In this Discussion of the Week, we're accomodating a request from one of our community members, MicGioia!
There's a section in the Admin guide that shortly describes all types of interfaces and several ways they can be deployed:
Basic Interface Deployments
Interface Deployments
Several other articles cover how to configure, deploy or benefit from a certain type of interface, but a simple matrix may come in handy to compare each interface's pros and cons, so here goes:
The Layer2 interface can be augmented with Layer 3 functionality (such as DHCP, NAT, and routing) ,so although it is not strictly Layer 2, the functionality is available on the interface.
Supports: | Vwire | Layer 2 | Layer 3 | Tap |
VLAN tags | y | y | y | y |
Tagged subinterfaces | y | y | y | n |
Untagged subinterfaces | n | n | y | n |
Minimum physical interfaces | 2/vwire | 1 | 1 | 1/tap |
Maximum physical interfaces | 2/vwire | all | all | all |
Routing | n | y | y | n |
NAT | y | y | y | n |
Wirespeed/SPPP | y | y | y | y |
QOS | y | y | y | n |
DHCP | n | y | y | n |
SSL decryption | y | y | y | y-inbound n-outbound |
Captive Portal | y | y | y | n |
Policy based forwarding | n | y | y | n |
Feel free to leave a comment if you think there are other capabilities you'd like to see added to this list.
The original discussion can be followed here.
Thanks for the good tip, MicGioia!
Reaper