Cisco LAN Switching Fundamentals

Summary

Although a wide variety of different approaches exist to optimize the switching of data, many of the core concepts are closely related. The Cisco Catalyst line of switches focuses on the use of shared bus, crossbar switching, and combinations of the two depending on the platform to achieve very high-speed switching solutions. High-speed switching ASICs use shared and per port buffers to reduce congestion and prevent head-of-line blocking.