FastIP

FastIP is an IP switching technique which was released and introduced by the 3Com. The major difference between this IP switching technique and the other techniques present in the market are that in this IP switching the end user initiates the entire process of IP switching rather than the router or a switch. For the switching to work a layer 2 connection need to be established between the source and the destination which is made or established by the end user through the MAC addresses of source and destinations.

The way in which this IP switching techniques works is that the originating device sends a packet over the layer 3 to the router, after which the data packet is forwarded to the destination address by the layer 3 upon which the destination sends back a response using the sender’s layer 2 address, which indicates that whether a connections is made or not. If no connection is made, then the data cannot be sent through direct link, so the only option left is to either send the data through the different routers present in the network, or re-do the whole procedure again, until a connection is made between the source and the destination.

When the data is once made between the source and the destination then the data can be sent directly over this link, without any hindrance, and without the help of any router present in the network. This form of data transfer promises faster data rates and less amount of time needed to send the data from one place to another in the network. In addition to this advantage, the FastIP also has another feature named policy management, which is quite similar to quality of service and this feature can allow the networking devices to give priority to the urgent messages, thus ensuring that everyone gets their data in time.