Module 9

VLAN Trunking Protocol

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 VLAN Communication

• Devices on different VLANS must have a

router to communicate with each other
• If devices are on the same VLAN, then they
can communicate through a switch.

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 Access Links

• An access link is a link on the switch that

is a member of only one VLAN.
• This VLAN is referred to as the native
VLAN of the port.
– Any device that is attached to the port is
completely unaware that a VLAN exists.

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 Trunk Links
• A trunk link is capable of supporting multiple
VLANs.
• Trunk links are typically used to connect switches
to other switches or routers.
• Switches support trunk links on both Fast
Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet ports.
• Switches, routers, and some servers can be
connected to a VLAN trunk (NIC must support
trunking)

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 Access and Trunk Links

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 Trunk Links
• A trunk link does not belong to a specific VLAN.
– acts as a conduit for VLANs between switches and
routers.
• The trunk link can be configured to transport all
VLANs or to transport a limited number of VLANs.
• A trunk link may, however, may have a native
VLAN.
– The native VLAN of the trunk is the VLAN that the
trunk uses if the trunk link fails for any reason.

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 Trunk Links

• In Ethernet, the switch has two methods of

identifying the VLAN that a frame belongs
to:
– ISL – InterSwitch Link (Cisco
proprietary)
– IEEE 802.1Q (standards-based)
• Also known as dot1q

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 VLAN Identification

• ISL - This protocol is a Cisco proprietary

encapsulation protocol for interconnecting
multiple switches; it is supported in
switches as well as routers.

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 VLAN Identification

• IEEE 802.1Q - This protocol is an IEEE

standard method for identifying VLANs by
inserting a VLAN identifier into the frame
header. This process is referred to as
frame tagging.

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 802.1q
NIC cards and networking devices can understand this
“baby” giant frame (1522 bytes). However, a Cisco switch
must remove this encapsulation before sending the frame
out on an access link.

SA and
802.1q
DA Type/Length Data (max 1500 CRC
New
MACs MACsTag Field bytes) CRC

2-byte TPID Tag Protocol Identifier

2-byte TCI Tag Control Info (includes
VLAN ID)
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 802.1q
• A 4-byte tag header containing a tag protocol
identifier (TPID) and tag control information (TCI) with
the following elements:
– A 2-byte TPID with a fixed value of 0x8100. This value
indicates that the frame carries the 802.1Q/802.1p tag
information.
– A TCI containing the following elements:
• Three-bit user priority
• One-bit canonical format (CFI indicator)
• Twelve-bit VLAN identifier (VID)-Uniquely identifies the
VLAN to which the frame belongs
– This VLAN ID is added to each frame to allow
delivery of frames across a switched trunk.
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 Trunking

• A trunk is a point-to-point link that

supports several VLANs
• A trunk is used to save ports when creating
a link between two devices implementing
VLANs

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 Trunking

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 Configuring Trunking
• Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet trunking
modes:
– On
– Off
– Desirable
– Auto
– Non negotiate

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 Configuring Trunking
• On - This mode puts the port into permanent
trunking mode. The port becomes a trunk port
even if the neighboring port does not agree to the
change.
• The on state does not allow for the negotiation of
an encapsulation type.
– You must, therefore, specify the encapsulation in
the configuration

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 Configuring Trunking

• Off - This mode puts the port into

permanent nontrunking mode and
negotiates to convert the link into a
nontrunk link.
• The port becomes a nontrunk port even if
the neighboring port does not agree to the
change.

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 Configuring Trunking

• Desirable - This mode makes the port

actively attempt to convert the link to a
trunk link. The port becomes a trunk port if
the neighboring port is set to on, desirable,
or auto mode.

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 Configuring Trunking
• Auto - This mode makes the port willing to
convert the link to a trunk link.
• The port becomes a trunk port if the neighboring
port is set to on or desirable mode.
• This is the default mode for all Ethernet ports.
– if the default setting is left on both sides of the
trunk link, the link will not become a trunk

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 Configuring Trunking

• Non negotiate - This mode puts the port

into permanent trunking mode but prevents
the port from generating Dynamic Trunking
Protocol (DTP) frames.
– You must configure the neighboring port
manually as a trunk port to establish a trunk
link.

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 Configuring Trunking

• For trunking to be auto negotiated on Fast

Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet ports, the
ports must be in the same VTP domain.
• However, you can use on or non negotiate
mode to force a port to become a trunk,
even if it is in a different domain.

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 Configuring Trunking

IOS-Based Switch
Switch(config)# interface fastethernet 0
Switch(config-if)# switchport mode [access | multi | trunk]
Switch(config-if)# switchport trunk encapsulation {isl|dot1q}
Switch(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan remove vlan-list
Switch(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan add vlan-list

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 VLAN Trunking Protocol
• VTP maintains VLAN configuration consistency
across the entire network.
• VTP is a messaging protocol that uses Layer 2
trunk frames to manage the addition, deletion,
and renaming of VLANs on a network-wide basis.
• Further, VTP allows you to make centralized
changes that are communicated to all other
switches in the network.

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 VTP Benefits

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 VTP
• All switches in the same management domain
share their VLAN information with each other, and
a switch can participate in only one VTP
management domain.
• Switches in different domains do not share VTP
information.
• Using VTP, switches advertise:
– Management domain
– Configuration revision number
– Known VLANs and their specific parameters

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 VTP

• Switches can be configured not to accept

VTP information.
• These switches will forward VTP
information on trunk ports in order to
ensure that other switches receive the
update, but the switches will not modify
their database, nor will the switches send
out an update indicating a change in VLAN
status.

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 VTP

• By default, management domains are set to

a non secure mode, meaning that the
switches interact without using a
password.
• Adding a password automatically sets the
management domain to secure mode.
– A password must be configured on every
switch in the management domain to use
secure mode.

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 VTP

• The VTP database contains a revision

number.
• Each time a change is made, the switch
increments the revision number

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 VTP
• A higher configuration revision number
indicates that the VLAN information that is being
sent is more current then the stored copy.
• Any time a switch receives an update that has a
higher configuration revision number, the switch
will overwrite the stored information with the
new information being sent in the VTP update.
• That is why when adding a new switch, you
should make sure it has a lower revision number
than the others in the domain.

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 VTP Modes

• Switches can operate in any one of the

following three VTP modes:
– Server
– Client
– Transparent

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 VTP Modes
• Server - If you configure the switch for server
mode, you can create, modify, and delete VLANs,
and specify other configuration parameters (such
as VTP version and VTP pruning) for the entire
VTP domain.
• VTP servers:
– Advertise their VLAN configuration to other
switches in the same VTP domain
– Synchronize the VLAN configuration with other
switches based on advertisements received over
trunk links.
• This is the default mode on the switch.

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 VTP Modes

• Client - VTP clients behave the same way

as VTP servers.
• However, you cannot add, change, or
delete VLANs on a VTP client.
• You can only adopt VLAN management
changes

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 VTP Modes
• Transparent - VTP transparent switches do
not participate in VTP.
• A VTP transparent switch does not
advertise its VLAN configuration, and does
not synchronize its VLAN configuration
based on received advertisements.
– However, in VTP Version 2, transparent
switches do forward VTP advertisements
that the switches receive out their trunk
ports.

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 Configuring VTP

Different version
numbers are not
compatible

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 Configuring VTP

IOS-Based Switch
Switch(vlan)# vtp domain domain-name
Switch(vlan)# vtp {server | client |
transparent}
Switch(vlan)# vtp password password
Switch(vlan)# vtp v2-mode (version2)

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 Adding a Switch to an Existing Domain
Be sure to reset the configuration
revision number of the new switch
to be lower than the other switches
or VLAN info will be erased on the
VTP Server and VTP Clients

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 Inter-VLAN legacy routing

Requires one 10Mbps

(preferably 100Mbps or 1
Gbps) interface per VLAN.

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 Multiple links aren’t scalable

Requires four
ports for four
VLANs; this
router is getting
expen$ive!

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 Trunking Provides Scalability

Using ISL or 801.Q,

router only needs
one port.

Subinterfaces are
only on the router
for the VLANs Note: this must be FastEthernet!
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 External router config example
“Router on a Stick”

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 External router config example
RTA(config)#interface f0/0
RTA(config-if)#no ip address
RTA(config-if)#interface f0/0.1
RTA(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 1
RTA(config-subif)#ip address 10.1.1.1
RTA(config-subif)#int f0/0.2
RTA(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 20
RTA(config-subif)#ip address 10.1.2.1
RTA(config-subif)#int f0/0.3
RTA(config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 30
RTA(config-subif)#ip address 10.1.3.1

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 Switch Configuration
Switch(config)#interface FastEthernet0/1
Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation
dot1q Can’t skip this step – could be
isl if using older equipment
Switch(config)#interface FastEthernet0/2
Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 1

Switch(config)#interface FastEthernet0/3
Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 10

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 Module 9
VLAN Trunking Protocol

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