What Are The Functions of Network Switches?

Aug 17 , 2022 1031

In today's highly developed modern network, the network brings people some convenience, but when people through the network video, online office, etc., the switch in the server room is silently providing us with the stability of network transmission. So what is a switch and its function on the network in the end? Here's how to find out.

What is a network switch?

In layman's terms, a network switch is a hardware device used to connect to multiple end devices and assist them in exchanging data on the same network. Imagine that there are computers or printers, servers, etc. on the network need to communicate with other devices, and the switch is like a bridge in the middle of them, it can quickly determine the origin of the packet, the direction of the packet, which helps to accurately and efficiently transmit data.

Unlike a traditional router, a switch prefers to communicate between devices on a local area network (LAN), while a router is mainly responsible for exchanging data between different networks. For example, within an organization, a switch ensures that computers in various departments can seamlessly share files, and a router is responsible for connecting the organization's network to the external Internet.

The main roles of switches are physical addressing and network topology and error checking and frame sequencing, traffic control. Nowadays, switches also come with some added features, such as support for VLAN (Virtual LAN), support for link aggregation, and even some have firewall capabilities.

In the practical application of the switch, what do we generally use to do with it?

1. Connect to the same type of network

The rapid development of network interconnection has led to the emergence of network switching technology, and network switches have emerged. A generalized switch is a device that performs information exchange functions in a communication system.

When the network scale is expanded, it has become unrealistic to simply extend the network cable. And for different LANs, to achieve data transfer between each other, sharing network resources, you need to have a dedicated connection device to achieve network expansion. At the same time, the increase of sites in the network, the expansion of geographical scope, and the growth of business volume have prompted the rapid development of network interconnection.

2. Interconnect different types of networks

In addition to being able to connect to the same type of network, switches can also interconnect between different types of networks, such as Ethernet and Fast Ethernet. Many switches today offer high-speed ports that support Fast Ethernet or FDDI to connect to other switches in the network or to provide additional bandwidth for critical servers with large bandwidth.

3. Provide fast network services

Sometimes in order to provide faster access, we can connect some important network computers directly to the ports of the switch. In this way, the network's key servers and important users have faster access speeds and support greater traffic.

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