Subject: RE: switch vs. router

From: huangjianbo <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 14:47:04 +0800

Dear Mr. Yao,

So many replies, I am reading them.

Some idea now, but still not very clear.  I want the most distinctive ones.

Concluded from these mail, one most attractive is the router decrease TTL,
while switch not.  And some are talking about progagation of the broadcast.
I need further think.

Another question I want to ask is that if the layer 3 switchs own ip
addresses for every ports?

Truly yours,
Huang Jianbo
 
Mobile Communication Software Engineer
SMD Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd.
Phone:	+86-21-5854 1240 * 7678	(Shanghai Bell Co. Pu Dong Office)
	+86-21-6495 7700 * 334	(Shanghai Da Tang Mobile Co. Cao He Jing
Office)
Fax:	+86-21-5031 7224		(Shanghai Bell Co. Pu Dong Office)
Email:	[email-masked]
	[email-masked]
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Yao jian jia , SSMC ST (SHA) [mailto:[email-masked].
CN]
Sent: 2001年3月20日 12:55
To: [email-masked]
Subject: switch vs. router

hello, did you get enough message about your paper? what's your idea about
the difference now?/yao

---

From: "Stephen Sprunk" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 18:13:34 -0600

> Some idea now, but still not very clear.  I want the most distinctive
ones.

"router" is the technical term for any device which forwards data based
on Layer 3 information.

"bridge" is the technical term for any device which forwards data based
on Layer 2 information.

"switch" is a marketing term meaning "fast".

Therefore, "L2 switch" means "fast bridge" and "L3 switch" means "fast
router".  There are also ATM switches, telephone switches, etc.
"switch" without any qualifiers is essentially meaningless unless
everyone agrees on the context -- and obviously those responding to this
thread are not in agreement.

> Concluded from these mail, one most attractive is the router decrease
> TTL, while switch not.  And some are talking about progagation of the
> broadcast. I need further think.

None of those details is relevant.  A proper L3 switch (er, fast router)
will do the exact same things as a normal router.  If a particular
product fails to handle certain packets or fields properly, it doesn't
mean it's no longer a router -- it's just a non-compliant one.

> Huang Jianbo

S

     |          |         Stephen Sprunk, K5SSS, CCIE #3723
    :|:        :|:        Network Design Consultant, GSOLE
   :|||:      :|||:       New office: RCDN2 in Richardson, TX
.:|||||||:..:|||||||:.    Email: [email-masked]