VLAN Membership Types and differences between static VLAN and dynamic VLAN

Two types of VLAN membership methods exists and they are Static and Dynamic.

The difference between static and dynamic VLANs are given below.

• Static VLANs: In a static VLAN, the network administrator creates a VLAN and then assigns switch ports to the VLAN. Static VLANs are also called port-based VLANs. The association with the VLAN does not change until the administrator changes the port assignment. End-user devices become the members of VLAN based on the physical switch port to which they are connected.

The ports on a single switch can be assigned multiple VLANs. Even though two devices are connected to different ports on a same switch, traffic will not pass between them if the connected ports are on different VLANs. We need a layer 3 device (typically a Router) to enable communication between two VLANs.

• Dynamic VLANs: In a dynamic VLAN, the switch automatically assigns the port to a VLAN using information from the user device like MAC address, IP address etc. When a device is connected to a switch port the switch queries a database to establish VLAN membership. A network administrator must configure VLAN database of a VLAN Membership Policy Server (VMPS).

Dynamic VLANs support instant movability of end devices. When we move a device from a port on one switch to a port on another switch, the dynamic VLANs will automatically configure the membership of the VLAN.