Date: Tue, 7 May 96 10:26:01 EDT
From: Milan Merhar <milan@xyplex.com>
To: p8021@hepnrc.hep.net
Subject: VLAN Questions/Suggestions


Michele wrote:
	I agree with Steve that '0' should be invalid, and there is a 
	requirement to reserve '1' as a default VLAN.  I think we will find 
	that in some cases the default VLAN will be used for flooding of 
	unknown stations.


I am VERY nervous about arbitrarily assigning a VLAN to an unknown
station.  What happens when we later learn about it, and discover it
is a member of some other VLAN?  

Changing its VLAN assignment will probably have the effect of leaving
various forwarding tables throughout the network having inconsistant
information about the station - some associating it with the default
VLAN, some with its "real" VLAN. In my opinion, this is fertile ground
for forwarding loops to grow....

I think we have to solve the VLAN assignment problem first, and then talk 
about flooding only in the context of each particular VLAN.

- milan


Milan J. Merhar, Consulting Engineer 
Whittaker Xyplex   295 Foster St. Littleton, MA 01460  USA
Internet: milan@xyplex.com    Phone:(508)952-4713   Fax:(508)952-4887