xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/vlan.4 (revision 6b3455a7665208c366849f0b2b3bc916fb97516e)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd May 26, 2004
29.Dt VLAN 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm vlan
33.Nd IEEE 802.1Q VLAN network interface
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd device vlan
36.\"
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Nm
40driver demultiplexes frames tagged according to
41the IEEE 802.1Q standard into logical
42.Nm
43network interfaces, which allows routing/bridging between
44multiple VLANs through a single switch trunk port.
45.Pp
46Each
47.Nm
48interface is created at runtime using interface cloning.
49This is
50most easily done with the
51.Xr ifconfig 8
52.Cm create
53command or using the
54.Va cloned_interfaces
55variable in
56.Xr rc.conf 5 .
57.Pp
58To function, a
59.Nm
60interface must be assigned a parent interface and
61numeric VLAN tag using
62.Xr ifconfig 8 .
63A single parent can be assigned to multiple
64.Nm
65interfaces provided they have different tags.
66The parent interface is likely to be an ethernet card connected
67to a properly configured switch port.
68The VLAN tag should match one of those set up in the switched
69network.
70.Pp
71The
72.Nm
73driver supports physical devices that do
74the VLAN demultiplexing in firmware.
75Devices that have hardware support for
76802.1Q VLANs are automatically recognized by their interface capabilities.
77.\"
78.Ss "Selecting the Right Network Interface Card to Run VLANs Through"
79By now, the only NICs that have both hardware support and proper
80driver hooks for the 802.1Q VLAN technology in
81.Fx
82are
83.Xr bge 4 ,
84.Xr em 4 ,
85.Xr gx 4 ,
86.Xr nge 4 ,
87.Xr re 4 ,
88.Xr ti 4 ,
89and
90.Xr txp 4 .
91.Pp
92The rest of the ethernet NICs supported by
93.Fx
94can run
95VLANs using software emulation in the
96.Nm
97driver.
98However, most of them lack the capability
99of transmitting and/or receiving oversized frames.
100Using such a NIC as a parent interface
101implies a reduced MTU on the corresponding
102.Nm
103interfaces.
104In the modern Internet, this is likely to cause
105.Xr tcp 4
106connectivity problems due to massive, inadequate
107.Xr icmp 4
108filtering that breaks the Path MTU Discovery mechanism.
109.Pp
110The NICs that support oversized frames are as follows:
111.Bl -tag -width ".Xr fxp 4 " -offset indent
112.It Xr bfe 4
113supports long frames for
114.Nm
115natively.
116.It Xr dc 4
117supports long frames for
118.Nm
119natively.
120.It Xr de 4
121requires defining
122.Dv BIG_PACKET
123in the
124.Pa /usr/src/sys/pci/if_de.c
125source file and rebuilding the kernel
126or module.
127The hack works only for the 21041, 21140, and 21140A chips.
128.It Xr fxp 4
129supports long frames for
130.Nm
131natively.
132.It Xr hme 4
133supports long frames for
134.Nm
135natively.
136.It Xr rl 4
137supports long frames for
138.Nm
139natively.
140.It Xr sis 4
141supports long frames for
142.Nm
143natively.
144.It Xr ste 4
145supports long frames for
146.Nm
147natively.
148.It Xr tl 4
149has support for long frames.
150.It Xr tx 4
151supports long frames for
152.Nm
153natively.
154.It Xr xl 4
155supports long frames only if the card is built on a newer chip
156(Cyclone and above).
157.El
158.Pp
159The
160.Nm
161driver automatically recognizes devices that support oversized frames
162for
163.Nm
164use and calculates the appropriate frame MTU based on the
165capabilities of the parent interface.
166.Sh SEE ALSO
167.Xr ifconfig 8
168.Sh BUGS
169No 802.1Q features except VLAN tagging are implemented.
170