Definition – What does Switch mean?
In the context of networking, a switch is a high-speed device that receives incoming data packets and redirects to their destination on the local area network. The local area network switch operates at the data link layer or the network layer of the OSI model, and as such, it can support all kinds of packet protocols. Essentially, switches are the traffic cops of simple local area network.
Glossary Web explains Switch
As compared to hubs and routers, switches are more advanced. Unlike hubs, the switches can limit the traffic to and from each port so that each connected device with switch has enough amount of bandwidth. For this, you can think of a switch as a smart hub. However, the switches do not provide the firewall and logging capabilities that the routers do. Routers can also be configured by software, while switches only work the way the hardware was designed. The term switch can also be referred to a small button on computer hardware.