Routers and switches

Routers and switches
I just design a network in city council for coursework.please give me a suggest that which router and switches are better.by the way,we got low budget.
I‘m not ask what is router.I just want know,such as,what we are using,why,what brand if applicable,and maybe some advantages and disadvantages?

A router is a computer networking device that forwards data packets across a network toward their destinations, through a process known as routing. Routing occurs at layer 3 (the Network layer e.g. IP) of the OSI seven-layer protocol stack.
A router acts as a junction between two or more networks to transfer data packets among them. A router is different from a switch. A switch connects devices to form a Local area network (LAN).
One easy illustration for the different functions of routers and switches is to think of switches as neighborhood streets, and the router as the intersections with the street signs. Each house on the street has an address within a range on the block. In the same way, a switch connects various devices each with their own IP address(es) on a LAN.
However, the switch knows nothing about IP addresses except its own management address. Routers connect networks together the way that on-ramps or major intersections connect streets to both highways and freeways, etc. The street signs at the intersection (routing table) show which way the packets need to flow.
So for example, a router at home connects the Internet Service Provider's (ISP) network (usually on an Internet address) together with the LAN in the home (typically using a range of private IP addresses, see network address translation) and a single broadcast domain. The switch connects devices together to form the LAN. Sometimes the switch and the router are combined together in one single package sold as a multiple port router.
In order to route packets, a router communicates with other routers using routing protocols and using this information creates and maintains a routing table. The routing table stores the best routes to certain network destinations, the "routing metrics" associated with those routes, and the path to the next hop router. See the routing article for a more detailed discussion of how this works.
Routing is most commonly associated with the Internet Protocol, although other less-popular routed protocols are in use.
The first router was created at Stanford University by a staff researcher named William Yeager in January of 1980. His boss at the time told him that he was the "network guy" and to find a way to connect the computers in the computer science department, medical center and department of electrical engineering. He first wrote a network operating system and routing code to run on a DEC PDP-11/05. He used Alan Snyder's Portable C compiler but it generated too much code so he modified the compiler to improve the code generators. That still wasn't good enough so he wrote an optimizer for PDP-11/05 assembler that reduced the code size further.
In the original era of routing (from the mid-1970s through the 1980s), general-purpose mini-computers served as routers. Although general-purpose computers can perform routing, modern high-speed routers are highly specialised computers, generally with extra hardware added to accelerate both common routing functions such as packet forwarding and specialised functions such as IPsec encryption.
Other changes also improve reliability, such as using DC power rather than line power (which can be provided from batteries in data centers), and using solid state rather than magnetic storage for program loading. Large modern routers have thus come to resemble telephone switches, with whose technology they are currently converging and may eventually replace, whilst small routers have become a common household item.
A router that connects clients to the Internet is called an edge router. A router that serves solely to transmit data between other routers, e.g. inside the network of an Internet service provider, is called a core router.
A router is normally used to connect at least two networks, but a special variety of router is the one-armed router, used to route packets in a virtual LAN environment. In the case of a one-armed router, the multiple attachments to different networks are all over the same physical link.
In mobile ad-hoc networks every host performs routing and forwarding by itself, while in wired networks there is usually just one router for a whole broadcast domain.
In recent times many routing functions have been added to LAN switches (a marketing term for high-speed bridges), creating "Layer 2/3 Switches" which route traffic at near wire speed.
Routers are also now being implemented as Internet gateways, primarily for small networks like those used in homes and small offices. This application is mainly where the Internet connection is an always-on broadband connection like cable modem or DSL. These are routers in the true sense because they join two networks together - the WAN and the LAN – and have a routing table. Often these small routers support the RIP protocol, although in a home application the routing function does not serve much purpose since there are only two ways to go - the WAN and the LAN. In addition, these routers typically provide DHCP, NAT, DMZ and Firewall services. Sometimes these routers can provide content filtering and VPN. Typically they are used in conjunction with either a cable modem or DSL modem, but that function can also be built-in.
Modern routers support wireless networking (generally using 802.11 standards) and can come with a variety of features, including USB ports for connecting plug-n-play printers, jacks for connecting stereo systems, etc.
路由器(Router)是一种用来传递资料封包的网路装置,而传递资料封包的过程称为路由.路由发生於七层OSI模型中的第三层.
路由通常是基於IP（Internet Protocol,即互联网协议）,但亦会出现在其他较少见的网路协定之上,例如IPX协议.
在1960年代,路由器是由普通的电脑扮演.虽然普通的电脑可以达成路由的作用,但现代的高速路由器是由专门为路由而设计的硬件组成的.这些路由器除可提升路由速度外,亦能发挥其他网路功能,如IPsec加密.
其他的一些改变也提升了路由器的可靠性,例如使用直流电而不是交流（直流电可以由数据中心的电池提供）,使用固态存储而不是磁性存储介质来载入程序.现代大型路由器变得越来越象电话交换机,随着使用这些技术,两者变得越来越相似也许最终路由器将取代电话交换机,同时一些小型路由器正在成为家用电器.
第一个现代（专门,独立的）路由器是Fuzzball Routers.
一个路由器可以用来至少连接两个网络或是移动无线网络（mobile ad-hoc network）.一种特殊类型的路由器（one-armed-router）用来在虚拟局域网（Virtual LAN－VLan）环境中传递数据包.一个one-armed-router上的连接的多个网络都位于同一个物理链路上.
将客户连接到Internet的路由器被称为边缘路由器（edge router）.在其他路由器之间传送数据的路由器被称为核心路由器（core router）.
路由器创建并/或维护一张表,称为“路由表”.里面存放了到特定网络目的地的最佳路由以及相应的“路由属性”.参见相关的路由（Routing）文章以获得关于其如何工作的更详细的讨论.
近来,许多路由的功能被加入到了局域网交换机上,从而创造出“三层交换机”,可以以接近线速的速度来转发流量.
路由器也被当作Internet闸道,主要用在小型网络中如家庭或小型办公室.这种设备使用的Internet连接往往是一直在线的宽带连接如线缆调制解调器和DSL.这些并不是真正意义上的路由器,但是它所使用的术语和“网络地址转换”发生了混淆.