KW S wrote: > > Dear all > > I have a little confusion here > > Layer 3 switching is hardware based routing. > > If this is correct, does it means that switching path in a > router like netflow
I think netflow on a router is software based, isn't it? But it's certainly helping in the job of switching packets using Layer 3 information. It's doing Layer 3 switching, whether it's hardware-baed or not. > and distributed switching is the same as L3 > switching Distributed switching could certainly be called L3 switching. I don't think Cisco uses that term, but it's technically accurate and goes along with your definition that Layer 3 switching is hardware-based routing of packets (forwarding of packets). If you look at older books and documents, before LAN switches existed, and we just had bridges and routers, Cisco router documentation used to say this: A router has two jobs: path determination switching of packets That confused people when LAN swtiches came out, so they started saying A router has two jobs: path determination forwarding of packets A router works at Layer 3. That switching (or forwarding or routing) of packets always was "Layer 3 switcing," even though nobody called it that. We were doing "Layer 3 switching" long before marketing started using the term to specifically mean "hardward-based routing," and before the new-fangled switches that are really routers with a lot of switch ports built in came out. It's just a matter of packaging. That's something marketing people deal with. We are engineers. We use the term switching in the same way engineers have used it for many years when talking about switching telegraph signals, telephone calls, current through an electrical circuit, trains on a train track, and packets through an internetworking device. Don't forget that. WE ARE ENGINEERS. :-) We do the real work. Marketing makes up names for what we do, packages what we do, and gives advice to the other people who do the real work, the SALES people. They can make up any names they want. The names don't really have much to do with operating and troubleshooting networks. Priscilla > > Thanks > > KWS > > Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=65955&t=65916 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
