What is a Router

What is a router? Today’s routers perform so many different tasks that traditional definitions no longer apply. Is a router still a router even if forwarding packets

is just one of its many jobs? Increasingly, more applications, such as firewalls, VPN concentration, voice gateways and video monitoring, are being piled into routers.

Cisco’s Integrated Services Router for example, even boasts an optional application server blade for running scores of Linux and source packages. Write a paper

that chooses two to three new routers that are on the market today. List and explain all the many jobs that these routers perform. State the advantages and

disadvantages of each router that you chose. Lastly, based on your research and what you have learned, what would you call these devices?