User's Manual

500 CHAPTER 13: VLAN MANAGEMENT
Key Concepts This section describes some 3Com Network Director key concepts relating
to VLANs.
General VLAN
concepts
First some general information about network organization using VLANs.
About VLANs
A VLAN is a logical group of devices that can be located anywhere in a
network, but which communicate as if they are on the same physical
segment. With VLANs, you can segment your network without being
restricted by physical connections -a limitation of traditional network
design. For example, with VLANs you can segment your network
according to:
■ Departmental groups - you can have one VLAN for the Marketing
department, another for the Finance department, and another for the
Development department.
■ Hierarchical groups - you can have one VLAN for directors, another for
managers, and another for general staff.
■ Usage groups - you can have one VLAN for users of e-mail, and
another for users of multimedia.
A VLAN is generally considered equivalent to a Layer 2 broadcast domain
or a Layer 3 subnet.