Cisco Switches and Routers
For the past week, I have been working on "Module 6: Cisco Switches and Routers" in the Network Addresssing and Basic Troubleshooting online course from Cisco Networking Academy.
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| Module 6: Cisco Switches and Routers |
The first half of the module covers Cisco switches.
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| Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switch |
The second half of the module covers Cisco routers.
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| Cisco 4300 Series Routers |
Section 6.1 Cisco Switches
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| Section 6.1 Cisco Switches |
- LAN switches provide connectivity within the local-area networks of the organization.
- Routers interconnect local networks and are needed in a wide area network (WAN) environment.
- Definition: A switch is used to connect devices on the same network.
- Definition: A router is used to connect multiple networks to each other.
Other connectivity options for LANs include include the following:
- Wireless access points (WAPs) deployed in enterprises enable computers and other devices, such as IP phones, to wirelessly connect to the network, or share broadband connectivity.
- Firewalls guard against network threats and provide security, network control, and containment.
Key Point: When a LAN network grows to the point where the four Ethernet ports provided by the wireless router are not enough for all of the devices that need to attach to the wired network, it is time to add a LAN switch to the network.
A switch can provide connectivity at the access layer of a network, connecting devices to a LAN.
A switch can allow the network to grow without replacing central devices.
Factors to consider when choosing a switch to use for an enterprise network include:
- Type of ports
- When selecting a switch for your LAN, choosing the appropriate number and type of ports is critical.
- Most lower-cost switches support only copper twisted-pair interface ports.
- Higher priced switches may have fiber-optic connections.
- These are used to link the switch to other switches that may be located over long distances.
- Speed required
- Ethernet twisted-pair interfaces on a switch have defined speeds.
- A 10/100 Ethernet port can only function at either 10 megabits per second (Mbps), or at 100 Mbps.
- What this means is that even if the device that you are connecting to the 10/100 switch interface port is capable of connecting at gigabit speeds, the maximum speed at which it will be able to communicate will be 100 Mbps.
- Switches may also include gigabit Ethernet ports.
- If your internet connection is more than 100 Mbps, then a gigabit port is necessary to take advantage of the higher internet bandwidth.
- Gigabit Ethernet ports will also operate at 10/100 Mbps.
- Gigabit Ethernet is sometimes represented as 1000 Mbps.
- Example: The Cisco Catalyst 9300 48S switch has two 40 Gbps uplink ports to provide a fast path for the 48 ports to access the rest of the network and the internet.
- Similar to a switch port, Ethernet NICs operate at specific bandwidths such as 10/100 or 10/100/1000 Mbps.
- Key Point: The actual bandwidth of the attached device will be the highest common bandwidth between the NIC on the device and the switch port.
- Expandability
- Networking devices come in both fixed and modular physical configurations.
- Fixed configurations have a specific type and number of ports or interfaces.
- Modular devices have expansion slots that provide the flexibility to add new modules as required.
- Example: The Cisco Catalyst 9600 chassis in which you can install different configurations of hardware to address your particular environment.
- Manageability
- Many basic, inexpensive switches are not configurable.
- A managed switch that uses a Cisco operating system enables control over individual ports or over the switch as a whole.
- Controls include the ability to change the settings for a device, add port security, and monitor performance.
- Network administrators directly connect to a Cisco Catalyst switch using a console cable.
In addition to switches and routers, there are other connectivity options available for LANs. They include:
- Wireless Access Points (WAPs) that are deployed in enterprises enable computers and other devices, such as IP phones, to wirelessly connect to the network or share broadband connectivity.
- Firewalls guard against network threats and provide the following:
- Security
- Network control
- Containment
Section 6.2 Switch Speeds and Forwarding Methods
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| Section 6.2 Switch Speeds and Forwarding Methods |
Section 6.3 Switch Booting Process
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| Section 6.3 Switch Booting Process |
Section 6.4 Cisco Routers
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| Section 6.4 Cisco Routers |
Section 6.5 Router Boot Process
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| Section 6.5 Router Boot Process |
I am not too pleased with how this post turned out.
I will have to re-write it.
Sorry about that.
