||It has been suggested dat LAN switching be merged into dis articwe. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2016.|
A network switch (awso cawwed switching hub, bridging hub, officiawwy MAC bridge) is a computer networking device dat connects devices togeder on a computer network by using packet switching to receive, process, and forward data to de destination device. Unwike wess advanced network hubs, a network switch forwards data onwy to one or muwtipwe devices dat need to receive it, rader dan broadcasting de same data out of each of its ports.
A network switch is a muwtiport network bridge dat uses hardware addresses to process and forward data at de data wink wayer (wayer 2) of de OSI modew. Some switches can awso process data at de network wayer (wayer 3) by additionawwy incorporating routing functionawity dat most commonwy uses IP addresses to perform packet forwarding; such switches are commonwy known as wayer-3 switches or muwtiwayer switches.
Switches for Edernet are de most common form and de first Edernet switch was introduced by Kawpana in 1990. Switches awso exist for oder types of networks incwuding Fibre Channew, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, and InfiniBand.
- 1 Overview
- 2 Rowe of switches in a network
- 3 Layer-specific functionawity
- 4 Types of switches
- 5 Traffic monitoring on a switched network
- 6 See awso
- 7 References
- 8 Externaw winks
A switch is a device in a computer network dat ewectricawwy and wogicawwy connects togeder oder devices. Muwtipwe data cabwes are pwugged into a switch to enabwe communication between different networked devices. Switches manage de fwow of data across a network by transmitting a received network packet onwy to de one or more devices for which de packet is intended. Each networked device connected to a switch can be identified by its network address, awwowing de switch to reguwate de fwow of traffic. This maximizes de security and efficiency of de network.
When a repeater hub is repwaced wif an Edernet switch, de singwe warge cowwision domain used by de hub is spwit up into smawwer ones, reducing or ewiminating de possibiwity and scope of cowwisions and, as a resuwt, increasing de potentiaw droughput. Because broadcasts are stiww being forwarded to aww connected devices, de newwy formed network segment continues to be a broadcast domain.
A switch is more intewwigent dan a repeater hub, which simpwy retransmits packets out of every port of de hub except de port on which de packet was received, unabwe to distinguish different recipients, and achieving an overaww wower network efficiency.
An Edernet switch operates at de data wink wayer (wayer 2) of de OSI modew to create a separate cowwision domain for each switch port. Each device connected to a switch port can transfer data to any of de oder ones at a time, and de transmissions wiww not interfere – wif de wimitation dat, in hawf dupwex mode, each switch port can onwy eider receive from or transmit to its connected device at a certain time. In fuww dupwex mode, each switch port can simuwtaneouswy transmit and receive, assuming de connected device awso supports fuww dupwex mode.
In de case of using a repeater hub, onwy a singwe transmission couwd take pwace at a time for aww ports combined, so dey wouwd aww share de bandwidf and run in hawf dupwex. Necessary arbitration wouwd awso resuwt in cowwisions, reqwiring retransmissions.
The network switch pways an integraw rowe in most modern Edernet wocaw area networks (LANs). Mid-to-warge sized LANs contain a number of winked managed switches. Smaww office/home office (SOHO) appwications typicawwy use a singwe switch, or an aww-purpose converged device such as a residentiaw gateway to access smaww office/home broadband services such as DSL or cabwe Internet. In most of dese cases, de end-user device contains a router and components dat interface to de particuwar physicaw broadband technowogy. User devices may awso incwude a tewephone interface for Voice over IP (VoIP) protocow.
Segmentation invowves de use of a bridge or a switch (or a router) to spwit a warger cowwision domain into smawwer ones in order to reduce cowwision probabiwity, and to improve overaww network droughput. In de extreme case (i.e. microsegmentation), each device is wocated on a dedicated switch port. In contrast to an Edernet hub, dere is a separate cowwision domain on each of de switch ports. This awwows computers to have dedicated bandwidf on point-to-point connections to de network and awso to run in fuww-dupwex widout cowwisions. Fuww-dupwex mode has onwy one transmitter and one receiver per "cowwision domain", making cowwisions impossibwe.
Rowe of switches in a network
Switches may operate at one or more wayers of de OSI modew, incwuding de data wink and network wayers. A device dat operates simuwtaneouswy at more dan one of dese wayers is known as a muwtiwayer switch.
In switches intended for commerciaw use, buiwt-in or moduwar interfaces make it possibwe to connect different types of networks, incwuding Edernet, Fibre Channew, RapidIO, ATM, ITU-T G.hn and 802.11. This connectivity can be at any of de wayers mentioned. Whiwe de wayer-2 functionawity is adeqwate for bandwidf-shifting widin one technowogy, interconnecting technowogies such as Edernet and token ring is performed easier at wayer 3 or via routing. Devices dat interconnect at de wayer 3 are traditionawwy cawwed routers, so wayer 3 switches can awso be regarded as rewativewy primitive and speciawized routers.
Where dere is a need for a great deaw of anawysis of network performance and security, switches may be connected between WAN routers as pwaces for anawytic moduwes. Some vendors provide firewaww, network intrusion detection, and performance anawysis moduwes dat can pwug into switch ports. Some of dese functions may be on combined moduwes.
In oder cases, de switch is used to create a mirror image of data dat can go to an externaw device. Since most switch port mirroring provides onwy one mirrored stream, network hubs can be usefuw for fanning out data to severaw read-onwy anawyzers, such as intrusion detection systems and packet sniffers.
Whiwe switches may wearn about topowogies at many wayers, and forward at one or more wayers, dey do tend to have common features. Oder dan for high-performance appwications, modern commerciaw switches use primariwy Edernet interfaces.
At any wayer, a modern switch may impwement power over Edernet (PoE), which avoids de need for attached devices, such as a VoIP phone or wirewess access point, to have a separate power suppwy. Since switches can have redundant power circuits connected to uninterruptibwe power suppwies, de connected device can continue operating even when reguwar office power faiws.
Layer 1 (hubs vs. higher-wayer switches)
A network hub, or a repeater, is a simpwe network device dat does not manage any of de traffic coming drough it. Any packet entering a port is fwooded out or "repeated" on every oder port, except for de port of entry. Since every packet is repeated on every oder port, packet cowwisions affect de entire network, wimiting its overaww capacity.
A network switch creates de wayer 1 end-to-end connection onwy virtuawwy, whiwe originawwy it was mandatory. The bridging function of a switch uses information taken from wayer 2 to sewect for each packet de particuwar port(s) it has to be forwarded to, removing de reqwirement dat every node is presented wif aww traffic. As a resuwt, de connection wines are not "switched" witerawwy, instead dey onwy appear dat way on de packet wevew.
There are speciawized appwications in which a network hub can be usefuw, such as copying traffic to muwtipwe network sensors. High-end network switches usuawwy have a feature cawwed port mirroring dat provides de same functionawity.
By de earwy 2000s, dere was wittwe price difference between a hub and a wow-end switch.
A network bridge, operating at de data wink wayer, may interconnect a smaww number of devices in a home or de office. This is a triviaw case of bridging, in which de bridge wearns de MAC address of each connected device.
Cwassic bridges may awso interconnect using a spanning tree protocow dat disabwes winks so dat de resuwting wocaw area network is a tree widout woops. In contrast to routers, spanning tree bridges must have topowogies wif onwy one active paf between two points. The owder IEEE 802.1D spanning tree protocow couwd be qwite swow, wif forwarding stopping for 30 seconds whiwe de spanning tree reconverged. A Rapid Spanning Tree Protocow was introduced as IEEE 802.1w. The newest standard Shortest paf bridging (IEEE 802.1aq) is de next wogicaw progression and incorporates aww de owder Spanning Tree Protocows (IEEE 802.1D STP, IEEE 802.1w RSTP, IEEE 802.1s MSTP) dat bwocked traffic on aww but one awternative paf. IEEE 802.1aq (Shortest Paf Bridging SPB) awwows aww pads to be active wif muwtipwe eqwaw cost pads, provides much warger wayer 2 topowogies (up to 16 miwwion compared to de 4096 VLANs wimit), faster convergence, and improves de use of de mesh topowogies drough increased bandwidf and redundancy between aww devices by awwowing traffic to woad share across aww pads of a mesh network.
Whiwe wayer 2 switch remains more of a marketing term dan a technicaw term, de products dat were introduced as "switches" tended to use microsegmentation and fuww dupwex to prevent cowwisions among devices connected to Edernet. By using an internaw forwarding pwane much faster dan any interface, dey give de impression of simuwtaneous pads among muwtipwe devices. 'Non-bwocking' devices use a forwarding pwane or eqwivawent medod fast enough to awwow fuww dupwex traffic for each port simuwtaneouswy.
Once a bridge wearns de addresses of its connected nodes, it forwards data wink wayer frames using a wayer 2 forwarding medod. There are four forwarding medods a bridge can use, of which de second drough fourf medod were performance-increasing medods when used on "switch" products wif de same input and output port bandwidds:
- Store and forward: de switch buffers and verifies each frame before forwarding it; a frame is received in its entirety before it is forwarded.
- Cut drough: de switch starts forwarding after de frame's destination address is received. When de outgoing port is busy at de time, de switch fawws back to store-and-forward operation, uh-hah-hah-hah. There is no error checking wif dis medod.
- Fragment free: a medod dat attempts to retain de benefits of bof store and forward and cut drough. Fragment free checks de first 64 bytes of de frame, where addressing information is stored. According to Edernet specifications, cowwisions shouwd be detected during de first 64 bytes of de frame, so frames dat are in error because of a cowwision wiww not be forwarded. This way de frame wiww awways reach its intended destination, uh-hah-hah-hah. Error checking of de actuaw data in de packet is weft for de end device.
- Adaptive switching: a medod of automaticawwy sewecting between de oder dree modes.
Whiwe dere are speciawized appwications, such as storage area networks, where de input and output interfaces are de same bandwidf, dis is not awways de case in generaw LAN appwications. In LANs, a switch used for end user access typicawwy concentrates wower bandwidf and upwinks into a higher bandwidf.
Widin de confines of de Edernet physicaw wayer, a wayer-3 switch can perform some or aww of de functions normawwy performed by a router. The most common wayer-3 capabiwity is awareness of IP muwticast drough IGMP snooping. Wif dis awareness, a wayer-3 switch can increase efficiency by dewivering de traffic of a muwticast group onwy to ports where de attached device has signawwed dat it wants to wisten to dat group.
Whiwe de exact meaning of de term wayer-4 switch is vendor-dependent, it awmost awways starts wif a capabiwity for network address transwation, but den adds some type of woad distribution based on TCP sessions.
Layer-7 switches may distribute de woad based on uniform resource wocators (URLs), or by using some instawwation-specific techniqwe to recognize appwication-wevew transactions. A wayer-7 switch may incwude a web cache and participate in a content dewivery network (CDN).
Types of switches
Switches are avaiwabwe in many form factors, incwuding: desktop units not mounted in an encwosure which are typicawwy intended to be used in a home or office environment outside a wiring cwoset; rack-mounted switches for use in an eqwipment rack; warge chassis units wif swappabwe moduwe cards; DIN raiw mounted for use in industriaw environments; and smaww instawwation switches, mounted into a cabwe duct, fwoor box or communications tower, as found, for exampwe, in FTTO Infrastructures.
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- Unmanaged switches – dese switches have no configuration interface or options. They are pwug and pway. They are typicawwy de weast expensive switches, and derefore often used in a smaww office/home office environment. Unmanaged switches can be desktop or rack mounted.
- Managed switches – dese switches have one or more medods to modify de operation of de switch. Common management medods incwude: a command-wine interface (CLI) accessed via seriaw consowe, tewnet or Secure Sheww, an embedded Simpwe Network Management Protocow (SNMP) agent awwowing management from a remote consowe or management station, or a web interface for management from a web browser. Exampwes of configuration changes dat one can do from a managed switch incwude: enabwing features such as Spanning Tree Protocow or port mirroring, setting port bandwidf, creating or modifying virtuaw LANs (VLANs), etc. Two sub-cwasses of managed switches are marketed today:
- Smart (or intewwigent) switches – dese are managed switches wif a wimited set of management features. Likewise "web-managed" switches are switches which faww into a market niche between unmanaged and managed. For a price much wower dan a fuwwy managed switch dey provide a web interface (and usuawwy no CLI access) and awwow configuration of basic settings, such as VLANs, port-bandwidf and dupwex.
- Enterprise managed (or fuwwy managed) switches – dese have a fuww set of management features, incwuding CLI, SNMP agent, and web interface. They may have additionaw features to manipuwate configurations, such as de abiwity to dispway, modify, backup and restore configurations. Compared wif smart switches, enterprise switches have more features dat can be customized or optimized, and are generawwy more expensive dan smart switches. Enterprise switches are typicawwy found in networks wif warger number of switches and connections, where centrawized management is a significant savings in administrative time and effort. A stackabwe switch is a version of enterprise-managed switch.
Typicaw switch management features
- Turn particuwar port range on or off
- Link bandwidf and dupwex settings
- Priority settings for ports
- IP management by IP cwustering
- MAC fiwtering and oder types of "port security" features which prevent MAC fwooding
- Use of Spanning Tree Protocow (STP) and Shortest Paf Bridging (SPB) technowogies
- Simpwe Network Management Protocow (SNMP) monitoring of device and wink heawf
- Port mirroring (awso known as: port monitoring, spanning port, SPAN port, roving anawysis port or wink mode port)
- Link aggregation (awso known as bonding, trunking or teaming) awwows de use of muwtipwe ports for de same connection achieving higher data transfer rates
- VLAN settings. Creating VLANs can serve security and performance goaws by reducing de size of de broadcast domain
- 802.1X network access controw
- IGMP snooping
Traffic monitoring on a switched network
Unwess port mirroring or oder medods such as RMON, SMON or sFwow are impwemented in a switch, it is difficuwt to monitor traffic dat is bridged using a switch because onwy de sending and receiving ports can see de traffic. These monitoring features are rarewy present on consumer-grade switches.
Two popuwar medods dat are specificawwy designed to awwow a network anawyst to monitor traffic are:
- Port mirroring – de switch sends a copy of network packets to a monitoring network connection, uh-hah-hah-hah.
- SMON – "Switch Monitoring" is described by RFC 2613 and is a protocow for controwwing faciwities such as port mirroring.
Anoder medod to monitor may be to connect a wayer-1 hub between de monitored device and its switch port. This wiww induce minor deway, but wiww provide muwtipwe interfaces dat can be used to monitor de individuaw switch port.
- IEEE 802.1D
- "Hubs Versus Switches – Understand de Tradeoffs" (PDF). ccontrows.com. 2002. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
- Thayumanavan Sridhar (September 1998). "Layer 2 and Layer 3 Switch Evowution". cisco.com. The Internet Protocow Journaw. Cisco Systems. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
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- Cisco Catawyst 6500 Series Firewaww Services Moduwe, Cisco Systems,2007
- Switch 8800 Firewaww Moduwe, 3Com Corporation, 2006
- Cisco Catawyst 6500 Series Intrusion Detection System (IDSM-2) Moduwe, Cisco Systems,2007
- Getting Started wif Check Point Fire Waww-1, Checkpoint Software Technowogies Ltd., n, uh-hah-hah-hah.d.
- Matdew Gwidden (October 2001). "Switches and Hubs". About This Particuwar Macintosh bwog. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
- Shuang Yu. "IEEE APPROVES NEW IEEE 802.1aq™ SHORTEST PATH BRIDGING STANDARD". IEEE Standards Association. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
Using de IEEE’s next-generation VLAN, cawwed a Service Interface Identifier (I-SID), it is capabwe of supporting 16 miwwion uniqwe services compared to de VLAN wimit of four dousand.
- Peter Ashwood-Smif (24 Feb 2011). "Shortest Paf Bridging IEEE 802.1aq Overview" (PDF). Huawei. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- Jim Duffy (11 May 2012). "Largest Iwwinois heawdcare system uproots Cisco to buiwd $40M private cwoud". PC Advisor. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
Shortest Paf Bridging wiww repwace Spanning Tree in de Edernet fabric.
- "IEEE Approves New IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Paf Bridging Standard". Tech Power Up. 7 May 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
- D. Fedyk, Ed.,; P. Ashwood-Smif, Ed.,; D. Awwan, A. Bragg,; P. Unbehagen (Apriw 2012). "IS-IS Extensions Supporting IEEE 802.1aq". IETF. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
- Dong, Jiewin, uh-hah-hah-hah. Network Dictionary. Javvin Technowogies Inc. p. 23. ISBN 9781602670006. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- "Cray makes its edernet switches responsive to net conditions". IDG Network Worwd Inc. 1 Juwy 1996. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- S. Sadaye (January 1999), The Ins and Outs of Layer 4+ Switching, NANOG 15,
It usuawwy means one of two dings: - 1. Layer 4 information is used to prioritize and qweue traffic (routers have done dis for years) - 2. Layer 4 information is used to direct appwication sessions to different servers (next generation woad bawancing).
- How worried is too worried? Pwus, a Gwobaw Crossing Story., NANOG maiwing wist archives, S. Gibbard,October 2001
- Tech specs for a sampwe HP "web-managed" switch at de Wayback Machine (archived December 13, 2007)
- Remote Network Monitoring Management Information Base, RFC 2819, S. Wawdbusser,May 2000
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