Layer 2 Security Best Practices
Factors affecting layer 2 mitigation techniques

Much of the information covered in this lesson is applicable to many situations. The following cases are meant to highlight implementation of some of the Layer 2 mitigation techniques in specific situations. The various cases considered depend on three factors :

  • The number of security zones in the network design
  • The number of user groups in the network design
  • The number of switch devices in the design

These scenarios can be broken down into eight total cases, as shown in Figure .

The table in Figure can be read as follows. Case #1 involves a network design where there is a single security zone of trust, used by a single user group, and only includes one physical switch. Case #8 involves a network design where there are multiple security zones of trust with multiple user groups and multiple physical switches in the design. An example of case #1 could be a small business network using a broadband connection behind a DSL router or firewall. An example of case #8 could be a large application service provider data center. These cases are discussed in further detail in the following sections.


Web Links