Major Differences between Cisco Router and Switch:

Both Routers and switches are networking devices which allow computers to establish connection with other computers, devices and networks. Many a time, networking aspirants find it difficult to differentiate between a router and a switch as both the devices look quite similar.

However, the two networking devices i.e Routers and Switches differ from each other in their functional area. They are basically differentiated in context with the layers of OSI model. Routers generally work on Layer 3 of OSI model while switches work on Layer 2 of the OSI model.

Router – It is a L3 device which functions on the network layer (Layer 3) of OSI model. It connects minimum of two networks and identifies the network devices with the help of their IP addresses. These devices are used to connect a local network with other local network/s. You will generally find routers at the gateway where two or more than two networks can be easily connected.

Switch – It is a L2 device which functions on the data link layer (Layer 2) of OSI model. It makes use of frames for establishing communication and MAC addresses or physical addresses are used for identifying network devices. Switches are only used for Local Area Networks. Switches perform filtering before forwarding the packets amid LAN segments.

CCNA R&S Certification training covers the entire information about Cisco routers and switches. However, you can easily know the top 10 difference between Cisco Router and Switch, here – http://blog.networkbulls.com/top-10-major-difference-between-routers-and-switches