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Layer 2 Rack Mount Managed Ethernet Switches

Layer 2 switches route the data packet to a predefined switch port rooted on the MAC address of the destination host.

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What is a Layer 2 switch?

Layer 2 switches route the data packet to a predefined switch port rooted on the MAC address of the destination host.

There is no routing algorithm followed by layer 2 switches, while layer 3 switches follow the routing algorithm and data packets are destined for the next hop set and the destination host is rooted at the IP address set on the receiving side.

Layer 2 Rack Mount Managed Ethernet Switches

From the above introduction about the two layer options, an interesting question arises in our mind. If switches at Layer 2 do not follow any routing table, how will they learn the MAC address (unique address of a machine like 3C-95-09-9C-21-G2) of the next hop?

The answer is that it will do this by following the address resolution protocol known as ARP.

The operation of this protocol is as follows:

Let’s take the example of a network in which a switch is connected to four host devices known as PC1, PC2, PC3 and PC4. Now PC1 wants to send a data packet to PC2 for the first time.

Layer 2 Rack Mount Managed Ethernet Switches

Although PC1 knows the IP address of PC2 when they are first communicating, it does not know the MAC (hardware) address of the receiving host. So PC1 uses ARP to discover the MAC address of PC2.

The switch sends the ARP request to all ports except the port to which PC1 is connected. PC2, upon receiving the ARP request, will respond with an ARP reply message with its MAC address. PC2 also collects the MAC address of PC1.

Therefore, from the above and forward message flow, the switch learns which MAC addresses are assigned to which ports. Similarly, as PC2 sends its MAC address in the ARP reply message, the switch now gathers PC2’s MAC address and stores it in its MAC address table.

It also stores PC1’s MAC address in the address table as it was sent by PC1 to alternate with the ARP request message. From now on, whenever PC1 wants to send some data to PC2, the switch will simply look it up in its table and forward it to PC2’s destination port.

Thus, the Switch will continue to maintain the hardware address of each of the connected hosts.

Collision and broadcast domain

Collision can occur in layer 2 switching, where two or more hosts are trying to communicate in the same time interval on the same network link.

The efficiency of the network will decrease here, as the data frame will collide and will need to be resent. But each port on a switch is usually in a different collision domain. The domain used to forward all types of broadcast messages is known as the broadcast domain.

All Layer 2 devices, including Switches, appear in the identical broadcast domain.

VLAN

To overcome the problem of collision and broadcast domain, the VLAN technique is introduced in the computer network system.

A virtual local area network commonly known as a VLAN is a logical collection of end devices located in the identical group of the broadcast domain. The VLAN configuration is done at the switch level using different interfaces. Different switches can have different or the same VLAN settings and configured according to a network’s needs.

Hosts connected to two or more different switches can be connected in the same VLAN, even if they are not physically connected, because the VLAN behaves like a virtual LAN network. Therefore, hosts, which are connected to different switches, can share the same broadcast domain.

For a better understanding of VLAN usage, let’s take the example of two networks where one is using VLAN and the other is not using VLAN.

The network below is not using the VLAN technique:

Layer 2 Rack Mount Managed Ethernet Switches

Without the VLAN, the broadcast message sent from host 1 will reach all components of the network.

But by using VLAN and configuring VLAN on both switches in the network, adding an interface card naming Fast Ethernet 0 and Fast Ethernet 1, usually noted as Fa0 / 0, in two different VLAN networks, a broadcast message from Host 1 will be delivered only to Host 2.

This happens during configuration and only host 1 and host 2 are defined in the same VLAN set, while the other components are members of some other network VLAN.

It is important to note here that layer 2 switches can allow host devices to reach the host of the same VLAN only. To reach the host device from some other network, the Layer-3 switch or router is required.

VLAN networks are highly secure networks because, due to their type of configuration, any confidential document or file can be sent across two predefined hosts of the same VLAN that are not physically connected.

The broadcast traffic is also managed by this, because the message will be transmitted and received only for the set of VLANs defined, and not for everyone in the network.

The network diagram using VLAN is shown below:

Layer 2 Rack Mount Managed Ethernet Switches

Access doors and trunk

Various types of configurations are made on the switch ports. To access a single network VLAN, we assign a gateway to that VLAN.

Access ports are used when we simply need to configure only end host devices for a given VLAN network.

To access more than one switch and different VLANs, the interface has been assigned to the trunk port of the switch. The trunk port is smart enough to support traffic from multiple VLANs.

Configuring VLAN

  • To configure the VLAN on the switch, first enable IOS mode on the switch.
  • The command to create VLAN is in VLAN NUMBER configuration mode, i.e. Switch (config) # VLAN 10.
  • Using an interface command, we can allocate the fast Ethernet port in VLAN.
  • Now, using the switchport access command line, we can specify that the interface is an access mode.
  • The next command will allocate VLAN NUMBER for the switch port access mode.

Layer 2 switch characteristics

  • The Layer-2 switch acts as a network bridge that connects multiple end devices of a computer network system on a single platform. They are capable of transporting data very quickly and competently from source to final destination in LAN networks.
  • Layer 2 switches perform the switching function to rearrange data frames from the source to a destination end by learning the MAC address of the destination node from the Switch’s address table.
  • The MAC address table provides the unique address of each Layer 2 device, based on which it can identify the end devices and the node to which the data is to be delivered.
  • The Layer-2 switch divides a complicated and bulky LAN network into small VLAN networks.
  • When configuring multiple VLANs in a large LAN network, switching becomes faster because it is not being physically connected.

Layer 2 Rack Mount Managed Ethernet Switches

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