IEEE 802.1Q: Difference between revisions

IEEE 802.1Q, or VLAN Tagging, is a networking standard promulgated by the IEEE 802.1 work group for the sharing of a physical Ethernet network link by multiple independent logical networks.

IEEE 802.1Q defines the meaning of a virtual LAN (VLAN) with respect to the specific conceptual model underpinning bridging at the Media Access Control layer and to the IEEE 802.1D spanning tree protocol. This protocol allows individual VLANs to communicate with one another through a network switch with Network Layer (Layer 3) capabilities, or a router.

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. 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 is sent to another computer belonging to the same department.

Frame format

Insertion of 802.1Q Tag in Ethernet-II frame

802.1Q does not actually encapsulate the original frame. Instead, for Ethernet II frames, it adds a 32-bit field between the source MAC address and the EtherType/Length fields of the original frame. The VLAN tag field has the following format:

16 bits	3 bits	1 bit	12 bits
TPID	PCP	CFI	VID

• Tag Protocol Identifier (TPID): a 16-bit field set to a value of 0x8100 in order to identify the frame as an IEEE 802.1Q-tagged frame. This field is located at the same position as the EtherType/Size field in untagged frames, and is thus used to distinguish the frame from untagged frames.

• Priority Code Point (PCP): a 3-bit field which refers to the IEEE 802.1p priority. It indicates the frame priority level. Values are from 0 (best effort) to 7 (highest); 1 represents the lowest priority. These values can be used to prioritize different classes of traffic (voice, video, data, etc).

• Canonical Format Indicator (CFI): a 1-bit field. If the value of this field is 1, the MAC address is in non-canonical format. If the value is 0, the MAC address is in canonical format. It is always set to zero for Ethernet switches. CFI is used for compatibility between Ethernet and Token Ring networks. If a frame received at an Ethernet port has a CFI set to 1, then that frame should not be bridged to an untagged port.

• VLAN Identifier (VID): a 12-bit field specifying the VLAN to which the frame belongs. A value of 0 means that the frame does not belong to any VLAN; in this case the 802.1Q tag specifies only a priority and is referred to as a priority tag. The hexadecimal value of 0xFFF is reserved. All other values may be used as VLAN identifiers, allowing up to 4094 VLANs. On bridges, VLAN 1 is often reserved for management.

For frames using IEEE 802.2/SNAP encapsulation with an OUI field of 00-00-00 (so that the protocol ID field in the SNAP header is an EtherType), as would be the case on LANs other than Ethernet, the EtherType value in the SNAP header is set to 0x8100 and the aforementioned extra 4 bytes are appended after the SNAP header.

Because inserting the VLAN tag changes the frame, 802.1Q encapsulation forces a recalculation of the original FCS field in the Ethernet trailer. It also increases the maximum frame size by 4 bytes.

Double-tagging (QinQ) can be useful for Internet service providers, allowing them to use VLANs internally while mixing traffic from clients that are already VLAN-tagged. The outer (next to source MAC and representing ISP VLAN) tag comes first, followed by the inner tag. In such cases, an alternate TPID such as hex 9100, or even 9200 or 9300, sometimes may be used for the outer tag; however this is being deprecated by 802.1ad, which specifies 88a8 for service-provider outer tags.

Insertion of 802.1ad DoubleTag in Ethernet-II frame

Triple-tagging is also possible. The third tag of 4 bytes allows extended addressing and also a small hop-count. The 66-bit addressing plan now uses a fixed (non-stacking) QinQinQ format. The result is three 32-bit tags plus the 16-bit EtherType/Size for a total of 112 bits. The two 48-bit (MAC) address fields add another 96 bits. The total header is 208-bits compared to a 320-bit IPv6 header. The 66-bit addressing is 18+48. The 18-bits are encoded 6-bits per 32-bit tag in the 12-bit VID fields. The 16-bit EtherType/Size field can contain the Payload Size or an EtherType for Payloads that contain their own Length, such as IPv4.

Trunk ports and the native VLAN

Clause 9 of the 1998 802.1Q standard defines the encapsulation protocol used to multiplex VLANs over a single link, by adding VLAN tags. However, it is possible to send frames either tagged or untagged, so to help explain which frames will be sent with or without tags, some vendors (most notably Cisco) use the concepts of a) trunk ports and b) the native VLAN for that trunk.

The concept of a trunk port is that once a port is designated as a trunk port, it will forward and receive tagged frames.

Frames belonging to the native VLAN do NOT carry VLAN tags when sent over the trunk. Conversely, if an untagged frame is received on a trunk port, the frame is associated with the Native VLAN for this port.

For example, if an 802.1Q port has VLANs 2, 3 and 4 assigned to it with VLAN 2 being the Native VLAN, frames on VLAN 2 that egress (exit) the aforementioned port are not given an 802.1Q header (i.e. they are plain Ethernet frames). Frames which ingress (enter) this port and have no 802.1Q header are put into VLAN 2. Behaviour of traffic relating to VLANs 3 & 4 is as to be expected - frames arriving for VLANs 3 & 4 are expected to be carrying tags that identify them so, and frames leaving the port for VLANs 3 & 4 will carry their respective VLAN tag.

Not all vendors use the concept of trunk ports and native VLANs. Annex D to the 1998 802.1Q standard uses the concept of trunk links, but the current (IEEE Std 802.1D- 2004) standard does not use the terms trunk or native.

Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol

In addition, IEEE 802.1Q defines the Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol (MVRP), an application of the Multiple Registration Protocol, allowing bridges to negotiate the set of VLANs to be used over a specific link.

MVRP replaced the slower GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) in 2007 with the IEEE 802.1ak-2007 amendment.

Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol

The 2003 revision of the standard included the Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) which was originally defined in IEEE 802.1s.

See also

• VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP), a Cisco proprietary VLAN management protocol
• Cisco Inter-Switch Link (ISL), an older VLAN trunking protocol that is proprietary to Cisco
• Dynamic Trunking Protocol another Cisco proprietary networking protocol.

References

• IEEE Std. 802.1Q-2005, Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks (PDF). ISBN 0-7381-3662-X.
• ISL & 802.1q Frame Formats