IEEE 802.1Q - Example Application

Example Application

A company wishes to provide data separation and security between network traffic from its various departments by creating separate logical networks for each of its departments dispersed throughout the enterprise, while using only one corporate physical network, which is VLAN-aware. A network administrator assigns a unique VLAN to each department. Edge switches on the corporate network are configured to insert an appropriate VLAN tag into all data frames arriving from equipment belonging to a given department. After the frames are transmitted on their respective VLANs through the corporate network, the VLAN tag is stripped before the frame leaves the VLAN-aware corporate network, and is sent to its destination, which is another computer belonging to the same department.