Method to support VLANs on a phoneline network

摘要

The present invention is a method of communicating within a phone line LAN. The method includes the assignment of a unique VLAN ID to each node of a VLAN. A VLAN header is attached at a source node of the frame to each frame to be communicated within the VLAN. The VLAN header contains identification information associated with the VLAN. The VLAN header is inserted by a network interface device driver into a frame header. Data communication within the VLAN is controlled at the nodes of the VLAN by examining incoming frames for the presence or absence of the VLAN header. The VLAN header is stripped at the destination nodes of the VLAN from the frame header and a remaining part of the frame is passed to a software device driver arrangement.