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darrin | 4 months ago

There are L1 crosspoint "switches" in the 2-5ns range depending on port density and similar modes in some Ethernet silicon. These are not Ethernet switches in any normal sense though. They only replicate the signal 1:1 or 1:n and do not dynamically switch the destination based on anything in the packet. The fastest L3 Ethernet switches on the market are ~90ns.

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brewmarche|4 months ago

Are L1 switches like hubs or repeaters then? Sorry for my confusion.

darrin|4 months ago

They're more like digital patch panels. You can connect any pair of ports together in both directions (TX/RX), just like moving a patch cable around. You can also connect an incoming RX lane to multiple TX lanes (think optical splitter but electrical). You cannot merge signals together. Some products have FPGAs that add L2+ or multiplexing functionality with packet buffers, but that's not part of the 2-5ns path.