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Difference between Layer 3 switch and Router

vregu_ccna
Level 1
Level 1

I am new to Cisco..

Pls any one help me!!!!

what is the difference between layer 3 swith & Router and difference between Layer 3 and Layer 2 Swith

1 Reply 1

frennzy
Level 1
Level 1

A layer 3 switch *is* a router. However, it is optimized to perform routing in ASICs, providing a speed advantage over a conventional router.

The difference between a layer 3 and a layer 2 switch isn't Cisco specific...it is OSI model specific.

Essentially, and I'm not trying to be pedantic, the difference is the layer that the switch operates on.

In other words, a layer 3 switch switches packets to and from ports based on layer 3 information (IP destination address, basically).

A layer 2 switch switches frames to and from ports based on the layer2/hardware/MAC destination address.

Below is a pretty informative wiki about the OSI 7 layer model.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_seven-layer_model