Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

We often hear or see the names of access layer industrial switch, aggregation layer industrial switch, core layer industrial switch and so on, but in fact, people divide them according to the task of the switch. They are like the overall management of a company: the core layer switches are the senior leaders of the company; the aggregation layer industrial switches are the middle layer; and the access layer is the grass-roots employees.

For example: Xiao Zhang is a member of the company, he may be an ordinary employee, or he may be a middle or senior leader of the company. Therefore, the same switch performs different tasks, its division is also different. Let's take a look at it together with Huashu Communications.

The relationship among access layer, Convergence layer and Core layer

Characteristics and functions of Core layer switch

The core layer is the backbone of the network and the guarantee of the performance of the whole network. Its equipment includes routers, firewalls, core layer switches and so on, which is equivalent to the senior management in the company architecture.

The main purpose of the core layer switch is to provide a fast and reliable backbone transmission structure through high-speed forwarding communication. therefore, the core layer switch should have the following characteristics: reliability, efficiency, redundancy, fault tolerance, manageability, adaptability, low latency and so on.

Because the core layer is the hub of the network and is of great importance, the core layer switches should adopt Gigabit or more manageable switches with higher bandwidth, higher reliability, higher performance and throughput. Layer 3 switches based on IP addresses and protocols are widely used in the core layer of the network, but also in the aggregation layer. Some layer 3 switches also have layer 4 switching function, which can judge the target port according to the protocol port information of the data frame.

Characteristics and functions of access layer switch

We usually refer to the part of the network that connects or accesses the network directly to the user as the access layer, which is equivalent to the grass-roots employees in the company structure.

The access layer provides users with the ability to access the application system in the local network segment, which mainly solves the needs of mutual visits between neighboring users, and provides sufficient bandwidth for these visits. In large and medium-sized networks, the access layer should also be properly responsible for some user management functions (such as address authentication, user authentication, billing management, etc.), as well as user information collection (such as user IP address, MAC address, access log, etc.).

Because the main purpose of the access layer is to allow end users to connect to the network, access layer switches often have the characteristics of low cost and high port density, and cost-effective devices are usually recommended. Both managed and unmanaged switches can be used at the access layer, depending on budget and network requirements.

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Characteristics and functions of Convergence layer switch

It is not difficult to understand that the convergence layer is equivalent to the company's middle management, used to connect the core layer and the access layer, in the middle position, its upstream is the core switch, and the downlink is the access layer switching.

The aggregation layer has many functions, such as policy enforcement, security, workgroup access, routing between virtual local area networks (VLAN), source address or destination address filtering and so on.

Because an aggregation layer switch is an aggregation point for multiple access layer switches, it must be able to handle all traffic from access layer devices and provide uplinks to the core layer, so aggregation layer switches require higher performance and switching speed as well as fewer interfaces than access layer switches.

In practical application, the aggregation layer is omitted in many cases. In the case of short transmission distance and enough access in the core layer can be directly connected to the access layer, the aggregation layer can be omitted, which is more common, on the one hand, it can save the overall cost, and on the other hand, it can reduce the maintenance burden. Network conditions are also easier to monitor.

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