Hi,

Forwarding rate is the number of packets that can be pushed/routed through the switch in a second. Unit - Mpps.

The backplane is a set of physical connections (traces) and/or silicon which provide connectivity between line cards or interfaces in case of a non-modular switch. Unit - Gbps/Tbps.

There is another term associated with switches "non-blocking/blocking switches" I thought would be worth mentioning - It's a popular marketing term that refers broadly to the ability of a switch to handle independent packets simultaneously. For example, suppose a packet is traveling from port A to port B when a new packet arrives on port C. A ``nonblocking'' switch will accept and process the new packet before it completes the previous transfer. If the new packet is destined for port A or B (which are currently busy), the switch will queue the incoming packet until the destination port becomes available. Of course, the queue is finite; even a nonblocking switch must eventually reject packets (i.e., must eventually block).

There is a good link on this - http://i.cs.hku.hk/~atctam/phdthesis/node25.html

>> Sushil