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7 VLAN Management 
7.1 Overview 
In the traditional shared media Ethernet and Switched Ethernet, all the users are in the 
same broadcast domain. The growing number of the broadcast packet with the more and 
more in-network computers leads to the great increase of the data traffic among all intranet 
devices, which influence the network performance. The possible broadcast storm brought 
by the continuous extension of the network is likely to make the entire network unavailable. 
VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network), is a data exchange technology in the realized virtual 
work group, by the means of splitting the devices in local area network into multiple network 
segments logically  instead  of  physically.  The  technology  logically  divides one local  area 
network into several ones—VLAN. Free from the limitation of the geographical location, the 
VLAN  intra-group  hosts  of  the  same  broadcast  domain  achieve  the  mutual  exchange 
normally, just as connected in the same network segment. The hosts of the different VLAN 
are obliged to exchange through a router or other 3 layers packet forwarding facilities rather 
than communicate directly, as a result of interlock broadcast isolation. 
The following diagram shows how to use VLAN: