From: "Nimesh Vakharia" <nvakhari@clio.rad.sunysb.edu>
Subject: RE: Switching Advice
> yes but I guess the question is why? What is the function of the Native
> Vlan that requires it to be not dot1q encapsulated. Does Cisco just opt
> for it or is there a logical reasoning behind it... spanning tree seems to
> ring a bell but am not sure what about spanning tree requries it to be
> dot1q encapsulation.
It's part of the specification. Other vendors call it the "default VLAN",
amongst other monikers. IIRC, the reasoning is that an 802.1q "trunk" port
could be connected to a host (contextual meaning: "a device that has no
knowledge of the 802.1q ether frame format"). The native VLAN allows this
host to communicate in the broadcast domain of the native VLAN, as it's not
tagged. Whether this actually has much use to most of us, is another matter
:)
-amf
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Aug 04 2002 - 04:13:27 EDT