One (adequate) way to do this is to extend the notion of VLANs. Customers want circuits that allow them to not only trunk VLANs but to use and and all of the 4095 possible VLAN IDs without having to check with their service provider first. Service providers like to aggregate as many customers onto a single link as possible - otherwise they can't be price competitive. This can also be done on older / lower spec switches using the same concepts - 802.1Q tunnelling is supported in most of the gear you'll find on eBay. In this post I'll walk through setting up a Cisco 3560 to act as a central QinQ switch and how to set up a few example topologies. With a QinQ switch at the heart of your lab network it's possible to stand up completely arbitrary topologies with very little effort, no re-cabling and even set it up from a remote location.
If you're sick and tired of re-cabling your lab every time you want to try out a new topology then you should probably consider using a QinQ tunnelling switch instead.
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