Brief Introduction to upgrade from L2 Switch to L3 Switch

Since Layer-3 switches can be considered as composed of routers and common switches, You can first try to install some modules with routing functions during assembly, in this way, there is a layer-3 Switch rich in routing functions.

Its functions are equally powerful. Recently, the price of vswitches has been greatly reduced. Some models of some domestic brands have fallen below RMB, which is almost the same as that of hubs. With the updates of People's cognition and the demand for bandwidth, switch replacement of the hub in the network architecture is the trend of the times, and "switching to the desktop" is also expected and feasible.

Limitations of L2 Switches

However, these cheap switches are called "Layer 2 switches ". It works on the data link layer, the second layer of the OSI model. It records the MAC address and the associated port of the Computer Nic contained in the data frame by establishing an exchange table in the memory.

The switch only transmits the data frame to the corresponding port. If there is no record of the destination address in the exchange table, it can only send the data frame to all ports in broadcast mode. Therefore, all switches currently provide VLAN Division functions. VLAN division is generally specified by ports. data frames are only sent to the ports of the same VLAN, which improves performance and reduces bandwidth.

However, such vswitches can only be used on networks with less complex structures. For example, the entire network has only one CIDR block, or the computers in different CIDR blocks do not access each other. In other cases, such switches are insufficient in functions. Therefore, they are often used only as trunk switches for large networks and are responsible for the last switch from "switch to desktop.

The trunk switch must use the "layer-3 Switch". Simply put, "layer-3 Switch" is the "layer-2 switch" that adds the routing function ", it allows user data to be transmitted over the Internet without the need for another router.

In addition, the forwarding speed is higher than that of normal routers (except for super routers ). However, the enhancement of functions inevitably leads to a rise in the price. Compared with the second-level switch with less than yuan, the price of the third-level switch is generally more than tens of thousands of yuan, of course, this is also related to the prevalence of these switches.

"Assemble" layer-3 switches

This makes some organizations feel embarrassed when selecting network devices. High-end switches are expensive and low-end switches cannot meet the requirements. In the end, they can only go back to the next step and still use routers and hubs to build networks. In fact, when the requirements are not very high, we can use other devices as gateways to upgrade "Layer 2 switches" to "Layer 3 switches.

Since the "layer-3 Switch" can be considered as composed of a router and a common switch, the simplest way is to add a router. However, a computer installed with the Windows 2000 Server operating system can also do this, especially now, the price of Computer Accessories is greatly reduced.

Assemble a machine that is enough to meet the requirements for only 5000 or 6000 yuan. However, it is not possible to connect two network segments using two network adapters. This machine can be accessed by any network segment, however, it cannot be used as a gateway to access other machines with different network segments.

1. Correct Interpretation and test of vswitch Port
2. Summarize the market status of high-end Switches
3. Focuses on core layer switch faults
4. PythonAndroid
5. Let's talk about the stacking of Ethernet switches.