L2 Managed Switch Vs L3

This is also the biggest difference lies between layer 2 switch and layer 3 switch.

L2 managed switch vs l3. Layer 2 layer 3 in osi model. A layer 3 switch on the other hand is a specialized hardware device used for routing data packets using ip. Data link layer and sends a frames to destination port using mac address table which stores the mac address of a device associated with that port. The traffic forwarding decision is based on its mac address table entries.

A layer 3 switch is basically a switch that can perform routing functions in addition to switching. A layer 3 switch includes the functionality of a layer 2 switch and also is able to use layer 3 information ip addresses to make its forwarding decisions. A layer 2 switch works with mac addresses only and does not care about ip address or any items of higher layers. Layer 3 switch make its forwarding decision in hardware asic application specific integrated circuits and router make its decision in software intelligence from ios.

Now the exceptions l3 switches like 6500 can be loaded with cards which support wan connections also. These solutions are optimized for a wide range of industries including service providers financial services and the public sector. The image below shows an example of a multi vlan environment on a layer 2 switch. So layer 2 switches simple do switching.

So a layer 3 switch is aware of subnets and networks in addition to being aware of vlans. Layer 3 switch work on layer 3 of osi model i e. Since vlans exist in their own layer 3 subnet routing will need to occur for traffic to flow in between vlans. Layer 2 switch work on layer 2 of osi model i e.

Layer 2 vs layer 3 switch the main difference between layer 2 and layer 3 is the routing function. So l3 switch happen to be faster than router in forwarding packets. This is where a layer 3 switch can be utilized. A layer 2 managed switch forwards traffic between network hosts such as a server and a client pc within the same subnet.

However if the server and the client pc are located on different subnets and the traffic needs to be sent across between subnets then a layer 3 managed switch is needed which makes traffic. A layer 3 switch builds a layer 2 forwarding table to be able to forward within a vlan.