Network switches or Cisco switch we used every day but most of us hardly know that how network switches work, and how a switch really functions. Switches, a computer networking device that connects network segments, commonly refer to a multi-port network bridge that process and route data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Switches that additionally process data at the network layer (Layer 3) and above are often referred to as Layer 3 switches or multilayer switches.
Prior to switches, Hubs were the standard for connecting devices on a local area network (LAN). The problem with hubs was that everything that went through them had to share the bandwidth of the link, bandwidth was wasted because all traffic was sent to all devices, and there were a lot of collisions because the hub didn’t do anything to prevent them. A switch fixes these problems.
Here are some facts about switches that you should know:
a. Switches work at Layer 2 of the cisco switch IOS model, not Layer 1 like a hub
b. Switches switch Ethernet frames
c. Switches don’t look at IP address information, only Ethernet MAC addresses
d. Switches keeps a table of all MAC addresses traversing the switch and what port they are on (this table is called the bridge forwarding table or CAM table)
e. Switches only send traffic to the devices that are the destination for that traffic, saving bandwidth
Each device connected to the switch gets the full bandwidth of the switch port because the switch prevents collisions
Now that you know that the switch has the bridge forwarding table and uses that to intelligently send traffic, a common question is, “what if the destination MAC address for the traffic that the switch receives is not in the bridge forwarding table?” What does the switch do with that Ethernet frame? The answer is that the switch will flood that frame out all ports on the cisco switch configuration. The switch will then monitor the traffic for the response from that frame and see what device, on what port, responded to that flooded frame. That information will be put in the bridge forwarding table so that, next time, the switch won’t have to flood that traffic.
Of particular importance when it comes to switches are port speed and duplex. The speed of a port can be set to 10Mb, 100Mb, or 1000Mb (1GB), or Auto negotiate, depending on what the switch and the connecting device offers. Most switch ports and devices use auto negotiate to find the best speed and duplex available. However, this doesn’t always work. Some devices have trouble with this and you may have to go in to the switch and hardcode the speed or duplex.
Speaking of duplex, what is duplex? Duplex is set to either half, full, or is auto negotiated. A half-duplex connection is where only one device can send or receive at a time. A full duplex connection is where both devices can send and receive at the same time.
Thus, if you have a 100Mb half-duplex connection, cisco switch command only sending at 100Mb OR receiving at 100Mb can happen at the same time. If you have a 100Mb full duplex connection, you can effectively get 200Mb out of the link because you could be sending 100Mb and receiving 100Mb at the same time.

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