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Forum Discussion
Will an unmanaged switch forward VLAN packets intact
I have a source of network traffic that produces VLAN-tagged packets. How will those traverse an unmanaged switch, such as the GS324P?
1 Reply
Back to the square one, so let's keep it simpe:
An Ethernet switch does handle packets (network frames) based on the MAC addreses (source and destintion) .
The essential size of an Ethernet frame is 1518 bytes, which consists of the 14-byte frame header, an up to 1500-byte upper-layer IP packet, and a 4-byte frame trailer.
With a VLANS, there are four more bytes added to the frame header (the 802.1q VLAN header tags), making it 1522 bytes, which is something that most (even older) switches support even if they don't have support for "jumbo packets", but this should not be taken for granted.
All VLAN-aware switches support that increased size and most support (some order of) jumbo frames (which can have L2 MTU as high as 10kB). This maximum MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is typically provided in the switch product data sheet.
Hope this answers your question.
Regards,
-Kurt.
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