Broadly speaking, the two types of switches: WAN switches and LAN switches. WAN switch is mainly used in the field of telecommunications, to provide communications infrastructure platform. The LAN switches are used in local area network for connecting devices such as PC, and network printers.

According to the current complex network of way, the network switch is divided into access layer switch, aggregation layer switches and core layer switches. Among them, the core layer switches used in all modular chassis design, has been basically designed therewith is equipped with 1000Base-T module. Access layer supports 1000Base-T Ethernet switch is basically a fixed-port switches to 10 / 100M port-based and fixed ports or expansion slot to provide 1000Base-T uplink port of. Convergence layer exist 1000Base-T switch chassis and fixed-port two kinds of design, can provide multiple 1000Base-T port, generally also provide other forms of 1000Base-X and other ports. Access layer and aggregation layer switches together to form a complete solution for small and medium local area network.

From the transmission medium and transmission speed point of view, LAN switches can be divided into multiple Ethernet switches, Fast Ethernet switches, Gigabit Ethernet switches, FDDI switches, ATM switches, and Token Ring switches, etc., these switches are for Ethernet , fast Ethernet, FDDI, ATM and token ring environments.

There are enterprise-class switches, departmental and workgroup switches switches from the scale application. Division scale manufacturers are not entirely consistent, in general, enterprise-class switches are rack, departmental-level switches can be rack-mounted, it can be fixed configuration type, while the working group level is generally fixed configuration switch type function is relatively simple. On the other hand, from the application of the scale, as a backbone switch, the support of more than 500 information points for the large enterprise applications, enterprise-class switches switches, support 300 information points the following medium-sized enterprises switch to departmental switches, and support 100 information points within the switch for the working group level switches.

According to architectural features, people will be divided into rack-mounted LAN switches, fixed configuration slot with expansion-type, fixed configuration with no expansion slot type three products. Rack-mounted switch is a slot type of switch, this switch better scalability to support different network types, such as Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, Token Ring and FDDI, etc., but more expensive. Many high-end switches are used rack structure. With the expansion slot is a fixed configuration switches have fixed port and expansion slot with a small switch, which switches on the basis of the type of network port to support fixed on, can also be extended to support other types of networks through other types of network modules, such prices switch to center. Fixed configuration with no expansion slot switches only support one type of network (typically Ethernet), can be applied to small business or office LAN environment, the price of the cheapest and most widely applied.

In accordance with the seven OSI network model, the switch can be divided into the second layer switch, the third layer switch, the fourth layer switches until the seventh layer switch. MAC address-based work is most common second layer switches for network access and aggregation layers. Exchange protocol based on IP addresses and Layer 3 switches commonly used in the core layer of the network, but also a small amount applied to convergence layer. Part of the third layer switch also has a fourth layer switching capabilities, the target port may be judged according to data frame protocol port information. Above the fourth layer switches called content switches, mainly used for Internet data centers.

According to the switch manageability, but also to switch into managed switches and unmanaged switches, and their difference is support for SNMP, RMON and other network management protocols. Managed switches facilitate network monitoring, traffic analysis, but the cost is relatively high. Currently, the market production manageability switch vendor Huawei, Cisco, Volans and other major network equipment suppliers. While medium-sized network convergence layer should be chosen to managed switches, at the access layer depending on the application need be, the core layer switches are all managed switches.

According to whether the stackable switch, the switch can be divided into two kinds of switches and non-stackable stackable switches. One of the main purpose of the design is stacking technology to increase port density.

According to the most extensive general classification, LAN switches can be divided into desktop switches (Desktop Switch), the working group switches (Workgroup Switch) and the campus network switch (Campus Switch) categories. Desktop switches are the most common type of switch, the most widely used, especially in receiving more focused business units, multi-media production center, Web site management center and other departments in the general office, small rooms and business. In the transmission speed, most modern desktop switches provide multiple ports with a 10 / 100M adaptive capacity. Working Group switches commonly used as expansion devices in desktop switches can not satisfy demand, most direct consideration of the Working Group switches. While the Working Group switches have less number of ports, but support more MAC address, and has good scalability, port transmission speed essentially 100M. Campus Network Application Switches relatively small, only applied to large networks, and generally as a network backbone switch, and has a fast data exchange capabilities and full duplex capabilities, can provide fault tolerance and other intelligent features, also supports expansion options and the third layer exchange virtual local area network (VLAN) and other functions.

According to the different switching technology, it was again divided into three switch-port switch, frame switches and cell switches. The difference is that with the bridge, port switch forward delay is small, the operation close to the single local area network performance, far more than the ordinary bridge between the Internet forwarding performance of. Port switching technology first appeared in the slot-style hub, such hub backplane is usually divided into a number of Ethernet segment article, without bridges or routers connected between each other through the network. After the main module into the Ethernet is usually assigned to a network backplane. Port switching for port will be too backplane module between multiple network segments are allocated balance. Frame exchange is the most widely used local area network switching technology, through the traditional transmission media for micro-segments, providing parallel transmission mechanism to reduce the collision domains, access to high bandwidth. ATM network technology and communications on behalf of the many problems of a "good medicine." ATM uses fixed-length 53-byte cell switching. Since the fixed length, and therefore easy to implement in hardware. ATM connection using a dedicated non-difference, running in parallel, you can create multiple nodes simultaneously via a switch, but it does not affect the ability of communication between each node. ATM also allows communications between the source node and the destination node. ATM uses statistical time division multiplexing circuit, which can greatly increase the channel utilization. ATM bandwidth up to 25M, 155M, 622M or even G-bit transfer capability.

In fact, from the application point of division, the switch can be divided into telephone exchange (PBX) and data switches (Switch). Of course, very fashionable in the data on the VoIP voice transmission has been called "soft switches."

AC machine in accordance with the time frame processor differences mode of operation, the primary can be divided into two categories:

Store and forward: AC machine in the entire frame before forwarding the necessary received, error correction and detection, such as error-free and then sent to the destination address of the frame. Through the exchange of machine frame forwarding delay with the frame length differences and changes.

Longitudinal type: AC machine as long as the check to the destination address contained in the header will immediately forward the frame without having to look forward to the full frame is received, the line has been error checking. Since the length of the Ethernet frame header is always fixed, based on the exchange of machine frame through forwarding delay also remain unchanged.