VLAN

LiNUX Horizon - VLAN - Virtual Local Area
Network

Short for Virtual Local Area Network (Virual LAN, IEEE 802.1q), a network of computers that behave as if they are connected to the same wire even though they may actually be physically located on different segments of a LAN. VLANs are configured through software rather than hardware, which makes them extremely flexible. One of the biggest advantages of VLANs is that when a computer is physically moved to another location, it can stay on the same VLAN without any hardware reconfiguration and you can have multiple networks on the same cable without having them interfere each other. It is similar to having one cable for every network.