VLAN: Tag-Based RUTOS: Difference between revisions

VLANs allow network administrators to group hosts together even if the hosts are not on the same network switch. This can greatly simplify network design and deployment, because VLAN membership can be configured through software. Without VLANs, grouping hosts according to their resource needs necessitates the labor of relocating nodes or rewiring data links. It also has benefits in allowing networks and devices that must be kept separate to share the same physical cabling without interacting, for reasons of simplicity, security, traffic management, or economy. For example, a VLAN could be used to separate traffic within a business due to users, and due to network administrators, or between types of traffic, so that users or low priority traffic cannot directly affect the rest of the network's functioning. Many Internet hosting services use VLANs to separate their customers' private zones from each other, allowing each customer's servers to be grouped together in a single network segment while being located anywhere in their datacenter. Some precautions are needed to prevent traffic "escaping" from a given VLAN, an exploit known as VLAN hopping.