Which of the following allows for groups of ports on the same switch to operate as a part of different segmented networks?

RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is a Layer 3 distance-vector routing protocol used to exchange routes between routers, not a mechanism for segmenting switch ports.

STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) prevents Layer 2 loops in redundant switch topologies but does not segment ports into different networks.

A VLAN is a Layer 2 feature configured on managed switches that assigns specific ports to distinct logical networks. Devices on different VLANs cannot communicate directly at Layer 2 even though they share the same physical switch, effectively creating separate segmented networks and controlling broadcast traffic between groups.

MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) defines the largest packet size a network interface can transmit and has nothing to do with port segmentation or network isolation.