Purpose of Switch Default-Gateway?

Why do we assign a default-gateway to a switch?

From what I understand, when a host wants to send to a remote network, the mac-add of router interface is inputed as destination mac-address.

The switch does not provide any routing for remote networks asides from reading the mac-add and forwaring the packet to the appropriate port based on its' mac-table.

So, why give it a default-gateway? Won't it drop any packets thats not listed anyways.. or will it forward it to the default-gateway-- but again that's the purpose the host put in the mac-add of the router anyways.

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Comments

veritas_libertas

Imagine you want to talk to the switch via another subnet, or from another remote location. If the switch doesn't know it default-gateway (router), it won't be able to respond to your connection request.

networker050184

Like veritas_libertas pointed out, its for the switches connectivity purposes. Just like a server or PC, if it wants to connect to (or be connected to by) remote networks it needs to know where to send traffic.

fsanyee

its for management. if you want to use ssh/telnet or anything to connect to your switch form remote network, you need to configure the dgw.

JustFred

Also think using TFTP for upgrade and backing up