[Ashly Jackson]

In short, routing is the process of moving data between two devices. Forwarding is the process of collecting data from one device and sending it to another device. Switching involves collecting data from one device and sending it to multiple devices based on the MAC address of the packets. The fundamental difference between a switch and a router is that a switch belongs only to its local network and a router belongs to two or more local networks. Routing tables typically involve destination networks, less frequently do they involve individual host IPs. “Switch tables” as you call them are a lookup list, showing which hardware address (port) to send traffic. A Hub supports half-duplex i.e., only one device can send or receive data at a time while a switch supports full duplex i.e., both devices can send and receive data at the same time. A switch is located on the second layer of the OSI model while a Hub is located on the first layer. Layer 2 switches are faster than routers because they do not take up time looking at the Network layer header information. Instead, it examines the frame’s hardware address to determine what to do with the frame (forward, flood, or discard).