Ntc 242 Vlan

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Abstract

A Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) is a formidable networking technology. As a network expands, new technologies such as a VLAN can accommodate this expansion in a cost effective and performance-geared manner. As a company grows and develops, physical network changes can occur quickly; a VLAN can help compensate for these changes and maintain an efficient network.

A VLAN is becoming an increasingly popular solution for LAN segmenting. The principles of VLAN technology provide an impressive amount of features, policies, and yet retain some simple foundations in terms of design and architecture. With an expanding company network, the flexibility of a VLAN setup is crucial to preserving bandwidth and maintaining performance.

Dependent on the scenario displayed, a VLAN can carry multiple benefits. Virtual LANs (VLANs) can be viewed as a group of devices on different physical LAN segments which can communicate with each other as if they were all on the same physical LAN segment (Sridhar, 2010). In this case, each department of the company could use VLAN’s to maintain department connectivity even as employees and workstations are moved to different floors of the building. The results would be less stress on the network in terms of broadcast routing (less latency), easier access for administrative purposes, security form isolating bridged users and easier physical network deployment for future expansion, and workgroup implementation.

In order to set up a VLAN, the network must be segmented into different broadcast fields per department. For the company network, a layer 3 switch will be used to implement VLAN capabilities. The switch is preferred because it removes the loss associated with routers, and switches are also very cost effective solutions. A layer 3 switch is capable of containing broadcast traffic and supporting multiple VLANs. In addition to compatibility with layer 2 style MAC address assignments, a layer 3 switch...