About L2SW

If you work as an infrastructure engineer, you’ve heard the word “L2SW” during at work. However what’s the difference from L3SW and what is its role?

Table of contents

Overview
Difference from L3SW

Overview

L2SW is the NW device to transfer the data by checking the MAC address of segment header. Unlike L3SW, L2SW don’t check the IP address.

L2SW have the correspondence table of “port number” and “MAC address” by remembering the MAC address of the device which is connected to each port.

Thanks for this table, L2SW can sent the data to correct destination and save the wasteful processing.

Difference from L3SW

Unlike L3SW, L2SW connect with devices within the same network, so L2SW can’t work over WAN or Internet.

Although L2SW can make VLAN, L2SW can’t transfer data over different VLAN. In the case of L3SW, this can work over different VLAN and of course can make VLAN.