A network switch is a hardware device that connects multiple devices (such as computers, printers, servers, etc.) to a network to facilitate the sharing of information and resources. The devices can communicate with each other and share information regardless of whether they are in the same building or not. The most common form of the network switch is the Ethernet switch.
Switches in networking work on either layer 2 of the OSI model or layer 3 or the network layer. Layer 2 switches forward data packets based on the destination MAC address, while layer 3 switches forward data based on the destination IP addresses. Some switches can perform both functions.
