29/01/2021 Configuration of Router on a stick - GeeksforGeeks

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Configuration of Router on a stick

Last Updated : 09 Aug, 2019

Prerequisite – Access and trunk por ts

Switches divide broadcast domain through VL AN (Vir tual L AN). VL AN is a par titioned

broadcast domain from a single broadcast domain. Switch doesn’t for ward packets

across different VL ANs by itself. If we want to make these vir tual L ANs communicate

with each other, a concept of Inter VL AN Routing is used.

Inter VL AN Routing :

Inter VL AN routing is a process in which we make different vir tual L ANs to communicate

with each other irrespective of where the VL ANs are present (on same switch or

different switch). Inter VL AN Routing can be achieved through a layer-3 device i.e.

Router or layer-3 Switch. When the Inter VL AN Routing is done through Router the it is

known as Router on a stick.

Router On a Stick :

The Router ’s inter face is divided into sub-inter faces, which acts as a default gateway to

their respective VL ANs.

Configuration :

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Here is a topology in which there is a router and a switch and some end hosts. 2

different VL ANs have been created on the switch. The router ’s inter face is divided into 2

sub-inter faces (as there are 2 different VL ANs) which will acts as a default gateway to

their respective VL ANs. Then router will per form Inter VL AN Routing and the VL ANs

will be communicate with each other.

First we will assign IP address to the host PC1 as 192.168.1.10/24, Ser ver

192.168.1.20/24 and the other host PC2 will have IP address 192.168.2.10/24

manually.

Now, we will make sub-inter face of fa0/0 as fa0/0.1 and fa0/0.2 and assign IP

address as 192.168.1.1/24 and 192.168.2.1/24 respectively on router ’s por ts.

r1# int fa0/0.1

r1# encapsulation dot1q 2
r1# ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
r1# int fa0/0.2
r1# encapsulation dot1q 3
r1# ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0

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NOTE : Here encapsulation type dot1q is used for frame tagging between the 2 different

VL AN. When the switch for wards packet of one VL AN to another, it inser ts a VL AN into

the Ethernet header.

Now, we will make 2 different VL ANs on switch namely VL AN 2 and VL AN 3 giving

names HR_dept and sales_dept.

Switch# vlan 2
Switch# name HR_dept
Switch# vlan 3
Switch# name sales_dept

Switch# int range fa0/1-2

Switch# switchport mode access
Switch# switchport access vlan 2
Switch# int fa0/3
Switch# switchport mode access
Switch# switchport access vlan 3

Here, we have assigned VL AN 2 to the specific switch por ts fa0/1, fa0/2 and vlan 3 to

fa0/3 respectively.

NOTE : int range fa0/1-2 command is used as there are more than one host present in a

single VL AN.

Now to check reachability of PC2 from PC1, we will tr y to PING PC2 from PC1.

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From the above figures, we see that the packet is delivered to the router by the switch,

because now the broadcast domain have been divided by the different VL ANs present

on the switch therefore, the packet will be delivered to the default gateway (as PC2 is

present on different network) and then to the destination.

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Article Tags : Computer Networks-Network Layer , Computer Networks

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