Funny I thought a "switch" was a multiport bridge... uses the MAC headers to flood. ahh makes me long for the days of Kalpana. Scott C. McGrath On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
Hmm. Don't you just love it when folks say things like "Layer 3 Switches are better than routers". Its very illuminating as to clue level.
I suppose what they were trying to say, is that products that were designed as switches, but are now running routing code, are superior to products
Thus spake "Daniel Golding" <dgolding@burtongroup.com> that
were designed as routers, and are running routing code. Of course, this is demonstrably false.
"Layer 3 Switch" is like "Tier 1 ISP" - meaningless marketing drivel, divorced from any previous technical meaning.
I've always stated that "switch" is a marketing term meaning "fast". Thus a "L2 switch" is a "fast bridge" and a "L3 switch" is a "fast router". In this light, the Yankee Group is just now catching on to something we all knew a decade ago -- slow (i.e. software) routers are dead.
There's a more interesting level to the discussion if you look at what carriers are interested in for their backbone hardware today; while I'm obviously biased based on my employer, I've seen a lot more emphasis on $20k-per-10GE-port "L3 switches" than $200k-per-10GE-port "core routers" in the current economic climate.
S
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking