Switch Meshing 
Operating Notes for Switch Meshing 
Static VLANs 
In a network having a switch mesh domain and multiple static VLANs config-
ured, all static VLANs must be configured on each meshed switch, even if no 
ports on the switch are assigned to any VLAN. (The switch mesh is a member 
of all static VLANs configured on the switches in the mesh.) 
When static VLANs are configured, the mesh is seen as a single entity by each 
VLAN. All ports in the mesh domain are members of all VLANs and can be 
used to forward traffic for any VLAN. However, the non-mesh ports on edge 
switches that allow traffic to move between the mesh and non-meshed devices 
belong to specific VLANs and do not allow packets originating in a specific 
VLAN to enter non-meshed devices that do not belong to that same VLAN. (It 
is necessary to use a router to communicate between VLANs.) For example, 
in the following illustration, traffic from host A entering the switch mesh can 
only exit the mesh at the port for hosts B and E. Traffic from host A for any 
other host (such as C or D) will be dropped because only hosts B and E are in 
the same VLAN as host A. 
A 
B 
D 
E 
C 
Switch Mesh Domain 
Red 
VLAN 
Red 
VLAN 
Red VLAN 
Red VLAN Red VLAN 
Blue 
VLAN 
Blue 
VLAN 
Blue VLAN 
Blue VLAN Blue VLAN 
(Red VLAN) 
(Red VLAN) 
(Red VLAN) 
(Blue VLAN) 
(Blue VLAN) 
All ports  the mesh domain are members of all VLANs. inside 
Figure 7-20.  VLAN Operation with a Switch Mesh Domain 
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