Is short for Virtual Local Access Network. It describes a network of systems that are simulating to be on the same network. They are bound at OSI Layer 2 (the datalink layer) which means they can communicate as if connected by wire while they can in fact be on different LAN‘s and be physically far apart. VLAN’s are often used to divide LANs into subsets that are allowed to share certain information and devices. Or to create a group of systems around the world that belong to a certain group in the same organization.