Switches

A switch determines whether the frame should be forwarded to the other network
segment based on the destination MAC address
A switch has many ports with many network segments connected to them. A
switch chooses the port to which the destination device or workstation is
connected.
Switches generally operate at the data link layer of the OSI model.
As soon as switch receives a frame on its part, it will read MAC address
refer MAC Table and take forwarding decision.
MAC address is Layer 2 address, MAC Table is Layer 2 Table hence switch is a
layer 2 device.
0n receiving a frame on its port, switch will open Layer 2 information, read
Destination MAC address, refer MAC Table and forward the frame to
relevant part only and not to all other ports.
 Switch Creates multiple copies of broadcast frame received on a port and Micro-segmentation of a Network
forward it to all other pins.
 Switch cannot broadcast, but will forward broadcast frame received on a port
to all other ports How does the MAC table get built?
 reduces collision domain size
 Keeps track of frames being sent between hosts.

 Records the information when there is a response.

Because Switch does self-learning of MAC addresses in MAC Table,

hence MAC Table size becomes huge.
Huge MAC Table has 3 issues; High memory Utilization; High CPU
utilization; Frame forwarding delay.
To overcome these issues following solutions were created
— Cisco defined a limit of 4096 MAC entries in its MAC table.
— Any MAC entry in MAC Table that is not sending frame in 5 minutes will be
considered as stale and removed from MAC Table.
Ethernet switches are becoming popular connectivity solutions because
• reduces network congestion
• maximizes bandwidth
Switching table
Routers
The Router is a networking device which forwards the data packet between the
computer networks.
 Routers – directs traffic based on the destination IP address
 Routers build routing tables
 Routers decode packets
 Finds the best path to take to get to the destination
 Routers do not forward broadcasts

FUNCTIONS OF A ROUTER

1. Restrict broadcasts to the LAN

2. Act as the default gateway.
3. Perform Protocol Translation (Wired Ethernet to Wireless/Wi-Fi, or Ethernet
to CATV)
4. Move (route) data between networks
5. Learn and advertise loop free paths
6. Calculate 'best paths' to reach network destinations.

How does the Router work?

 The router adds the network address and subnet for each interface to
its routing table along with the name of the interface itself.
 The router has a simple static default route to send all non-local data
out the network port connected to the cable company.
 When the router receives a web page request from your computer, it
checks the destination IP address against its routing table.
 The bits forming the destination IP address in the IP packet are used as
a hash key to point to the correct route, which in turn points to the
correct network interface that the packet should be forwarded out of.
 The router transmits the packet out the correct interface, to the next
router, which repeats the process until the packet reaches the
destination.

The process is mostly the same for any router.