26.1.2 Port Type

(1) Description

The VLANs that can be used by the Switch differ depending on the port settings. The type of each port needs to be set according to the type of VLAN to be used. The following table describes the types of ports.

Table 26-2: Port types

Port type	Overview	VLANs used
Access port	Handles an untagged frame as a port VLAN. With this port, all untagged frames are handled as a single port VLAN.	Port VLAN MAC VLAN
Protocol port	Handles an untagged frame as a protocol VLAN. With this port, the VLAN is determined by the frame protocol.	Protocol VLAN Port VLAN
MAC port	Handles an untagged frame as a MAC VLAN. With this port, the VLAN is determined by the source MAC address in the frame.	MAC VLAN Port VLAN
Trunk port	Handles all VLAN types as tagged frames. With this port, the VLAN is determined by the VLAN tag.	VLANs of all types
Tunneling port	Handles everything as a port VLAN for VLAN tunneling, regardless of whether the frame is tagged. With this port, all frames are handled as a single port VLAN.	Port VLAN

Access ports, protocol ports, and MAC ports handle untagged frames, but cannot handle tagged frames. Any received tagged frames are discarded, and cannot be sent.

It is possible to have tagged frames handled by only trunk ports. Untagged frames for a trunk port are handled by native VLANs.

A tunneling port is a port that performs VLAN tunneling, regardless of whether frames are tagged.

The table below describes the types of VLANs that can be used for each port type. A protocol VLAN and a MAC VLAN cannot use the same port. Trunk ports that handle all VLAN tags can use the same port on all VLANs.

Table 26-3: VLAN that can be used on a port

Port type	VLAN type
	Port VLAN	Protocol VLAN	MAC VLAN
Access port	OK	NG	OK
Protocol port	OK	OK	NG
MAC port	OK	NG	OK
Trunk port	OK	OK	OK
Tunneling port	OK	NG	NG

(2) Port native VLAN

Ports other than access ports or tunneling ports (protocol ports, MAC ports, and trunk ports) might receive frames for which the respective settings do not match, such as when an IPv6 frame is received after the protocol port was set for only the IPv4 protocol. A single port VLAN can be set up to handle this kind of frame on any port other than an access port or tunneling port. This VLAN is called the native VLAN on each port.

On each port other than access ports and tunneling ports, the port VLAN already created for each port can be set in the native VLAN. VLAN 1 (the default VLAN) is used as the native VLAN for ports that cannot be specified by configuration.