CCNA Guide to Cisco

Networking
Chapter 13: Switching and
VLANs
 Objectives
• Explain the features and benefits of Fast
Ethernet
• Describe the guidelines and distance limitations
of Fast Ethernet
• Define full- and half-duplex Ethernet operations
• Distinguish between cut-through, fragment-free,
and store-and forward LAN switching
• Define the operation of the Spanning Tree
Protocol and its benefits
 Objectives (continued)
• Describe the benefits of virtual LANs
• Understand the purpose of the VLAN
trunking protocol (VTP)
 Ethernet Operations
• CSMA/CD
– Listen to wire before transmitting
– Contention mention
– Interframe gap
• Also known as an interpacket gap
• 9.6 seconds
– Collisions
• Simultaneous frame transmission
• 32-jam signal
• Back-off period
 Ethernet Operations
(continued)
• CSMA/CD (continued)
– Collision domain
• Physical topology segment in which frames may
collide
– Layer 3, layer 2, and layer 1
• Repeaters and hubs do not microsegment
• Switches and bridges microsegment at layer 2
• Routes and gateways segment at layer 2 and layer
3
 Latency
• Latency
– Sometimes referred to as propagation delay
– Length of time to forward, send, or propagate a data
frame
– Bit time
– Slot time
• 5-4-3 rule
– Latency differs depending on
• Resistance of transmission medium
• Number of nodes
• Amount of processing of packet
Latency (continued)
 Ethernet Errors
• Most errors are caused by
– Defective equipment
– Incorrectly configured equipment
• Frame size errors
• Frame size minimum 64 bytes
• Frame size maximum 1518 bytes
 Ethernet Errors (continued)
• Frame error classification
– Short frame or runt
– Long frame or giant
– Jabber
– Frame check sequence error
– Alignment error
 Collision Errors
• As the number of devices increase so does the number
of collisions
• Late collisions
– Violate the 5-4-3 rule
– Cable too long
– Slot time exceeded
• Segment with a router
• Microsegment with a switch or bridge
• Transmitting station will attempt to retransmit 16 times
– Additional collision detections will be considered a NIC error
 Broadcasts
• Nodes establishing a presence
• Applications advertising a service
• IP address-to-MAC address resolution
• Broadcast storm
– Network loop
– 126 or more broadcasts per second
• Possible solutions
– Reduce the number of services on servers
– Limit the number of protocols
 Fast Ethernet
• 100 Mbps
• 10/100 Autosense
• Full-duplex or half-duplex
• Category 5 or higher cable
• IEEE 802.3u implementations
– 100Base-TX
– 100Base-T4
– 100Base-FX
 Half- And Full-Duplex
Communication
• Half-duplex
– Send and receive signals separately
• Full-duplex
– Send and receive simultaneously
– No collisions
• Benefits of full-duplex
– No collisions
• No retransmissions
– Full bandwidth in both directions
– No waiting for other transmissions
 Half- And Full-Duplex
Communication (continued)
• Four different duplex options on 2950
switch
– Auto
– Full
– Full-flow control
– Half
 Half- And Full-Duplex
Communication (continued)
 LAN Segmentation
• Segmenting with bridges
• Filter traffic at Data Link layer
• Segment LAN into 2 or 3 major segments
• Bridges build a MAC-to-segment table
– Manual configuration
– Learn from source MAC of arriving frame
• Bridges forward frames through the bridge
when the destination of the frame is on a
different segment
 LAN Segmentation
(continued)
• Points to remember about bridges
– Reduce collisions
– No effect on broadcasts or multicasts
– Extend physical length of LAN
– Efficient use of bandwidth
 Segmenting With Routers
• Points to remember when segmenting with
routers
– Forwards packets based on layer 3 addresses
– Decrease collisions
– Reduce broadcast and multicast traffic
– Support multiple paths and routes between
routers
– Efficient use of bandwidth for the newly
created segments
 Segmenting With Routers
(continued)
• Points to remember when segmenting with
routers (continued)
– Increase security
– Increase the physical distance of the network
– Provide layer 3 routing, packet fragmentation
and reassembly, and traffic flow control
– Provide communications between different
technologies such as Ethernet and Token
Ring or Ethernet and Frame Relay
– Higher latency than bridges
 LAN Switching
• Segmentation with switches
– Switches are hardware controlled
– Bridges are software controlled
• Microsegmentation
– Switched bandwidth
– Shared bandwidth
• Efficient use of bandwidth
• Able to connect segments of different speeds
– 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps
– 100 Mbps to 1Gbps
LAN Switching (continued)
LAN Switching (continued)
 Switch Operations
• MAC-to-switch port mapping
• Content-addressable memory (CAM)
• Learns MAC addresses automatically
– Source address from arriving frame
• Two types of memory buffering
– Port-based memory buffering
– Shared-memory buffering
• Symmetric and asymmetric switching
 Securing Switch Ports
• Configure a permanent MAC address
• Does not have a TTL
• Define a static map entry
– Restricts communication between specific
ports
• Set a limit on the number of MAC
addresses
• Define the action when a security violation
occurs
 Switching Methods
• Four methods for processing and
forwarding frames
• Store-and-forward
– Read the entire frame
• Fragment-free
– Reads first 64 bytes
– Lower latency than store-and-forward
– Also known as “modified cut-through”
– Minor error detection
 Switching Methods
(continued)
• Four methods for processing and forwarding
frames (continued)
• Cut-through
– Forwards frame after destination MAC is read
– First 14 bytes of frame
– Lowest latency
– No error detection
• Adaptive cut-through
– Error sensing
– Uses cut-through and store-and-forward
Switching Methods
(continued)
Switching Methods
(continued)
Switching Methods
(continued)
 Spanning Tree Protocol
• Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
– Physical loops
– Logical loops
• Spanning Tree Algorithm (STA)
• IEEE 802.1d
Spanning Tree Protocol
(continued)
 Spanning Tree Protocol
(continued)
• Build a logical path
– Election process
– Root bridge (root device)
– Bridge protocol data units (BPDU) or
Configuration bridge protocol data units
(CBPDU)
– Root ports
 Spanning Tree Protocol
(continued)
• Port states
– Stable states
• Blocking: Send and receive BPDUs but no data
frames
• Forwarding: Send and receive all data frames and
learn new MAC addresses
• Disabled: No frames sent or received
– Transitory states
• Listening: Listening to election process only
• Learning: Learning new MAC addresses
 Spanning Tree Protocol
(continued)
• STP switch port process
– From bridge/switch bootup to blocking
– From blocking to listening (or to disabled)
– From listening to learning (or to disabled)
– From learning to forwarding (or to disabled)
– From forwarding to disabled (automatically or
manually)
• Topology changes
 Virtual LANs
• Logical grouping of network devices and
nodes
• Broadcast domain
• Management VLAN
– Also known as default VLAN
– Cannot be deleted
– Every port is on VLAN 1 by default
• Router are required to move traffic
between VLANs
Virtual LANs (continued)
Virtual LANs (continued)
 Benefits of VLANs
• VLANS provide the following benefits
– It is easier to add and move stations on the
LAN
– It is easier to reconfigure the LAN
– There is better traffic control
– There is increased security
 Dynamic vs. Static VLANs
• VLANs can be configured dynamically or
statically
• Static VLANs are configured port-by-port
• Dynamic VLAN ports automatically learn
their VLAN assignment
– Software database of MAC address-to-VLAN
mappings
 VLAN Standardization
• Frame filtering
– Frames can be separated into VLANs
– MAC addresses
– Network-layer protocol type
– Application type
• Frame tagging
– IEEE 802.1q
• Also known as frame identification
• Adds a four-byte field to Ethernet frame
– Inter-Switch Link (ISL) protocol
• Cisco proprietary frame-tagging method
• 26 byte header
 Creating VLANs
• VLAN configuration
– Rm410HL#vlan database
– Rm410(vlan)#vtp domain hudlogic
– Rm410(vlan)#vtp server
– Rm410(vlan)#vlan 2 name production
– Rm410(vlan)#vlan 3 name accounting
– Rm410(vlan)#vlan 4 name marketing
 Creating VLANs (continued)
• VLAN configuration (continued)
– Rm410#configure terminal
– Rm410(config)#interface f0/1
– Rm410(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
– Rm410(config-if)#exit
– Rm410(config)#interface f0/2
– Rm410(config-if)#switchport access vlan 1
Link Types And Configuration
• Two types of links
• Trunk links
– Switch-to-switch links
– Switch-to-router links
– 100 Mbps links
– 1 Gbps links
• Access links
– Non-VLAN aware devices
Link Types And Configuration
(continued)
• Trunk links have five states
– Auto
– Desirable
– Non-negotiate
– Off
– On
• Rm410(config)#interface f0/1
• Rm410(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
 Trunking Protocol
• VLAN trunking protocol
– Layer 2 messaging protocol
– Manages all changes to the VLANs across
networks
• VTP domains
– VTP devices are organized in to domains
– Switches can only belong to one domain
• Rm410HL#vlan database
• Rm410(vlan)#vtp domain hudlogic
Trunking Protocol (continued)
• VTP device modes
– Server
• Rm410(vlan)# vtp server
– Client
• Rm410(vlan)# vtp client
– Transparent
• Rm410(vlan)# vtp transparent
• Default to server mode
• VTP pruning
– Reduces the number of VTP updates on trunk link
– Rm410(vlan)# vtp pruning
Trunking Protocol (continued)
• Delete VLAN database
• Rm410# delete flash:vlan.dat
• Switch interface descriptions
– Rm410HL(config)#int f0/1
– Rm410HL(config-if)#description
productionVLAN
• Nonswitching hubs and VLANs
 Routers and VLANs
• Increase security
• Manage traffic between VLANs
• Subinterfaces
• Access-lists
• Router-on-a-stick
 Routers and VLANs
(continued)
• Enable inter-VLAN communication between
VLAN 1 and VLAN 2
– Router(config)# interface e0.1
– Router(config-subif)# ip address 164.106.1.1
255.255.255.0
– Router(config-subif)# encapsulation isl 1
– Router(config-if)# exit
– Router(config)# interface e0.2
– Router(config-subif)# ip address 164.106.2.1
255.255.255.0
– Router(config-subif)# encapsulation isl 2
Routers and VLANs
(continued)
 Summary
• Ethernet (CSMA/CD) is a media access method that was
developed in the 1960s
• Stations on an Ethernet LAN must listen to the network
media before transmitting to ensure that no other station
is currently transmitting
• If two stations transmit simultaneously on the same
collision domain, a collision will occur
• The transmitting stations must be able to recognize the
collision and ensure that other stations know about the
collision by transmitting a jam signal
• Once the jam signal has cleared the network, other
stations can begin transmitting, but the stations that
caused the collision must wait for a random backoff
period before attempting to transmit again
 Summary (continued)
• The delays caused by collisions on a network
can seriously affect performance when collisions
exceed 5% of the traffic on the collision domain
• One way to reduce the number of collisions on a
network is to segment the network with a bridge,
switch, or router
• Switches do the most to divide the collision
domain and reduce traffic without dividing the
broadcast domain
• This means that the LAN segment still appears
to be a segment when it comes to broadcast and
multicast traffic
 Summary (continued)
• Switches microsegment unicast traffic by routing frames
directly from the incoming port to the destination port
• This means that packets sent between two hosts on a
LAN segment do not interrupt communication of other
hosts on the segment
• Switches are therefore able to increase the speed at
which communications occur between multiple hosts on
the segment
• Another way to increase the speed at which a LAN
operates is to upgrade from Ethernet to Fast Ethernet
• This allows you to increase the speed at which frames
are transferred on the wire, thereby increasing the
performance of the network
 Summary (continued)
• To fully implement Fast Ethernet, you have to replace all
the hubs, NICs, and any other network interfaces with
interfaces that support Fast Ethernet
• Several Fast Ethernet devices allow for compatibility
between Fast Ethernet and standard Ethernet, but to
take full advantage of Fast Ethernet, all components
must be upgraded
• Full duplex can also improve Ethernet performance over
half-duplex operations because no collisions can occur
on a full-duplex LAN
• Full duplex also allows frames to be sent and received
simultaneously, which makes a 10-Mbps full-duplex
connection seem like two 10-Mbps half-duplex
connections
 Summary (continued)
• Full-duplex operations are only supported by devices
designed for this type of communication
• This means that the half-duplex devices on a network will
have to be completely replaced to take advantage of the
speed offered by full-duplex operations
• The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which is enabled by
default on most bridges and switches, allows
administrators to create physical loops between bridges
and switches without creating logical loops that would
pose a problem for packet delivery
• Another way to increase the performance, flexibility, and
security of a network is to implement VLANs via switches
 Summary (continued)
• VLANs are separate broadcast domains that are not
limited by physical configurations, instead a VLAN is a
logical broadcast domain implemented via one or more
switches
• Performance benefits associated with VLANs are derived
from limiting the amount of broadcast traffic that would
naturally pass through a switch without filtration
• The enhanced flexibility to assign any port on any switch
to a particular VLAN makes moving, adding, and
changing network configurations easier
• VLAN information is communicated to switches using the
VLAN trunking protocol (VTP)