Switching Fundamentals 1

NETW-207 Assignment

Switching Fundamentals 1

1. What is the difference between a switch and a hub?

Switches can filter packets to make sure they go to the right port, where a hub are not configurable. Hubs are ideal for smaller networks with less than 30 workstations, any larger and a switch should be used.

2. What is the difference between a switch and a bridge?

Switches and Bridges are very similar. Both can filter packets based on the Mac Address. Bridges, however are used to allow a greater distance capability of a network while lessening overall traffic, and switches are used to mainly for filtering and being able to create multiple VLANS. Also, Bridges translate two different systems.

3. What is a cut-through switch? Are cut-through switches also fragment-free switches?

Cut-Through switches are utilized at the core level and allows for faster travel of packets through switches. It does not check the integrity of the frames and just streams it to the destination port. Yes, they are fragment-free. First six bytes are read and are very fast. Typically High-end switches…anything less than 64 bytes is a fragment. This limit is to stop unresolved collisions. Fragment-free does not accept fragments.

4. Why are switches faster than routers?

There are less filtering criteria and protocols to follow which reduces overall latency. A router makes it forwarding decisions from its software. As a switch makes its forwarding decisions from the hardware

5. Describe the process performed by a switch when a frame arrives at an interface.

There are three major steps taken once a packet is received. The first is routing, followed by forwarding or switching, and finally followed by encapsulation.

Look up mac address in table, if not there it sends out a signal to look for it on network. Then sends it to the proper port.