Routing Vs Switching (Bridging)
Switches
- Manage traffic intrasubnet
- Know only about MAC (physical) addresses
- Cannot make very intelligent choices of optimal paths for traffic - have no knowledge of larger network topology
Routers
- Manage traffic between subnets or between networks
- Know about a global space of network addresses (network,node)
- Can make better decisions based on more far reaching knowledge of the network topology
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