Cisco Primary Function of Routers and Switches
Cisco Primary Router function
Cisco Routers control broadcasts and forward-directed data packets between networks by using layer 3 IP addresses, based on IP-Based Routing Tables
A Router also acts as the gateway between networks types such as old analogue phones, the router can convert from analogue to IP.
Cisco Primary Function Switch
Cisco Switches receive data frames and direct them to their destination; switches learn MAC addresses and store them in their CAM table which stores the port they are connected to on the switch, the switch then decides if it needs to forward the data to a specific port or broadcast it every switchport.
If the MAC address is stored in the CAM then the frame will be forwarded to that switchport and then onto the connected PC, if the MAC is unknown the switch will broadcast out of all ports apart from the one sending it, once it gets a response the switch will then save the MAC into its CAM so will know where to send future packets for that PC
Every switchport is assigned its own collision domain, a collision domain separates every on a switch. For example, if a packet from a PC connected to ports 1 wants to communicate with a PC on port 4, only those two ports will hear that packet.
Cisco Primary Function Wireless Access Point
Cisco WAP’s communicates Data Frames wirelessly over 2.4 and 5GHz radio frequencies channels, WAP’s are a step forward and also a step backwards, it’s a step forward in connectivity but dues to bandwidth constraints and running at half-duplex will be slower than a switchport.
All WAP’s follow 802.11 standards