The simple switches are unmanaged switches → We have no control → They use optimized hardware → also known as the data plane or the forwarding plane.
Less-simple managed switche → Have OS that enables device configuration and harware resources → This extra layer is control plane.
Access Switch Configuration
A managed switch needs an IP address to enable configuration on Layer 3 same as routers.
Switches with default IP addresses have default usernames and passwords.
You configure a default gateway on a switch by telling the switch the IP address of the router.
Access Management
In-band management → Managing the switch from the same network that moves data (whether you connect locally or remotely).
Out-of-band management → Managing the switch from outside the network, usually via a separate network just for managing and monitoring.
Management Port → A dedicated port on managed device that you can do interface configuration only by directly connecting to that port.
Port Configuration
settings for speed, duplex, flow control, and jumbo frames.
# Interfaces status
show interfaces
show config
show route
You can set a port manually to run at a specific speed.
half duplex → they can send or receive, but not both at the same time. → You can force a port half duplex to support an old device.
Flow control can helps when a host can’t keep up with the flow of traffic. It enables the host to send an Ethernet PAUSE frame which ask the switch to hold up for some amount of time and switch buffer transmissions until the pause expires and then start sending again.
Early host catching up in modern protocols such as VoIP can cause latency trouble.
A cost-effective way to enhance performance is by enabling jumbo frames, which exceed the standard 1500-byte payload limit set by IEEE 802.3. It shouldn't be in WAN because WAN devices won’t support them, leading to fragmentation, dropped packets, and reduced performance.