The nit I'm picking is inline... (I'm feeling like chipping in tonight) >>> "The Long and Winding Road" 02/17/03 06:13PM >>>
[snip] if I have a 75xx router with 300 ethernet ports, and I bridge all those ports, do I have an L3 switch, or a router? [KD] You have a router performing L2 operations (forwarding, switching, bridging -- whatever). Would a cheap Linksys switch be faster? What makes a L3 switch in my mind is where the forwarding happens. If the L3 CPU (new way to look at it?) has to handle every packet, that's a router. If the first L3 packet is handled by the CPU which then programs ASICs to handle the rest of the flow without bothering the CPU, that's an L3 switch. Is there a difference from a packet/network perspective? No. The L2 headers and L3 headers are all properly updated in both cases (at least we *hope* they are) and traffic is delivered most of the time. (If it was delivered all the time, networks wouldn't need us to fix them) :-) What does this mean to us? Not much other than for capacity planning. IMHO, an L3 switch has a longer life than a router. When I design networks, I don't think L3 switch. I think about routers interconnecting L2 segments. I even draw them that way most of the time. :-) My advice to those having problems with this subject: Replace every occurrence of "layer 3 switch" with "router". [/KD] Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=63230&t=63147 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
