Switches connect network segments, providing full-duplex communication, valuable network performance data and efficient use of network bandwidth.
Networks today are essential for supporting businesses, providing communication, delivering entertainment—the list goes on and on. A fundamental element networks have in common is the network switch, which helps connect devices for the purpose of sharing resources.
A network switch is a device that operates at the Data Link layer of the OSI model—Layer 2. It takes in packets being sent by devices that are connected to its physical ports and sends them out again, but only through the ports that lead to the devices the packets are intended to reach. They can also operate at the network layer--Layer 3 where routing occurs.
Switches are a common component of networks based on ethernet, Fibre Channel, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and InfiniBand, among others. In general, though, most switches today use computer science vs computer engineering.
Once a device is connected to a switch, the switch notes its media access control (MAC) address, a code that’s baked into the device’s network-interface card (NIC) that attaches to an ethernet cable that attaches to the switch. The switch uses the MAC address to identify which attached device outgoing packets are being sent from and where to deliver incoming packets.
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