Inter-VLAN Routing

Barnabas N.M
Introduction
• In previous chapters, we learnt how VLANs segment broadcast traffic on
a switch and segment a switched network into different LANs, we also
learnt how VLAN information can be transmitted to other switches in
the network using VTP.
• Consider, this, as the network administrator, one of your tasks is to
create and assign different users to VLANs in your network, you have
three main departments which should be logically segmented using
VLANs, VLAN 10 – FINANCE, VLAN 20 – SALES and VLAN 30 – HR.
• The use of VLANs means that users would not be able to communicate
across departments, i.e. a user in FINANCE, would not be able to send a
message to a user in SALES since they are on different broadcast
domains.
Intro…
• In many enterprises, you will find that information sharing across
departments is a requirement, therefore, the question begs, how do
you make users in the SALES and FINANCE department communicate,
yet they are on different VLANS?
• In this chapter, we will discuss the role played by inter-VLAN routing in
communication between different VLANs.
• We will learn how it works, consider the various methods that can be
used to implement it, configure inter-VLAN routing using router-on-a-
stick and traditional inter-VLAN routing, compare the two styles of
implementation and finally verify and troubleshoot inter-VLAN
routing.
Definition
• Inter-VLAN routing can be defined as a way to forward traffic between
different VLAN by implementing a router in the network.
• As we learnt previously, VLANs logically segment the switch into
different subnets, when a router is connected to the switch, an
administrator can configure the router to forward the traffic between
the various VLANs configured on the switch.
• The user nodes in the VLANs forwards traffic to the router which then
forwards the traffic to the destination network regardless of the VLAN
configured on the switch.
The figure below, shows how this process
works;
• Information destined for PC B,
leaves PC A with the VLAN 20
tag, when it gets to R1, the
router, changes the format of
this message from VLAN 20, to
VLAN 30, it then sends it back
to the switch and the switch
finally sends the message to its
intended recipient PC B.
Type of Inter-vlan routing
• There are two ways in which inter-VLAN routing can
be accomplished.
1. Traditional inter-VLAN routing
2. Router-on-a-stick
Traditional inter-VLAN routing
• In this type of inter-VLAN routing, a router is usually connected to the switch using
multiple interfaces. One for each VLAN.
 The interfaces on the router are configured as the default gateways for the VLANs configured on
the switch.
• The ports that connect to the router from the switch are configured in access mode in
their corresponding VLANs.
• When a user node sends a message to a user connected to a different VLAN, the
message moves from their node to the access port that connects to the router on
their VLAN.
• When the router receives the packet, it examines the packet’s destination IP address
and forwards it to the correct network using the access port for the destination VLAN.
• The switch now can forward the frame to the destination node since the router
changed the VLAN information from the source VLAN to the destination VLAN.
• In this form of inter-VLAN routing, the router has to have as many LAN interfaces as
the number of VLANs configured on the switch. Therefore, if a switch has 10 VLANs,
the router should have the same number of LAN interfaces.
Take the scenario shown below
If PC A in VLAN 20, wanted to send a message to PC B in VLAN 30, the
steps it would take are shown below.
• PC A would check whether the destination IPv4 address is in its
VLAN if it is not, it would need to forward the traffic to its default
gateway which is the ip address on Fa0/0 on R1.
• PC A then sends an ARP request to AS1 so as to determine the
physical address of Fa0/0 on R1. Once the router replies, PC A can
send the frame to the router as a unicast message, since AS1 has
Fa0/0’s MAC address, it can forward the frame directly to R1.
• When the router receives the frame, it compares the destination
IP address by referring to its routing table so as to know to which
interface it should send the data towards the destination node.
• The router then sends an ARP request out the interface connected
to the destination VLAN in this case out Fa0/1, when the switch
receives the message, it would flood it to its ports and in this case,
PC B would reply with its MAC address.
• R1 would then use this information to frame the packet and finally
send it to PC B as a unicast frame.
Configuring traditional inter-VLAN
routing • In this section, we will configure Inter-
VLAN routing on the router and the
switch using the scenario we have just
seen above. All the VLANs are active and
the PCs have been assigned ports, our
configuration will only be limited to the
router’s inter-VLAN configuration and the
switch ports connecting to R1.
• The ip addressing in use is shown below.
Configuring Traditional inter-vlan……
• Testing connectivity using the ping command should reveal that PC A
cannot ping PC B.
• The first step is to configure the switchports to access the specified
VLAN, fa0/1 to VLAN 20 and fa0/2 to VLAN 30. This is accomplished
using the commands shown below
• On R1, we need to configure its interfaces with the default gateways
corresponding to the VLANs. That is; on fa0/0 -[Link]/24 and
on fa0/1 – [Link]/24. We accomplish this using the commands
shown below.
• With this configuration we should save and test for connectivity on PC
A and PC B, by using the ping command, and the results should be
successful.
• Examining the routing table of R1 should show us the two routes as
shown in the output below. This confirms that the router knows of
the two VLANs and therefore traffic can flow between them.
Inter-VLAN routing using router-on-a-
stick