition to creating one or more VLANs to reduce broadcast
traffic, you can also customize the configuration to meet your
specific needs. Use the information in the remainder of this chapter;
you can also review the command set in Chapter 5 for more specific
information.
Virtual LANs
A Virtual LAN (VLAN) is a logical group of LANs or individual devices,
established without regard to their physical location on the network.
You can group any collection of ports on one or more
FORMULA 8200 switches into a VLAN.
Since you can connect either a LAN or a device to a port in the
FORMULA 8200, any group of LANs or individual devices connected
to the switch can be connected together in a VLAN.
The LAN segments that comprise a VLAN can be distributed among
multiple switches that are interconnected by a backbone network.
This grouping of LAN segments into VLANs reduces the amount of
work required when moving an end station from one LAN segment
to another.
VLANs also maximize the efficient use of the bandwidth on any given
LAN segment, since packets are forwarded only between segments
as required. The separation of segments into VLANs also provides
security, since data from a workgroup on one VLAN will not be seen
on the VLANs for other workgroups. VLANs also create smaller
broadcast domains, which reduce broadcast traffic across the
network.
Note
To communicate between VLANs, the FORMULA 8200 must be
configured to enable RIP for IP routing. If additional protocols are
required, a connection on each VLAN must go to an external router.