Terna Engineering College
Computer Engineering Department
Program: Sem V
Course: Computer Network Lab
LAB Manual
PART A
(PART A: TO BE REFERRED BY STUDENTS)
Experiment No. 01
A.1 Aim:
Demonstration of different Network devices with their functionalities.
A.2 Prerequisite:
Switch, Hub, Router, cisco packet tracer
A.3 Outcome:
After successful completion of this experiment students will be able to
Identify various protocols, cables and devices in networking.
A.4 Theory:
Network devices, also known as networking hardware, are physical devices that allow
hardware on a computer network to communicate and interact with one another. For
example Repeater, Hub, Bridge, Switch, Routers, Gateway, Brouter, and NIC, etc
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 to extend
the length to which the signal can be transmitted over the same network. An important
point to be noted about repeaters is that they not only amplify the signal but also regenerate
it. When the signal becomes weak, they copy it bit by bit and regenerate it at its star
topology connectors connecting following the original strength. It is a 2-port device.
2. Hub – A hub is a basically multi-port 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, the collision domain of all hosts connected through Hub remains one. Also,
they do not have the intelligence to find out the best path for data packets which leads to
inefficiencies and wastage.
Types of Hub : Active Hub, Passive Hub, Intelligent Hub
3. Bridge – A bridge operates at the data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add
on the functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC addresses of the source and
destination. It is also used for interconnecting two LANs working on the same protocol.
It has a single input and single output port, thus making it a 2 port device.
Types of Bridges
● Transparent Bridges
● Source Routing Bridges
4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design that can boost
its efficiency (a large number of ports imply less traffic) and performance. A switch is a
data link layer device. The switch can perform error checking before forwarding data, which
makes it very efficient as it does not forward packets that have errors and forward good
packets selectively to the correct port only. In other words, the switch divides the collision
domain of hosts, but the broadcast domain remains the same.
5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their
IP addresses. The router is mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect
LANs and WANs and have a dynamically updating routing table based on which they
make decisions on routing the data packets. The router divides the broadcast domains of hosts
connected through it.
6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect two networks
that may work upon different networking models. They work as messenger agents that
take data from one system, interpret it, and transfer it to another system. Gateways are
also called protocol converters and can operate at any network layer. Gateways are generally
more complex than switches or routers. A gateway is also called a protocol converter.
7. Brouter – It is also known as the bridging router is a device that combines features
of both bridge and router. It can work either at the data link layer or a network layer.
Working as a router, it is capable of routing packets across networks and working as the
bridge, it is capable of filtering local area network traffic.
8. NIC – NIC or network interface card is a network adapter that is used to connect
the computer to the network. It is installed in the computer to establish a LAN. It has a
unique id that is written on the chip, and it has a connector to connect the cable to it.
The cable acts as an interface between the computer and the router or modem. NIC card
is a layer 2 device which
means that it works on both the physical and data link layers of the network model.
PART B
(PART B : TO BE COMPLETED BY STUDENTS)
Roll No.: 48 Name: Nikhil Aher
Class : TE-B Batch : B3
Date of Experiment: 10/07/23 Date of Submission: 17/07/23
Grade :
B.3 Observations and learning:
In this experiment we learn about the different types of networking devices . With the
help of networking devices we learn their functionalities properly. We studied the networking
devices successfully in this experiment .
B.4 Conclusion:
We study the networking devices and their functionalities with the help of cisco packet
tracer. In this experiment we identify the various protocols, cables and devices in networking.
B.5 Question of Curiosity:
Q1: What is the difference between a manageable and unmanageable switch?
Answer: The four key differences between managed vs. unmanaged switches are the
following:
1. control and performance
2. features 3. cost
4. security
1. Control and performance: A major difference between managed and unmanaged
switches is control and performance. From this standpoint, the networking team is responsible
for maintaining both managed and unmanaged switches. The difference, however, is teams can
configure managed switches to handle network traffic differently. Other differences include the
ability to remotely access configurations and the ability to monitor devices using monitoring
protocols, such as SNMP, NetFlow and other network telemetry data.
Managed switches also require one or more administrators that understand network
configuration and monitoring concepts and how to apply those concepts to a switch
configuration. Unmanaged switches have more of a plug and play installment process.
2. Features: Managed switch features may vary among manufacturers and models but
often include the following:
● Spanning Tree Protocol ( STP ) support for switch and link redundancy without creating
loops. Several STP iterations exist and are commonly configured, including traditional
STP, per-VLAN STP, rapid STP and multiple STP;
● the ability to implement quality of service;
● VLAN support;
● bandwidth rate limiting; and ● port mirroring.
A unique feature of unmanaged switches is the aforementioned MAC address table. Maintaining
a MAC address table helps reduce the overall number of broadcasts transmitted, limiting the
number of potential collisions within the domain. This is also a key differentiator between an
unmanaged switch and an Ethernet hub .
3. Cost: Looking at cost, unmanaged switches are considerably cheaper compared to their
managed counterparts. That said, few unmanaged switch options are considered enterprise-grade.
Instead, organizations interested in unmanaged switches can purchase them directly from the
manufacturer online or through big-box stores.
4. Security: Security features can be configured on managed switches that unmanaged
switches cannot use. These features include 802.1X authentication, port security and private
VLANs.
Q2: What is the difference between L2 and L3 switch?
Answer:
Layer 2 Switch Layer 3 Switch
Operate on layer 2 (Data link) of OSI Operates on layer 3 (Network Layer) of
model. OSI model.
Send “frames” to destination on the
Route Packet with help of IP address
basis of MAC address.
Can perform functioning of both 2 layer
Work with MAC address only
and 3 layer switch
Used to reduce traffic on the local Mostly Used to implement VLAN (Virtual
network. Local area network)
Quite fast as they do not look at the Takes time to examine data packets before
Layer 3 portion of the data packets. sending them to their destination
It has single broadcast domain It has multiple broadcast domains.
Can communicate within a network Can communicate within or outside the
only. network.
Q3: List Layer 2 devices and Layer 3 devices.
Answer: 1. Layer 2 Devices:
● Bridges: A bridge is a type of computer network device that provides interconnection
with other networks that use the same protocol , connecting two different networks
together and providing communication between them.
● Switch: A network switch is a multiport network bridge that uses MAC addresses to
forward data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Some switches can also
forward data at the network layer (layer 3) by additionally incorporating routing
functionality. Such switches are commonly known as layer-3 switches or multilayer
switches .
● Network Interface Card: Network interface card is an electronic device that is mounted
on ROM of the com that connects a computer to a computer network, usually a LAN. It is
considered a piece of computer hardware. Most modern computers support an internal
network interface controller embedded in the motherboard directly rather than provided
as an external component.
2. Layer 3 Devices:
● Routers: A router is a switch like device that routes/forwards data packets based on
their IP addresses. Routers normally connect Local Area Network (LANs) and Wide
Area Network (WANs) together and have a dynamically updating routing table based on
which they make decisions on routing the incoming packets.
● Brouters: A bridge router or brouter is a network device that works as a bridge and as a
router. The brouter routes packets for known protocols and simply forwards all other
packets as a bridge would. Brouters operate at both the network layer for routable
protocols (or between network with different data link layer protocol ex. one is running
on ethernet (802.3) and other network is running on Token ring (802.5)) and at the data
link layer for non-routable protocols (or both network are using same data link layer
protocol).
***********
