Equipments

Switch

• OSI Layer 2 inter-connection.

• Implements VLAN.

• Spanning-tree based routing.

  • STP, RSTP, MSTP.

• Wireless Access Points.

Router

• OSI Layer 3 inter-connection.

• Have extra functionalities like QoS, Security, VPN gateway, network monitoring, etc...

L3 Switch

• Switch+Router.

• Low-end and mid-end range routing functionalities are limited.

• High-end have full routing functionalities.

• Many have dedicated L2 routing hardware.

Router with switching modules

• L3 Switch with full routing capabilities.

Security Appliance

• Firewall.

• IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention System).

• NAT/PAT

• VPN Gateway

• Services proxy