what do network switches do
In: Technology
The basic principle behind a local area network is that any data packet sent out on the network should be delivered to all other computers connected to the network and they will then filter the packets based on the destination address. This is how early network equipment worked. The problem is that this is not very efficient as a single link can quickly become satturated with data packets that is just being discarded on the other end.
The solution to this is to install network switches which try to make smarter decisions about where to send the data packets. The general rule is still to send out all packets on every link, however if the switch knows where the destination is then it will only send the package in that direction. This means that the network links can be used more efficiently increasing bandwidth in the network.
Further on switches will now usually switch not only based on the address of the data package but also on a virtual LAN tag configured on each port. This means that a single switch can act as multiple switches on different networks and that a single computer might have multiple virtual network interfaces on different networks using a single physical link to the switch.
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