xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/vlan.4 (revision 6adf353a56a161443406b44a45d00c688ca7b857)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Yar Tikhiy
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd July 25, 2001
29.Dt VLAN 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm vlan
33.Nd IEEE 802.1Q VLAN network interface
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.\" In -stable: .Cd pseudo-device vlan Op Ar count
36.Cd device vlan Op Ar count
37.\"
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39The
40.Nm
41driver demultiplexes frames tagged according to
42the IEEE 802.1Q standard into logical
43.Nm
44network interfaces, which allows routing/bridging between
45multiple VLANs through a single switch trunk port.
46.Pp
47To function, a
48.Nm
49interface must be assigned a parent interface and
50numeric VLAN tag using
51.Xr ifconfig 8 .
52A single parent can be assigned to multiple
53.Nm
54interfaces provided they have different tags.
55The parent interface is likely to be an ethernet card connected
56to a properly configured switch port.
57The VLAN tag should match one of those set up in the switched
58network.
59.Pp
60The
61.Nm
62driver supports physical devices that do
63the VLAN demultiplexing in firmware.
64The
65.Ar link0
66flag should be set on a
67.Nm
68interface
69.Pq Em not on its parent
70using
71.Xr ifconfig 8
72in that case to indicate that the hardware support for
73the 802.1Q VLANs is present in its parent.
74.\"
75.Ss "Selecting the Right Network Interface Card to Run VLANs Through"
76By now, the only NICs that have both hardware support and proper
77driver hooks for the 802.1Q VLAN technology in
78.Fx
79are
80.Xr nge 4 ,
81.Xr ti 4 ,
82and
83.\" not in -stable
84.Xr txp 4 .
85.Pp
86The rest of the ethernet NICs supported by
87.Fx
88can run
89VLANs using the software emulation in the
90.Nm
91driver.
92However, most of them lack the capability
93of transmitting and/or receiving oversized frames.
94Using such a NIC as a parent interface for a
95.Nm
96implies a reduced MTU on the corresponding
97.Nm
98interfaces.
99In the modern Internet, this is likely to cause
100.Xr tcp 4
101connectivity problems due to massive, inadequate
102.Xr icmp 4
103filtering that breaks the Path MTU Discovery mechanism.
104.Pp
105The NICs that support oversized frames are as follows:
106.Bl -tag -width "fxp(4)" -compact -offset indent
107.It Xr de 4
108requires defining
109.Dv BIG_PACKET
110in the
111.Pa /usr/src/sys/pci/if_de.c
112source file and rebuilding the kernel
113.\" not in -stable
114or module.
115The hack works only for the 21041, 21140, and 21140A chips.
116.It Xr fxp 4
117supports long frames for the
118.Nm
119natively.
120.It Xr tl 4
121does support long frames.
122.It Xr tx 4
123may begin supporting long frames soon.
124.It Xr xl 4
125supports long frames only if the card is built on a newer chip
126.Pq Cyclone and above .
127.El
128Note:
129Except for
130.Xr fxp 4 ,
131none of the above drivers inform the
132.Nm
133driver about their support for long frames.
134Just fix the MTU of a
135.Nm
136interface if it appears to be lower that 1500 bytes after
137attaching the
138.Nm
139to a parent interface that is known to support long frames.
140.Sh SEE ALSO
141.Xr ifconfig 8
142.Sh BUGS
143No 802.1Q features except VLAN tagging are implemented.
144