[Previous] [Contents] [Next]

MAC Addressbased VLANs


As you might have guessed, the Media Access Control (MAC) address type of VLAN assigns membership according to the MAC address of the workstation. To do this, the switch must keep track of the MAC addresses that belong to each VLAN. The advantage of this method is that a workstation computer can be moved anywhere in an office without needing to be reconfigured; because the MAC address does not change, the workstation remains a member of a particular VLAN. Table 2 provides examples of MAC addressbased VLANs.

Table 2 MAC Addressbased VLANs

MAC Address

VLAN

Description

44-45-53-54-00-00

1

Sales

44-45-53-54-13-12

2

Marketing

44-45-53-54-D3-01

3

Administration

44-45-53-54-F5-17

1

Sales


Although the acceptance and implementation of VLANs has been slow, the ability to logically segment a LAN provides a new level of administrative flexibility, organization, and security.

[Previous] [Contents] [Next]