SMC Networks 1000BASE-X 用户手册

4-3

The following figure gives an illustration of how the Spanning Tree 
Algorithm assigns bridging device ports.

Switches do not inherently support broadcast domains, which can lead to 
broadcast storms in large networks that handle a lot of IPX or NetBeui 
traffic. In conventional networks with routers, broadcast traffic is split up 
into physically separate domains to confine broadcast traffic to the 
originating group and provide a much cleaner network environment. This 
switch creates segregated broadcast domains based on easily configurable 
VLANs, these are then linked, as required, via a router or Layer 3 switch. 

An IEEE 802.1Q VLAN is a group of ports that can be located anywhere 
in the network, but communicate as though they belong to the same 
physical segment. VLANs help to simplify network management by 
allowing you to move devices to a new VLAN without having to change 
any physical connections. VLANs can be easily organized to reflect 
departmental groups (such as Marketing or R&D), usage groups (such as 
e-mail), or multicast groups (used for multimedia applications such as 
video conferencing).

VLANs provide greater network efficiency by reducing broadcast traffic, 
but also allow you to make network changes without having to update IP