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Hello all, I am in a networking class and am learning about switches. My question is, is an uplink port the same thing as trunking? Thank you.

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An uplink port would be used to pass traffic to another switch or router or network device.

A trunk port would be used to pass VLAN traffic between two switches or other network devices.

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Often an uplink is a trunk but a trunk can be any port…
(like most modern switches uplinks can be any port as well)

In older devices they didn’t have mdi-x auto crossover so only assigned ports could be uplinks unless you crimped your own crossover.

a trunk is often handed to a VM Server as well

some trunks only carry some vlans vs all vlans so trunks can be configured differently as well…

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Short answer is no. They are not related. Not all switches support trunking. Must be a level 2 switch for that.

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(1) uplink will forward normal traffic to other switches or any devices. Normally the interface speed used for uplinks will be high.

(2) Trunk link will be used for carrying vlan traffic to other switches or any other devices.

If you are using vlans on switches and you want that vlan traffic to be forwarded to other switches then you have to configure trunk links.

If you are not configuring trunk links then VLAN info will not be carried to other switches.

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#2 - partially true…

an unmanged switch usually (Current ones) will pass tagged traffic and can be untagged by a device… so it is passed just not in a managed manner… just to confuse the issue… LOL

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The easy method - Uplink is everything, Trunk is Vlan. They do the same thing, but trunks are picky.

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True, thanks for the correction.

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isn’t this going to also depend on the switch you’re using?

EX: A trunk port on a Cisco switch is used for VLANs, a trunk on a HP switch combines multiple ports into one logical link

So technically on a HP switch a trunk port can be an uplink (either to another switch or a network device)

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Removed my own comments. Another comment covered it, in a much easier way than I responded.

An uplink port doesn’t recognize vlan traffic at all. It is only a handoff point. That is level 1.

An uplink port does recognize vlan traffic and may be used in redirecting traffic based on the vlan. This typically is called the trunk port and have limited vlan support or all vlans, pending on the config. Thatlevel 2.

Level 3 is level 2 plus ACLs or rules that allow/deny traffic based on the rules.

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Multiple ports into one logical link is a LAG. Pending on the use of vlans it could be setup in access mode or trunk mode.

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Alex is actually correct. And this is part of the problem. There is no -standardized- definition of the terms being used.
Company One says A is trunk port, B is uplink.
Company Two says B is trunk, there is no uplink
Company Three says X is trunk, B is uplink.