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VLAN(4)		       FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual		       VLAN(4)

NAME
     vlan -- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN network interface

SYNOPSIS
     device vlan

DESCRIPTION
     The vlan driver demultiplexes frames tagged according to the IEEE 802.1Q
     standard into logical vlan	network	interfaces, which allows rout-
     ing/bridging between multiple VLANs through a single switch trunk port.

     Each vlan interface is created at runtime using interface cloning.	 This
     is	most easily done with the ifconfig(8) create command or	using the
     cloned_interfaces variable	in rc.conf(5).

     To	function, a vlan interface must	be assigned a parent interface and
     numeric VLAN tag using ifconfig(8).  A single parent can be assigned to
     multiple vlan interfaces provided they have different tags.  The parent
     interface is likely to be an ethernet card	connected to a properly	con-
     figured switch port.  The VLAN tag	should match one of those set up in
     the switched network.

     The vlan driver supports physical devices that do the VLAN	demultiplexing
     in	firmware.  Devices that	have hardware support for 802.1Q VLANs are
     automatically recognized by their interface capabilities.

   Selecting the Right Network Interface Card to Run VLANs Through
     By	now, the only NICs that	have both hardware support and proper driver
     hooks for the 802.1Q VLAN technology in FreeBSD are bge(4), em(4),	gx(4),
     nge(4), re(4), ti(4), and txp(4).

     The rest of the ethernet NICs supported by	FreeBSD	can run	VLANs using
     software emulation	in the vlan driver.  However, most of them lack	the
     capability	of transmitting	and/or receiving oversized frames.  Using such
     a NIC as a	parent interface implies a reduced MTU on the corresponding
     vlan interfaces.  In the modern Internet, this is likely to cause tcp(4)
     connectivity problems due to massive, inadequate icmp(4) filtering	that
     breaks the	Path MTU Discovery mechanism.

     The NICs that support oversized frames are	as follows:

	   bfe(4)  supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   dc(4)   supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   de(4)   requires defining BIG_PACKET	in the
		   /usr/src/sys/pci/if_de.c source file	and rebuilding the
		   kernel or module.  The hack works only for the 21041,
		   21140, and 21140A chips.

	   fxp(4)  supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   hme(4)  supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   rl(4)   supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   sis(4)  supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   ste(4)  supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   tl(4)   has support for long	frames.

	   tx(4)   supports long frames	for vlan natively.

	   xl(4)   supports long frames	only if	the card is built on a newer
		   chip	(Cyclone and above).

     The vlan driver automatically recognizes devices that support oversized
     frames for	vlan use and calculates	the appropriate	frame MTU based	on the
     capabilities of the parent	interface.

SEE ALSO
     ifconfig(8)

BUGS
     No	802.1Q features	except VLAN tagging are	implemented.

FreeBSD	11.1			 May 26, 2004			  FreeBSD 11.1

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | BUGS

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