5.

NETWORK CEVICES
*Network Connectivity Devices-

*HUB-
What is Network Hub and How it Works?
Hub in networking plays a vital role in data transmission
and broadcasting. A hub is a hardware device used at the
physical layer to connect multiple devices in the network.
Hubs are widely used to connect LANs. A hub has
multiple ports. Unlike a switch, a hub cannot filter the
data, i.e. it cannot identify the destination of the packet,
So it broadcasts or sends the message to each port.

What is HUB?
A hub is a 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.
Hub does not have any routing table to store the data of
ports and map destination addresses., the routing table is
used to send/broadcast information across all the ports.

How Does a Network Hub Work?

A hub is a multiport device, which has multiple ports in a
device and shares the data to multiple ports altogether. A
hub acts as a dumb switch that does not know, which
data needs to be forwarded where so it broadcasts or
sends the data to each port.
Suppose there are five ports in a hub A, B, C, D, and E.
Consider A wants to send any data frame, or let’s say A is
acting as a sender, so the hub will forward the data
transmitted by A to B, C, D, E. Now, at the same time B
also wants to send the data then data received from A
and B will collide and can cause data loss. In this
situation, the data gets destroyed, and the hosts send a
jam signal to all the hosts informing them about the
collision, and each sender needs to wait for a certain
amount of time.
Features of Hubs
Hubs are the hardware device that operates in the
physical layer of the OSI model.

It supports half-duplex transmission

It works with shared bandwidth and broadcasting.
The hub can provide a high data transmission rate to
different devices.
It can detect collisions in the network and send the
jamming signal to each port.
Hub does not support Virtual LAN(VLAN) and spanning
tree protocol.
It is unable to filter the data and hence transmit or
broadcast it to each port.
It cannot find the best route/ shortest path to send any
data, which makes it an inefficient device.
Types of Network Hubs
Networks hubs are classified into three types:

Active Hub: They have a power supply for regenerating,

and amplifying the signals. When a port sends weak
signalled data, the hub regenerates the signal and
strengthens it, then send it further to all other ports.
Active hubs are expensive in costs as compared to
passive hubs.
Passive Hub: Passive hubs are simply used to connect
signals from different network cables as they do not have
any computerised element. They simply connect the
wires of different devices in the star topology. Passive
hubs do not do any processing or signal regeneration and
that’s why do not require electricity the most they can do
is they can copy or repeat the signal. It can’t clean the
message, and it can’t amplify or strengthen the signal.
Intelligent Hub: Intelligent hubs as the name suggests are
smarter than active and passive hubs. The intelligent hub
comprises a special monitoring unit named a
Management Information Base (MIB). This is software
that helps in analysing and troubleshooting network
problems. Intelligent hubs work similarly to active hubs
but with some management features. Like it can monitor
the traffic of the network and the configuration of a port.
Repeaters in Computer Network
A computer network is made up of various devices such
as the hub, repeater, modem, switch, computer devices,
etc. Each device plays a vital role in networking.
Repeaters are used in order to extend the network and
provide security, strength, and no data loss. The below
article describes in detail a networking device known as a
repeater.

What is a Repeater?
Repeaters are defined as a networking device that is used
to amplify and generate the incoming signal. Repeaters
work at the physical layer of the OSI model. The main aim
of using a repeater is to increase the networking distance
by increasing the strength and quality of signals. The
performance of Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide
Area Networks (WANs) repeaters are used. Using
repeaters helps to reduce error, and loss of data and
provides with delivery of data at specified locations only.
The major advantage of using a repeater is that it
provides with transfer of data with more security and
over a long distance.

Features of Repeaters
Repeater can regenerate the signal without modifying it.
Repeaters can be used in analog signals and digital
signals.
Repeaters can extend the range of networks.
Dynamic networking is supported by repeater.
Use of Repeaters reduces error and loss of data.
Power is required for working of repeaters.
Using repeater can add complexity in the network.
Bridge-
A bridge in a computer network is a device used to
connect multiple LANs together with a larger Local Area
Network (LAN). The mechanism of network aggregation
is known as bridging. The bridge is a physical or hardware
device but operates at the OSI model’s data link layer and
is also known as a layer of two switches.

The primary responsibility of a switch is to examine the

incoming traffic and determine whether to filter or
forward it. Basically, a bridge in computer networks is
used to divide network connections into sections, now
each section has separate bandwidth and a separate
collision domain. Here bridge is used to improve network
performance.

Types of Bridges:
There are three types of bridges in computer networks,
which are as follows:

Transparent bridge
Source routing bridge
Spanning Tree Bridge
Transparent Bridge:
Transparent bridges are invisible to other devices on the
network. This bridge doesn’t reconfigure the network on
the addition or deletion of any station. The prime
function of the transparent bridge is to block or forward
the data according to the MAC address.

Source Routing Bridge:

Source routing bridges were developed and designed by
IBM specifically for token ring networks. The frame’s
entire route is embedded with the data frames by the
source station to perform the routing operation so that
once the frame is forwarded it must follow a specific
defined path/route.

Spanning Tree Bridge-

The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol
that is situated in Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) of the Open
Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. It was built to
prevent the problems that arise when data is exchanged
through computers over a Local Area Network (LAN).

If 2-3 switches are connected together, they broadcast by

default. When a message is broadcasted, it is sent all
across the switches back and forth. This could lead to a
broadcast storm or the formation of a loop.

Switch-
The Switch is a network device that is used to segment
the networks into different subnetworks called subnets
or LAN segments. It is responsible for filtering and
forwarding the packets between LAN segments based on
MAC address.

Switches have many ports, and when data arrives at any

port, the destination address is examined first and some
checks are also done and then it is processed to the
devices. Different types of communication are supported
here like unicast, multicast, and broadcast
communication.
Features of Network Switches
It operates in Data Link Layer in OSI Model.
It performs error checking before forwarding data.
It transfers the data only to the device that has been
addressed.
It operates in full duplex mode.
It allocates each LAN segment a limited bandwidth.
It uses Unicast (one-to-one), multicast (one-to-many),
and broadcast (one-to-all) transmission modes.
Packet Switching techniques are used to transfer data
packets from source to destination.
Switches have a more significant number of ports.
Fig- Switch Architecture
Introduction of a Router
Network devices 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, Router, and NIC, etc.

What is a Router?
A Router is a networking device that forwards data
packets between computer networks. One or more
packet-switched networks or subnetworks can be
connected using a router. By sending data packets to
their intended IP addresses, it manages traffic between
different networks and permits several devices to share
an Internet connection.
Routers are the devices that are operated on the
Network Layer of the OSI Model, these are the most
common devices used in networking.
How Does Router Work?
A router determines a packet’s future path by examining
the destination IP address of the header and comparing it
to the routing database. The list of routing tables outlines
how to send the data to a specific network location. They
use a set of rules to determine the most effective way to
transmit the data to the specified IP address.
To enable communication between other devices and the
internet, routers utilize a modem, such as a cable, fiber,
or DSL modem. Most routers include many ports that can
connect a variety of devices to the internet
simultaneously. In order to decide where to deliver data
and where traffic is coming from, it needs routing tables.
A routing table primarily specifies the router’s default
path. As a result, it might not determine the optimum
path to forward the data for a particular packet. For
instance, the office router directs all networks to its
internet service provider through a single default
channel.
Static and dynamic tables come in two varieties in the
router. The dynamic routing tables are automatically
updated by dynamic routers based on network activity,
whereas the static routing tables are configured
manually.
Architecture of Router
A generic router consists of the following components:

Input Port: This is the interface by which packets are

admitted into the router, it performs several key
functions as terminating the physical link at the router,
this is done by the leftmost part in the below diagram,
and the middle part does the work of interoperating with
the link-layer like decapsulation, in the last part of the
input port the forwarding table is looked up and is used
to determine the appropriate output port based on the
destination address.
Switching Fabric: This is the heart of the Router, It
connects the input ports with the output ports. It is kind
of a network inside a networking device. The switching
fabric can be implemented in several ways some of the
prominent ones are:
Switching via memory: In this, we have a processor which
copies the packet from input ports and sends it to the
appropriate output port. It works as a traditional CPU
with input and output ports acting as input and output
devices.
Switching via bus: In this implementation, we have a bus
that connects all the input ports to all the output ports.
On receiving a packet and determining which output port
it must be delivered to, the input port puts a particular
token on the packet and transfers it to the bus. All output
ports can see the packets but they will be delivered to
the output port whose token has been put in, the token
is then scraped off by that output port and the packet is
forwarded
Switching via interconnection network: This is a more
sophisticated network, here instead of a single bus we
use a 2N bus to connect n input ports to n output ports.
Output Port: This is the segment from which packets are
transmitted out of the router. The output port looks at its
queuing buffers (when more than one packets have to be
transmitted through the same output port queuing
buffers are formed) and takes packets, does link layer
functions, and finally transmits the packets to an
outgoing link.
Routing Processor: It executes the routing protocols, and
it works like a traditional CPU. It employs various routing
algorithms like the link-state algorithm, distance-vector
algorithm, etc. to prepare the forwarding table, which is
looked up to determine the route and the output port.

Introduction of Gateways
A gateway is a network node or device that connects two
networks that use different transmission protocols.
Gateways play an important role in connecting two
networks. It works as the entry-exit point for a network
because all traffic that passes across the networks must
pass through the gateway. In this article, we are going to
discuss all important points related to Gateways.

What are Gateways?

A network gateway is a device that connects different
networks by translating messages from one protocol into
another protocol. The gateway monitors and controls all
the incoming and outgoing network traffic. Gateways are
also known as protocol converters because they play an
important role in converting protocols supported by
traffic on different networks. As a result, it allows smooth
communication between two networks.