Overview GVRP

GVRP (GARP VLAN Registration Protocol), known as GARP VLAN registration protocol, is an application protocol defined by GARP. It dynamically maintains VLAN information in switches based on the protocol mechanism of GARP. All switches supporting GVRP feature can receive VLAN registration information from other switches and dynamically update local VLAN registration information, including current VLAN on the switch and which ports these VLANs contain, etc., and all switches supporting GVRP feature can spread local VLAN registration information to other switches, so as to make the VLAN configuration of all devices supporting GVRP features in the same switch network be consistent on in terms of interoperability. The VLAN registration information transmitted through GVRP includes not only the static VLAN information manually configured locally, but also the dynamic VLAN information from other switches. Note that the leave message of GVRP cannot delete the VLAN manually configured locally, that is to say, the priority of manually configured VLAN is higher than that of GVRP.

GVRP realizes the dynamic registration, maintenance and logout of VLAN port member information. If the VLAN does not exist, the VLAN will be created dynamically; if the number of VLAN port members is 0, the VLAN will be deleted dynamically, that is, the port will be added to the VLAN or deleted from the VLAN dynamically, which also realizes the dynamic configuration of VLAN on the switch.

GVRP can dynamically configure VLANs, so it is not necessary to configure all VLANs of all devices, but only some devices, especially edge devices and some special VLANs. Other devices will be automatically configured through GVRP. Now the enterprise network is usually large and there are many VLANs. GVRP function greatly reduces the configuration work of administrators, and reduces the possibility of manual error.

Moreover, when the network topology changes, the VLAN can be automatically configured to ensure the connectivity between VLANs.