Connecting Interconnecting Devices
Connecting Interconnecting Devices
Connecting Interconnecting Devices
CONECTING DEVICES
Learning Objectives
When two or more separate networks are connected for exchanging data or
resources, they become an internetwork (or internet). The devices required
to link number of LANs into an Internet are known as internetworking
devices.
There is several ways that you can expand network capability such as:
Repeater
Hub
Switch
Repeaters
Bridges
Hub
A hub is a device for connecting multiple twisted pair or fiber optic Ethernet
devices together and making them act as a single network segment. Hubs
work at the physical layer (layer 1) of the OSI model. The device is a form of
multiport repeater.
A hub is a fairly unsophisticated broadcast device. Hubs do not manage any
of the traffic that comes through them, and any packet entering any port is
regenerated and broadcast out on all other ports. Since every packet is
being sent out through all other ports, packet collisions result—which
greatly impedes the smooth flow of traffic.
Switch
Repeater
Repeaters operate at the physical layers of the OSI model and have no
concern for the type of data being transmitted, the packet address, or the
protocol being used. They are unintelligent electronic device unable to
perform any filtering or translation on the actual data.
Repeater
Repeaters retransmit the data at the same speed as the network. However
there is a slight delay as the repeater regenerate the signal. If there are a
number of repeaters in a row, a significant propagation delay can be crated.
Therefore, many network architectures limits the number of repeaters on
the network.
Strength:
• Allows easy expansion of the network over large distance.
• Has very little impact on the speed of the network.
• Allows connection between different media.
Limitations:
Bridge
Bridges operate in both the physical and data link layer of OSI model. Like
repeaters, bridges also can be used to connect two network segments and
can connect dissimilar physical media. However, bridges can also limit the
traffic on each segment and eliminate bottlenecks.
Bridges work at the data link layer of the OSI model. At this layer the
hardware address, both source and destination, is added to the packet.
Because bridges function at this layer, they have access to this address
information. Each computer in the network is given a unique address.
Bridges analyze these address to determine whether or not to forward a
packet.
A C
C to K
C to K
L AN1 Bridge
C to K C to K
LAN2
Routers
Brouters
Gateways
Switches
Router
Router has access to first three layers(physical, data link, and network) but
works in the network layer. To successfully route a packet through the
internetwork, a router must determine packet‘s path. When the router
receives a packet, it analyzes the packet‘s destination network address and
look up that address in its routing table. The router than repackages the
data ad sends it to the next router in the path.
Because operate at the higher layers of the OSI model than bridges do,
routers can easily send information over different network architectures. For
example, a packet received from a token ring network can be sent over an
Ethernet network. The router removes the token ring frame, examines the
packet to determine the network address, repackages the data into
Ethernet frames, and sends the data out onto the Ethernet networks.
Unlike bridges routers have ability to select the best path that is faster and
economical. When a router receives a packet whose destination address is
unknown, it simply discards the packet but if the same packet received by a
bridge the bridge will forward it to all connected network segments
Routing Table
Routing has a routing table that contains network addresses and the
address of the routers that handle those networks. Following table shows a
sample routing table for router A. it includes the next hop (i.e., where
transmission will go next) and cost (i.e., number of hops the packet must
take).
1. Static Routing
If router uses static routing, the routing table must be updated manually
by the administrator. Each individual route must be added manually. The
router will always use the same path to a destination, even if it is not
necessarily the shortest or most efficient route.
2. Dynamic Routing
Brouters
Brouters combines the best of both bridges and routers. When brouters
receive packets that are routable, they will operate as a router by choosing
the best path for the packet and forwarding it to its destination. However,
when a nonroutable packet is received, the brouter functions as a bridge,
forwarding the packet based on hardware address. To do this brouters
maintain both bridging table, which contains hardware address, and a
routing table, which contains network address.
Gateway