Overview of Cisco IOS Switching Methods
The basic function of a router is to move packets through the network. For a router to forward packets, it needs to look up the destination address of the packet in a table and decide which route to use to switch or forward the packet. Each protocol that the router can forward packets for must have a separate forwarding table. Such protocols might include DECnet, Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), AppleTalk, IP, and MPLS.
Packets can be forwarded through the router in three basic ways: process switching, interrupt switching, or through an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
In process switching, a special Cisco IOS process that is scheduled to run when the router receives packets is what performs ...
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