What is Switching and Routing in Networking

Switching works at the second layer of the OSI model that is Data Link Layer(DLL). Switching is the movement of the packets from one device to another and the only condition is that all the devices involving this process should be on the same network. Also, we can refer to a switch as a multiport bridge. By looking at the MAC address that is presented in the packet’s data link header, it is possible to determine where a packet should be sent.

The switch uses a database which contains,

1. MAC address
2. What port they are connected to.

Unlike routers, switches can be used in both the half-duplex transmission mode as well as full-duplex transmission mode. And one of the major characteristics is it allows auto-negotiation. It can also allow the broadcast domain. Switches can be only be used in LAN(Local Area Network)

Routing operates on the third layer of the OSI model that we called Network Layer. Switching is the movement of the packets from one device to another and the condition is that all the devices involving this process should be on the different networks. By using the Network ID presented in the Network Layer header, a router can determine where to send packets. The router uses the routing table to determine which is the destination host.

Also, read…

• Cisco IOS Command Line Modes
• What is a Subinterface in a Cisco Router

Multiple logical subnets can be connected using routers. By using routers we can transmit data between home computers and the modem and also between the home computers. The transmission mode of the router is full-duplex, but we can change it to half-duplex if required. Not only the routers does not allow the broadcast domain but also it breaks the broadcast domain.

Unlike switches, routers can be used in any of the following networks,LAN(Local Area Network), MAN(Metropolitan Area Network), WAN(Wide Area Network). The speed of a router in the case of wired router is 1Mbps-100 Mbps but in the case of a wired router, the speed will be 100Mbps to 1Gbps.

Major differences are,

Switch

• It is a layer 2 device.
• It operates on the Data Link Layer(DLL) of OSI models.
• It communicates by using frames.
• It identifies network devices by using the MAC address.
• It uses CAM(content Addressable Table) for the MAC address.
• Support both full-duplex and half-duplex transmission mode.
• It allows the broadcast domain.
• Used in LAN.

Router

• It is a layer 3 device.
• It operates on Network Layer(DLL) of OSI models.
• It communicates by using frames.
• It identifies network devices by using IP addresses.
• It uses a routing table to get the IP address.
• Support full-duplex transmission mode.
• It does not allow the broadcast domain.
• It can be used in any of WAN, LAN, MAN networks.

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