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BE 5 SECTION B
SUBJECT : CCN
SUBMITTED BY:
ROLL NO :
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Objectives
Identify the purposes, features, and functions of the following
Network components
Hubs
Switches
Bridges
Routers
Gateways
Repeater
Repeater
A network device used to regenerate or replicate a signal. Repeaters are used in transmission
systems to regenerate analog or digital signals distorted by transmission loss.
Figure 1
Hub
A Hub is a type of repeater, known as the Multi-Port Repeater. It allows many devices to be
cheaply and easily interconnected and has typically four, eight, twelve or even twenty-four
ports. A hub takes the data that comes into a port and sends it out all the other ports in the hub.
It doesn't perform any filtering or redirection of data and is usually used to connect workstations
in the Star Topology. In a Star Topology a Hub is the central controlling device.
Basically there are two types of Hub:
The Active Hub, which is used to extend the length of the cable.
Figure 2
Bridges
A bridge is a device that connects and passes packets between two network segments. It is more
intelligent than a hub and can analyze incoming packets and will forward or drop each packet
based on its addressing information This means that a bridge can improve network performance
by eliminating unnecessary traffic and minimizing the chances of collisions. The bridge divides
traffic into segments and filters traffic based on the station or MAC address. Bridges don't
require programming. They learn the addresses of the computers connected to them by listening
to the data flowing through them. Bridges are very useful for joining networks made of different
media types together into larger networks and keeping network segments free of data that doesn't
belong in a particular segment.
Figure 3
Switches
Switches are basically Bridges, but usually have multiple ports. They are used in heavily loaded
networks to isolate data flow and improve performance. Like bridges, switches connect network
segments, using a table of MAC addresses to determine the segment on which a packet needs to
be transmitted. Switches operate at much higher speeds than bridges and can support new
functionality, such as virtual LANs. In modern data communications a switch can perform two
basic operations. First is switching data frames in which a switch receives a frame on an input
media and them transmits it to an output media. Second is maintenance of the switching
operations, where a switch builds and maintains switching tables (A list with shows which MAC
address is on which port) and searches for loops. An Ethernet switch has many benefits, such as
allowing many users to communicate in parallel through the use of virtual circuits and dedicated
network segments in a collision-free environment. This maximizes the bandwidth available on
the shared medium. Network administrators also have greater flexibility in managing the
network through the power of the switch and the software to configure the LAN.
Figure 4
Routers
Routers forward data packets from one place to another. They operate at the network layer in
the OSI model, which means that they forward data depending on the Network, not the
Hardware (MAC) address. For TCP/IP networks, this means the IP address of the network
interface. Routers make logical decisions regarding the best path for the delivery of data on a
network. Routers, like bridges, provide bandwidth control by keeping data out of subnets it
doesn't belong to. However routers need to be set up before they can get going, although
once set up, they can communicate with other routers and learn the way to parts of a network
that are added after a router is initially configured.
Figure 5
Gateways
Figure 6
In a communications network, a network node equipped for interfacing with another network
that uses different protocols. A gateway may contain devices such as protocol translators,
impedance matching devices, rate converters, fault isolators, or signal translators as
necessary to provide system interoperability. It also requires the establishment of mutually
acceptable administrative procedures between both networks. A protocol translation/mapping
need to be set up with a static IP address. DHCP is recommended on large networks. It would
be very time consuming to manually assign a static IP address to every workstation on your
network. With static IP addressing, the IP address that you assign to a device never changes.
A DHCP server contains a pool of IP addresses that it can draw from to assign to devices that
are connecting to the network. Other TCP/IP properties, such as default gateways, DNS
servers, and subnet masks can also be assigned automatically.
IPv6
Network industry is moving to adopt new version of IPv6. IPv6 have several new features.
RHCE exam test you networking skills on IPv4 so we are not including IPv6 in this article.
We have a separate section for IPv6.