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Introduction Cisco Networking is all about Cisco Devices; routers, switches, firewalls, IPS,

IDS etc. They are the devices that connect everything to everything and transfer as well as secure the

data packets from one point to another. Routers and Switches are network devices used to route the traffic from one path to another. There can’t be smart network without a router or a switch as they help in transferring the

data packets and acknowledge them. Responsible for the same task, routers and switches are different in so many ways.

1 What are Switches ?

The switch is a network device which is very similar to hub but is smarter than it.

Switches work on layer 2 that is Data Link Layer of OSI Model.

They are responsible for the transmission of data packets from one device to another within the network on the basis of MAC address.

Unlike hubs, switches keep a hardware table for all the hardware addresses/ Mac addresses of the devices in the network and send the data packets to the respective devices only.

For example, if a message needs to be sent to machine ‘A’, the switch will forward it to all the devices in its network and then learns about the address of machine ‘A’ and the sender.

It will store the hardware address of these devices on its hardware table

So now if machine ‘A’ responds to the sender, the switch knows where to transmit this message and will not broadcast it.

Similarly, if a message is sent again to machine ‘A’, it will only be sent to machine ‘A’.

This way after the initial transmission, the switch learns the hardware addresses (Mac addresses) of every device and stores them in its hardware table.

After a certain period of the time, the data transfer is easy and to the exact point.

Switches work on a full duplex mode for data transmission, that is, sending and receiving of data can take place simultaneously.

Cisco SwitchesCampus LAN Switches – Access• Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 3560-X Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 2960-L Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 2960-Plus Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Series Switches

Campus LAN Switches – Access• Cisco Catalyst 2960-SF Series

• Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 2960-X Series Switches

• Cisco Edge Series

Cisco SwitchesCampus LAN Switches – Compact• Cisco Catalyst 3560-CX Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 2960-C Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 2960-CX Series Switches

Campus LAN Switches – Core and Distribution• Cisco Catalyst 6800 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System 1440

• Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches

Cisco SwitchesData Center Switches• Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 4000 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders

• Cisco R Series Racks

• Cisco RP Series Power Distribution Units

Data Center Switches With Cisco IOS Software• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series Switches

Cisco SwitchesIndustrial Ethernet Switches• Cisco 2500 Series Connected Grid Switches

• Cisco Embedded Service 2020 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 5000 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 4010 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 4000 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3010 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3000 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 2000 Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 2000U Series Switches

• Cisco Industrial Ethernet 1000 Series Switches

InfiniBand Switches• Cisco SFS 7000 Series InfiniBand

Server Switches

• Cisco SFS 3500 Series Multifabric Server Switches

• Cisco SFS 3000 Series Multifabric Server Switches

Cisco SwitchesLAN Switches – Small Business• Cisco 550X Series Stackable Managed Switches

• Cisco 350 Series Managed Switches

• Cisco 350X Series Stackable Managed Switches

• Cisco 250 Series Smart Switches

• Cisco ESW2 Series Advanced Switches

• Cisco Small Business 500 Series Stackable Managed Switches

• Cisco Small Business 300 Series Managed Switches

• Cisco Small Business 220 Series Smart Plus Switches

• Cisco Small Business 200 Series

Smart Switches

• Cisco Small Business 110 Series

Unmanaged Switches

• Cisco Small Business 100 Series Unmanaged Switches

Cisco SwitchesService Provider Switches – Aggregation• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

• Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches

• Cisco ME 4900 Series Ethernet Switches

• Cisco ME 3800X Series Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers

Service Provider Switches – Ethernet Access• Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series Switches

• Cisco ME 4600 Series Multiservice Optical Access Platform

• Cisco ME 3600X Series Ethernet Access Switches

• Cisco ME 3400 Series Ethernet Access Switches

• Cisco ME 3400E Series Ethernet Access Switches

• Cisco ME 1200 Series Carrier Ethernet Access Devices

Cisco SwitchesVirtual Networking• Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud

• Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch for KVM

• Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch for Microsoft Hyper-V

• Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch for VMware vSphere

WAN Switches• Cisco IGX 8400 Series Switches

Cloud Networking Services• Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000V

Series

MGX Switches• Cisco MGX 8900 Series Switches

• Cisco MGX 8800 Series Switches

• Cisco MGX 8200 Series Edge Concentrators

2 What are Routers ?

Routers are the smartest of all network devices, starting from the 4 port broadband devices available everywhere to Industrial strengths Internet provider.

Routers are similar to switches but instead of connecting only devices within a network, it can connect networks.

It connects the network to the internet and is responsible for the data transmission between the networks.

Routers are very common to find at homes, schools, hospitals, companies, etc. as it gives the availability to users to the internet.

For example, routers used in homes can give access to multiple devices to the internet via routers.

In the given figure, the home network is connected to the Internet via Router.

This router then allows the home devices to access the Internet and keep them safe from external threats.

There is a wireless router as well, which helps devices in connecting to the Internet wirelessly.

Unlike switches, the routers can be called as little computers that can be programmed, configures, manipulated as asked by the user.

Of course, we can configure switches as well.

As for the simple traffic routing, it works similar to switches, that is, learn the addresses of the devices initially and then unicasting to them.

Routers operate on the layer 3 i.e.

Network Layer of the OSI Model of communication-making it capable of sending data packets across networks using the logical address (IP address).

Earlier, the routers used to be slower in the switches as the complete package was fetched in the software which used to make the operations slow. But, nowadays the operations are done in hardware reducing the latency and increasing the routing speed.

Routers also act as a Firewall by blocking malicious intrusions from the Internet to the networks keeping them safe.

Cisco RoutersData Center Interconnect Platforms• Cisco 7200 Series Routers

• Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

• Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches

Industrial Routers• Cisco 2000 Series Connected Grid

• Routers

• Cisco 1000 Series Connected Grid Routers

• Cisco 900 Series Industrial Routers

• Cisco 800 Series Industrial Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 500 Series WPAN Industrial Routers

Cisco RoutersIntegrated Services Routers• Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 2800 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 1900 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 1800 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 800 Series Routers

Mobile Internet Routers• Cisco 5900 Series Embedded

Services Routers

• Cisco MWR 2900 Series Mobile Wireless Routers

• Cisco MWR 1900 Mobile Wireless Routers

Service Provider Core Routers• Cisco

Network Convergence System 6000 Series Routers

Cisco RoutersSmall Business Routers• Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 1900 Series Integrated Services Routers

• Cisco 800 Series Routers

• Cisco Small Business RV Series Routers

Virtual Routers• Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000V Series

WAN Aggregation and Internet Edge Routers• Cisco 7500 Series Routers

• Cisco 7300 Series Routers

• Cisco 7200 Series Routers

• Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

• Cisco Network Convergence System 5500 Series

• Cisco Network Convergence System 5000 Series

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