Router vs Switch - Difference and Comparison

Also Compare

Cameras Cars Cell Phones GPS Systems Processors Tennis Players more..

From Diffen

	Router	Switch
Cost:	More expensive than hubs or switches	Costlier than hubs
Manufacturers:	Cisco, Juniper Networks, Belkin, Extreme Networks, Huawei, Netgear	Sun Systems, Oracle, Belkin, Linksys, and Net Gear, Huawei
Function:	Routers connect two or more logical subnets, which do not necessarily map 1-1 to the physical interfaces of the router.	Network switches inspect data packets as they are received, determining the source and destination device of that packet, and forwarding it appropriately
Definition:	A router is a computer tailored to the tasks of routing and forwarding information. Routers generally contain a specialized operating system, RAM, NVRAM, flash memory, and one or more processors, as well as two or more network interfaces.	A way of routing electricity and data flow patterns through circuits based on binary decisions
Technical Specifications:		Network switches operate at layer two (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model.

Routers and switches are both computer networking devices. They allow one or more computers to be connected to other computers, networked devices, or to other networks.

However, the functions of a hub, switch and router are quite different, even if at times they are integrated into a single device. Routers connect two or more logical subnets, which do not necessarily map one-to-one to the physical interfaces of the router. The term layer 3 switch often is used interchangeably with router, but switch is really a general term without a rigorous technical definition. In marketing usage, it is generally optimized for Ethernet LAN interfaces and may not have other physical interface types.

1 Function of a router vs. switch
2 Router vs. Switch for wireless networks
3 Intelligence in a router vs. switch
4 Related Articles
5 References

[edit] Function of a router vs. switch

A router is a more sophisticated device than a switch. Traditional routers are designed to join multiple area networks (LANs and WANs). Routers serve as intermediate destinations for network traffic. They receive TCP/IP packets, look inside each packet to identify the source and target IP addresses, then forward these packets as needed to ensure the data reaches its final destination.

A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one local area network (LAN). Switches are incapable of joining multiple networks or sharing an Internet connection. A home network with a switch must designate one computer as the gateway to the Internet, and that device must possess two network adapters for sharing, one for the home LAN and one for the Internet WAN. With a router, all home computers connect to the router equally, and it performs the equivalent gateway functions.