The Security Implications of Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN),Niger Mills, Calabar, Nigeria [ READ ]
D. E. Bassey., B. E. Okon., R. Umunnah
Virtual local area network (VLAN), is a logical grouping of network users and resources connected to administratively define the operation of activated ports on a switch. The creation of VLAN is saddled with the ability to develop smaller broadcast domain within a layer-2 switching router; by assigning different ports on the switch to different sub networks. The application was a re-design project carried out on the Niger-Mills’ network to improve the operational short falls identified by the operators. Niger-Mills’ LAN network covered a total of 5 departments:: marketing, sales, finance, engineering and management. Five (5) users were randomly sampled and selected from each department to constitute their individual LAN, making a total of 25 computers. The project successfully introduced this process in the Niger-mills LAN as a test run. It was further recommended that switch-model 2950/3560 be introduced to activate this function automatically. From the trouble shooting process, it was obvious that layer-2 switches only read frames for filtering. They don’t access the network layer protocol, and by default, switch forward all broadcast. But the creation and implementation of VLAN, essentially activated a small broadcast domain at layer-2.
D. E. Bassey., B. E. Okon., R. Umunnah
Virtual local area network (VLAN), is a logical grouping of network users and resources connected to administratively define the operation of activated ports on a switch. The creation of VLAN is saddled with the ability to develop smaller broadcast domain within a layer-2 switching router; by assigning different ports on the switch to different sub networks. The application was a re-design project carried out on the Niger-Mills’ network to improve the operational short falls identified by the operators. Niger-Mills’ LAN network covered a total of 5 departments:: marketing, sales, finance, engineering and management. Five (5) users were randomly sampled and selected from each department to constitute their individual LAN, making a total of 25 computers. The project successfully introduced this process in the Niger-mills LAN as a test run. It was further recommended that switch-model 2950/3560 be introduced to activate this function automatically. From the trouble shooting process, it was obvious that layer-2 switches only read frames for filtering. They don’t access the network layer protocol, and by default, switch forward all broadcast. But the creation and implementation of VLAN, essentially activated a small broadcast domain at layer-2.
