What is the difference between a switch and a converter

Traditional switch belongs to OSI Layer 2, i.e. data link layer device. It addresses according to the MAC address and selects routes through the station table, and the establishment and maintenance of the station table is automatically performed by the switch. Router belongs to the OSI third layer that is the network layer devices, it is addressed according to the IP address, through the routing table routing protocols are generated. The biggest benefit of the switch is fast, because the switch must only identify the MAC address in the frame, directly based on the MAC address to generate a selection of forwarding port algorithm is simple, easy to ASIC implementation, so the forwarding speed is extremely high. Switch and router is the performance and functionality of the contradiction, switch switching speed, but the control function is weak, router control performance is strong, but the message forwarding speed is slow. The latest technology to solve this contradiction is Layer 3 switching, which has both the wire-speed forwarding capability of switches and the good control function of routers. Switches are generally used for LAN-WAN connection. Switches are attributed to bridges, which are data link layer devices, and some switches can also realize Layer 3 switching. Routers are used for WAN-WAN connections, and can address forwarding packets between heterogeneous networks, acting at the network layer. They simply accept incoming packets from one line and forward them to the other. These two lines may belong to different networks and use different protocols. In comparison, routers are more powerful than switches, but also relatively slow and expensive. Layer 3 switches have both the ability to forward packets at switch line speeds and the good control features of routers, so they can be used for broadcast applications.