How do VLANs affect broadcast traffic in a network?

VLANs, or Virtual Local Area Networks, play a pivotal role in managing broadcast traffic within a network. By segmenting a network into different VLANs, you create separate broadcast domains. This means that broadcast messages sent by devices in one VLAN will only be received by devices that are also part of that same VLAN.

As a consequence, broadcast traffic is significantly reduced across the overall network. Instead of all devices receiving every broadcast message, only those in the same VLAN are impacted, which optimizes network performance and reduces unnecessary load on devices outside the VLAN. This selective communication helps maintain more efficient bandwidth usage and improves the overall scalability of the network infrastructure.