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Assignment Title: Implementing “Ethernet Switched Network” in a University.

In this assignment, the students will need to write a report on how to implement
“SwitchingTechniques” in a “fictitious” University LAN. The report should include the
design/layout of the University, types of switching mode used, the different paths which
exist in the university and the overall architecture. Moreover, the design should include
the types of trunks used, VLAN Trunking Protocol and private VLANs. Using Multilayer
Switching (MLS) will be definitely a bonus for your report. You need to give valid
reasons for your choices of the above contents.

Prepared and written By Roshan Tishraj Patroo and Benita Konglar

B(Eng)Hons Telecommunication
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Using VLAN for building A

WHAT IS A VLAN AND ITS COMPONENTS?

A VLAN is a virtual LAN. A VLAN is a broadcast domain created by switches. Normally, it is a

router creating that broadcast domain. With VLAN’s, a switch can create the broadcast domain.
All ports in a single VLAN are in a single broadcast domain.

Because switches can talk to each other, some ports on switch A can be in VLAN 1 and other
ports on switch B can be in VLAN 1. Broadcasts between these devices will not be seen on any
other port in any other VLAN, other than 1. However, these devices can all communicate
because they are on the same VLAN. Furthermore, each VLAN will have their own Spanning
Tree protocol topology, IP range and network requirements.

A Catalyst 5000 Multilayer switch is used since it supports ISL and 802.1Q trunk. Catalyst 5000
series switches support dynamic VLAN membership using the VLAN Membership Policy Server
(VMPS). Inter Switched Link (ISL) has been implemented for connections among switches and is
used to maintain a redundant link. ISL maintains VLAN information as traffic flows between
switches and switches.

*(See University design to see how the VLANs were categorised).

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Advantages of using a VLAN network

VLAN

 A VLAN is a logical network as its aim is to group devices connected to a switch as a

single broadcast domain to control the effect that broadcast have on other connected
devices.

 Creating VLAN for Building A of the University will greatly improve performance and
security in the switched.

 VLAN enables the grouping of users in a common broadcast domain regardless to their
physical location in the internetwork. Here for example the first floor (VLAN 1) can be
used for the Engineering Department, second floor (VLAN 2) can be assigned to the Staff
section and third floor (VLAN 3) for the management department.

 User can be situated anywhere in the network and still be part of the network along
with its privileges. That is the user needs not each time to set its correct IP in order to
get connected.
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VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)

VLAN Trunking Protocol manages the addition, deletion, and renaming of Virtual Local Area
Networks (VLAN) on a network-wide basis. Cisco's VLAN Trunk Protocol reduces administration
in a switched network. When a new VLAN is configured on one VTP server, the VLAN is
distributed through all switches in the domain. This reduces the need to configure the same
VLAN everywhere. To do this, VTP carries VLAN information to all the switches in a VTP domain.

VLAN trunking provides flexible allocation of networks and subnets across more than one
switch. Therefore any student in Building A who has a laptop can connect to the network in any
floor within the university without configuring his/her laptop for IP changes since VLAN since
the local Catalyst switch sends a query to the VTP server to determine the access policy and
VLAN membership for the user. There will be a plug and play system.

VTP pruning is the process of not sending IP broadcast traffic for certain VLANs to switches that
do not have any ports in that VLAN. Pruning saves LAN bandwidth because broadcasts don’t
have to be sent to switches that don’t need them
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Benefits of having VLAN Trunking Protocol

 Configurations made in a single VTP server automatically propagate across the trunk
links to all the connected switches in the University.

 Reduces administration in a switched network (manages additions, deletions and name

changes of VLANs across the network).

 Allows centralized changes

 Minimizes wrong configurations and configurations discrepancies that can cause

problems. (Such as duplicate VLAN names or incorrect VLAN type specification).

 Includes tracking and monitoring of VLANs, dynamic reporting of added VLANs and Plug
and Play configuration when adding VLANs.
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Using Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) for Building B

LOOPING IN ETHERNET LAN NETWORK

Loops are created in a switched network when two network segments are connected by two or
more Layer 2 switches, thus forming a circle. Because switches are intended to flood
broadcasts and unknown traffic, there is the potential to loop traffic around the network.
Whenever a switch port received a broadcast frame, the frame is forwarded out of every switch
port on the device. If two switches are connected by two network segments, this can lead to
the broadcast frame being bounced back and between the switches.

This is known as a broadcast storm. Broadcast storms grow exponentially and can block a
network. To prevent broadcast storms, the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) eliminates redundant
paths by placing only one switch port in forwarding mode and placing all other ports connected
to the same segment in blocking mode.

For building B this kind of network was done in order to ensure redundancy of the LAN. That is
if one switch fails the other will continue to provide connection. However, looping is bound to
occur in this situation since there are two switches which connect two segments of the
network. Hence the use of spanning tree protocol is necessary in order to counter this problem.
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WHAT IS SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL?

The purpose of Spanning Tree is to prevent loops in the Ethernet LAN and to select the fastest
network links, if there are redundant links in the network.

Each port on a switch using Spanning-Tree Protocol exists in one of the following five states:

 Blocking
 Listening
 Learning
 Forwarding
 Disabled

A port moves through these five states as follows:

 From initialization to blocking

 From blocking to listening or to disabled
 From listening to learning or to disabled
 From learning to forwarding or to disabled
 From forwarding to disabled

STP uses the Spanning Tree Algorithm (STA) to calculate the best switch path through the
network. Its initial goal is to put all links in either Forwarding or Blocking. The Spanning Tree
Protocol then shares this information with other switches on the network. Frames known as
Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs) are used to exchange STA calculations between switches.
Using the information provided by the BPDUs, the Spanning Tree Protocol prunes redundant
paths.

When STP prunes a redundant path from the network, it places the switch port that is providing
the redundant path into blocking mode. STP repeats this process of blocking switch ports until
only one active path is available to the network destination address. This last active path is a
switch port that is placed in forwarding mode.
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If one switch failed, the BPDUs will report this failure and the spanning tree algorithm will
recalculate the most suitable route for the network. Subsequently the process of placing one
active port in forwarding mode and blocking all other ports is repeated. Hence, when a new
switch is introduced to the network, the algorithm and port states are recalculated to prevent a
new loop.
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Switched Ethernet LAN network for Building C

This part of the network is relatively simple. A LAN network is used for sharing of resources like
files, printers or other applications. The Building C has two floors. The ground floor is a printing
room and the floor is a computer lab. This part of the university is made for the student to do
research works on the internet or to explore the vast space of the World Wide Web. A network
printer is also allocated to the building for printing facility. These Computer labs can also be
used to give lectures directly on the computers whereby the teacher may want to share his
lecture notes with his students in a sharing folder in the LAN network.
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References:

www.hurgh.org/articles.php

http://articles.techrepublic.com

http://www.telecom.otago.ac.nz/tele301/student_html/

http://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.IEEE.org

http://www.cisco.com

Books

System Administration Guide Collax V-Cube

CCIE Professional Development Cisco LAN Switching

Cisco Press LAN Switching Fundamentals