CEF on Router is done by hardware?

[OMAR CANDARAVE]

Hi Experts,

I would like to know if the CEF process on a router is done by an ASIC circuit? I mean by hardware at the same way than in a switch? or that's done by the CPU of the router?

Thanks in advance!

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

CEF is neither hardware or software, it is an optimised forwarding table.

Whether the forwarding is done in hardware or software depends on the device ie. as you say switches forward in hardware whereas with routers it depends on the actual model ie. some are software only and some are hardware based.

Both hardware and software routers use CEF as do L3 switches. 

See this recent thread for more details -

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12416511/ip-cef-router

and if you have any more queries then please post back here.

Jon

[OMAR CANDARAVE]

Thanks Jon, let me check the link... :)