VLAN(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual VLAN(4)
NAME
vlan -- IEEE 802.1Q Virtual LAN network device
SYNOPSIS
pseudo-device vlan
DESCRIPTION
The vlan interface provides support for IEEE 802.1Q Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN). This supports the trunking of more than one network
on a single network interface. This is particularly useful on routers or on hosts which must be connected to many different networks through
a single physical interface.
To use a vlan interface, the administrator must first create the interface and then specify the VID (VLAN identifier, the first 12 bits from
a 16-bit integer which distinguishes each VLAN from any others) and physical interface associated with the VLAN. This can be done by using
the ifconfig(8) create, vlan, and vlanif subcommands from a shell command line or script. From within a C program, use the ioctl(2) system
call with the SIOCSIFCREATE and SIOCSIFVLAN arguments.
To be compatible with other IEEE 802.1Q devices, the vlan interface supports a 1500 byte MTU, which means that the parent interface will have
to handle packets that are 4 bytes larger than the original Ethernet standard. Drivers supporting this increased MTU are:
- drivers using the DP8390 core (such as ec(4), ne(4), we(4), and possibly others)
- bge(4)
- bnx(4)
- ea(4)
- eb(4)
- epic(4)
- etherip(4)
- ex(4)
- fxp(4)
- gem(4)
- hme(4)
- le(4)
- sip(4)
- ste(4)
- stge(4)
- ti(4)
- tl(4)
- tlp(4)
- vge(4)
- vr(4)
- wm(4)
- xi(4)
vlan can be used with devices not supporting the IEEE 802.1Q MTU, but then the MTU of the vlan interface will be 4 bytes too small and will
not interoperate properly with other IEEE 802.1Q devices, unless the MTU of the other hosts on the VLAN are also lowered to match.
EXAMPLES
The following will create interface vlan0 with VID six, on the Ethernet interface tlp0:
ifconfig vlan0 create
ifconfig vlan0 vlan 6 vlanif tlp0
After this set up, IP addresses (and/or other protocols) can be assigned to the vlan0 interface. All other hosts on the Ethernet connected
to tlp0 which configure a VLAN and use VID six will see all traffic transmitted through vlan0.
The same VLAN can be created at system startup time by placing the following in /etc/ifconfig.vlan0:
create
vlan 6 vlanif tlp0
SEE ALSO
ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The vlan device first appeared in NetBSD 1.5.1, and was derived from a VLAN implementation that appeared in FreeBSD and OpenBSD.
BUGS
The vlan interfaces do not currently inherit changes made to the physical interfaces' MTU.
BSD
December 16, 2010 BSD