Hiya,

I've been perusing through the wiki learning how to create and manage VLANs. So far I have found 3 ways of doing it.

Using "old" Switch chips (QCA8337, AR8316, AR8327, AR8227 and AR7240)
These seem to be found in the smaller Mikrotik kit, eg RB951/G, RB2011, etc.
Of these chips only QCA8337, AR8327 can do hybrid ports

Using "new" Switch chips (QCA-8511, QCA-8513L, QCA-8519)
These are found in the CRS devices.
They can all do hybrid ports.

Using VLAN interfaces and Bridges.
These can be done on all Mikrotik hardware as I understand it.

Annoyingly the configuration between the 'old' and 'new' chips is different enough to not be copypastable. Which leads me to wonder "why don't I use the method that works on all hardware?". Is it purely a CPU thing? Are there any other limitations?

Thanks,

Alex

due to two reasons:

- VLAN in switch chip = done by hardware. VLAN interface = done by software (Routerboard CPU). So hardware limits apply.
- Even if you can do everything VLAN related on the switch chip, the moment you need that VLAN to reach L3 (e.g. assign an IP), you'll need to create a VLAN (software) interface.

There are also some routerboards (CCR series but for the first generation CCR1009) that don't have switch chips at all.

There are also some routerboards (CCR series but for the first generation CCR1009) that don't have switch chips at all.

Yeah - we have a CCR1016 that has no switch chips, so that would have to be 'software' VLAN, but its grunty enough to handle it.
What about things like RB951Gs? Do they have enough grunt to do a small number (<10) of VLANs in software?

Thanks,

Alex

Yes, they're perfectly fine. Post an export and will point out any further potential optimizations I may see.

what's the expected bandwidth traversing the 951G?

Yes, they're perfectly fine. Post an export and will point out any further potential optimizations I may see.

Thank you, that would be awesome. It won't be for a couple of weeks, I'm just getting prepped for our summer holidays!

what's the expected bandwidth traversing the 951G?

About all I can say is "up to 1gbit" as that's what the trunk port will be. That'll be hybrid though, so not all of the data will be being tagged by the 951. Some will come in already tagged.

Thanks,

Alex