What is the difference between a Layer 3 switch and a router?
Layer 3 switches are generally enterprise-level devices (http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci214604,00.html””Layer 3″ refers to the OSI model Network layer—switches are Layer 2 devices and hubs are Layer 1). Both routers and Layer 3 switches can direct data packets based on the IP address they contain, but while Layer 3 switches generally can switch only IP-based traffic, enterprise-level routers can handle other protocols such as IPX and AppleTalk. On the other hand Layer 3 switches are considered to be more efficient than routers at handling IP traffic and also more cost-effective.
