Principle and application of TCP/IP protocol Note 16: switch and router differences

1. Switch and Router differences

(1) Switch:

The switch is a kind of network device which can complete the function of encapsulating and forwarding packets based on the identification of MAC (network card's hardware address). The switch can "learn" the MAC address and store it in the internal Address table, by establishing a temporary switching path between the originator of the data frame and the target receiver, so that the data frame is directly from the source address to the destination site. Today's switches are divided into: two-layer switches, three-layer switches, or higher-level switches. Layer three switches can also have routing capabilities, and faster forwarding rates than low-end routers. Its main features are: one-time routing, multiple forwarding.

(2) Router:

Routers, also known as the selector, are devices that interconnect at the network level. It is more complex than a bridge and has greater flexibility. Routers have a stronger heterogeneous network interconnection capability, including LAN and WAN connectivity objects. In the past, routers have been used for wide-area networks in recent years, and because of the high performance of routers, the price has dropped to close to the bridge, so routers are used more and more in LAN interconnection. A router is a network device that connects multiple networks or segments, which can "translate" data between different networks or segments so that they can "read" each other's data to form a larger network. Routers have two typical functions, namely data channel function and control function. Data channel functions include forwarding decision, backplane forwarding and output link scheduling, which is usually done by specific hardware, and the control function is usually implemented by software, including information exchange between neighboring routers, system configuration, system management, etc.

Routers can have WAN ports, broadband connections, static IP addresses, and dynamic IP addresses.

Switch only LAN port, connected to the intranet, less function.

Switch is the mailbox, only responsible for receiving and sending, routers are couriers, by address, the difference between the mailbox, categorized, flexible reception and delivery.

2. Further analysis:

The difference between a router and a switch is that a switch can only work in an environment that is under the same network segment, but it simply expands the network port. While routers are used for communication between subnets of different network segments, it can form a local area network and manage the local area network. And there are firewalls, DHCP servers, and so on.
Here's one explanation: If you use a switch to get 4 computers online, you need 4 IPs. And with the router, only need an IP, this IP to the router, the router to the following LAN computer assigned IP. That is, the switch to 4 IP money, the router as long as 1 IP money.

Principle and application of TCP/IP protocol Note 16: switch and router differences