- A network switch is a hardware device which connects all the networking devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive, process and forward data to destination device.
- Switch forward data only to one or multiple devices that need to receive it, without broad casting the same data out of each of its ports.
- A network switch is a multi-port network bridge that uses hardware addresses to process and forward data.
Role of switch in network:
- Switch may operate at one or more layers of the OSI model, including the data link and network layers.
- A device that operates simultaneously at more than one of these layers is known as multi-layer switch.
History:
- In 1983 two documents were merged to form a standard called the Basic Reference Model for Open Systems Interconnections.
- The standard is usually referred to to as the OSI reference model or OSI model.
- It was published in 1984 by both the OSI
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