Switch

How it is used

A daily word in LAN work. Engineers talk about access switches on each floor, core switches in the server room, managed and unmanaged switches, and 24- or 48-port switches. The verb 'switch' (to change) also appears often, so context matters.

Example sentences

1. Plug the new phones into the access switch on the third floor.

2. We replaced the old unmanaged switch with a managed one so we can create VLANs.

Common collocations

• access switch
• core switch
• managed switch
• switch port
• 48-port switch

Related terms

• routerA device that connects different networks and decides, packet by packet, the best path for data to reach its destination, usually based on IP addresses.
• VLANShort for virtual LAN: a separate logical network created on a switch, so that devices plugged into the same hardware, for example staff PCs, guests and cameras, can be kept apart.
• MAC addressA hardware address, usually set in a network card at the factory, that identifies a device on a local network; it has 48 bits and is written as six pairs of hexadecimal digits.
• portEither a physical socket on a device where a network cable is plugged in, or a number from 0 to 65535 that identifies a particular service on a host, such as 443 for HTTPS.
• trunk portA switch port that carries traffic for several VLANs over one link, adding a tag to each frame so the device at the other end knows which VLAN it belongs to.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• switch · Software Engineering
• switch · Electrical & Electronics Engineering

More terms: Network Devices

• configure
• modem
• network interface card
• load balancer
• transceiver
• PoE