Design and Analysis of VLAN-Driven Access Control and Secure Communication in Ring-Based Switched Networks

Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science) Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, India
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science) Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, India
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science) Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, India
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science) Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, India
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science) Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, India
Dept. of Research and development Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, India

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Abstract

Secure access control and traffic separation is required today in order to allow networks to communicate securely and remain intact. In this paper we investigate how VLANs can be used as an effective method of creating logical access control and secure communication within a redundant switched networking environment. A redundant, three-switch ring topology was created and tested using Cisco Packet Tracer, to test VLAN behaviors, traffic separation, MAC addresses, and how packets are routed through a dynamic network. We also set up our network so that when we connect two or more switches together, IEEE 802.1Q would enable us to use all the VLANs on each individual switch and rapidly spanning tree protocol (RSTP) would remove the loops from the switches allowing our network to function properly. Our research studied how DHCP addresses were assigned to devices connected to the switches, how packets were forwarded through the switches, how broadcasts were contained within the network segments, and how quickly a failure could occur in case one of the switches failed by analyzing the packets at the level they passed through the switches. The results showed that VLAN based segmentation effectively restricted the spread of unauthorized traffic, established well-defined boundaries for authorized communication among network segments and maintained network reliability and availability. Also, the use of RSTP enabled the rapid resolution of link failures in the event of a redundant link failure. Overall, it appears that the combination of VLAN based segmentation with control functions provided an effective means of managing secure access to a network segment and improving the resiliency of the network.