20/02/2021 Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and Brouter) - GeeksforGeeks

Related Articles

Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch,

Router, Gateways and Brouter)
Difficulty Level : Easy ● Last Updated : 01 Dec, 2020

1. Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to regenerate the

signal over the same network before the signal becomes too weak or corrupted so as

to extend the length to which the signal can be transmitted over the same network.

An impor tant point to be noted about repeaters is that they do not amplif y the signal.

When the signal becomes weak, they copy the signal bit by bit and regenerate it at

the original strength. It is a 2 por t device. 

2. Hub –  A hub is basically a multipor t repeater. A hub connects multiple wires

coming from different branches, for example, the connector in star topology which

connects different stations. Hubs cannot filter data, so data packets are sent to all

connected devices.  In other words, collision domain of all hosts connected through

Hub remains one.  Also, they do not have the intelligence to find out best path for

data packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage. 

Types of Hub 

Active Hub :- These are the hubs which have their own power supply and can

clean, boost, and relay the signal along with the network. It ser ves both as a

repeater as well as wiring centre. These are used to extend the maximum distance

between nodes.

Passive Hub :- These are the hubs which collect wiring from nodes and power

supply from active hub. These hubs relay signals onto the network without

cleaning and boosting them and can’t be used to extend the distance between

nodes.
We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge
Intelligent Hub that:-
you
Ithave
workread and active
like understood our Cookie
hubs Policy & Privacy
and include Policymanagement
remote

Got It !
capabilities. They also provide flexible data rates to network devices. It also

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-devices-hub-repeater-bridge-switch-router-gateways/ 1/6
20/02/2021 Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and Brouter) - GeeksforGeeks

enables an administrator to monitor the traffic passing through the hub and to

configure each por t in the hub.

3. Bridge – A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add on the

functionality of filtering content by reading the M AC addresses of source and

destination. It is also used for interconnecting two L ANs working on the same

protocol. It has a single input and single output por t, thus making it a 2 por t device.

Types of Bridges 

Transparent Bridges :- These are the bridge in which the stations are completely

unaware of the bridge’s existence i.e. whether or not a bridge is added or deleted

from the network, reconfiguration of the stations is unnecessar y. These bridges

make use of two processes i.e. bridge for warding and bridge learning.

Source Routing Bridges :- In these bridges, routing operation is per formed by

source station and the frame specifies which route to follow. The host can

discover frame by sending a special frame called discover y frame, which spreads

through the entire network using all possible paths to destination.

4. Switch – A switch is a multipor t bridge with a buffer and a design that can boost its

efficiency(a large number of por ts imply less traffic) and per formance. A switch is a

data link layer device. The switch can per form error checking before for warding

data, that makes it ver y efficient as it does not for ward packets that have errors and

for ward good packets selectively to correct por t only.  In other words, switch divides

collision domain of hosts, but broadcast domain remains same. 

We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge
  
that you have read and understood our Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy
5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their
Got It !
IP addresses. Router is mainly a Network L ayer device. Routers normally connect

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-devices-hub-repeater-bridge-switch-router-gateways/ 2/6
20/02/2021 Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and Brouter) - GeeksforGeeks

L ANs and WANs together and have a dynamically updating routing table based on

which they make decisions on routing the data packets. Router divide broadcast

domains of hosts connected through it.

  

6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two

networks together that may work upon different networking models. They basically

work as the messenger agents that take data from one system, interpret it, and

transfer it to another system. Gateways are also called protocol conver ters and can

operate at any network layer. Gateways are generally more complex than switch or

router.

7. Brouter – It is also known as bridging router is a device which combines features

of both bridge and router. It can work either at data link layer or at network layer.

Working as router, it is capable of routing packets across networks and working as

We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge
bridge, it is capable of filtering local area network traffic. 
that you have read and understood our Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy
  
Got It !
References 

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-devices-hub-repeater-bridge-switch-router-gateways/ 3/6
20/02/2021 Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and Brouter) - GeeksforGeeks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_%28telecommunications%29 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_%28computing%29 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch 

Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more

information about the topic discussed above

Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the impor tant CS Theor y

concepts for SDE inter views with the CS Theor y Course at a student-friendly price

and become industr y ready.

 Like 0

 Previous Next 

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES Page : 1 2 3

Difference between Bridge and Difference between Transparent

01 05
Repeater Bridge and Source Routing Bridge
02, Jan 20 31, Jan 20

Difference between Hub and Difference between Bridge and

06
02
Bridge Router
03, Jun 19
22, May 19

Hot Standby Router Protocol

Difference between Router and 07
(HSRP) and Virtual Router
03
Hub Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)
28, Jun 20
21, Mar 18
We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge
that you have read and understood our Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy

Difference between Hub and Got It ! Difference between Switch and

04 08
Switch Bridge
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-devices-hub-repeater-bridge-switch-router-gateways/ 4/6
20/02/2021 Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and Brouter) - GeeksforGeeks
21, May 19
30, Apr 20

Ar ticle Contributed By :

GeeksforGeeks

Vote for di culty

Current di culty : Easy

Easy Normal Medium Hard Expert

Improved By : Ankit87, anshitaagarwal, lokeshanjuru8885

Article Tags : Computer Networks , GATE CS

Practice Tags : Computer Networks

Improve Article Report Issue

Writing code in comment? Please use ide.geeksforgeeks.org, generate link and share the link here.

Load Comments

We use cookies to ensure you have the5th

bestFloor, A-118,
browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge
Sector-136,
that you have read Noida,
and understood ourUttar Pradesh
Cookie - 201305
Policy & Privacy Policy

Got It !
feedback@geeksforgeeks.org
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-devices-hub-repeater-bridge-switch-router-gateways/ 5/6
20/02/2021 Network Devices (Hub, Repeater, Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and Brouter) - GeeksforGeeks

Company Learn
About Us Algorithms
Careers Data Structures
Privacy Policy Languages
Contact Us CS Subjects
Copyright Policy Video Tutorials

Practice Contribute
Courses Write an Article
Company-wise Write Interview Experience
Topic-wise Internships
How to begin? Videos

@geeksforgeeks , Some rights reserved

We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. By using our site, you acknowledge
that you have read and understood our Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy

Got It !

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/network-devices-hub-repeater-bridge-switch-router-gateways/ 6/6