Lab 5
Objective: Study of following Network Devices in Detail
Repeater
Hub
Switch
Bridge
Router
Gate Way
Tool (Software): No software or hardware required.
Method: Following should be done to understand this practical.
1. Repeater: Functioning at Physical Layer. A repeater is an
electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it at a
higher level and/or higher power, or onto the other side of an
obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances.
Repeater have two ports ,so cannot be used to connect for more
than two devices
2. Hub: An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater
hub, hub or concentrator
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.
Repeater hubs also participate in collision detection,
forwarding a jam signal to all ports if it detects a collision.
3. Switch: A network switch is a computer networking
device that connects network segments. The term
commonly refers to a network bridge that processes and
routes data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model.
Switches that additionally process data at the network layer
(layer 3 and above) are often referred to as Layer 3 switches or multilayer switches.
4. Bridge: A network bridge connects multiple
network segments at the data link layer (Layer 2) of
the OSI model. In Ethernet networks, the term
bridge formally means a device that behaves
according to the IEEE 802.1 D standards. A bridge
and switch are very much alike; a switch being a
bridge with numerous ports. Switch or Layer 2
switch is often used interchangeably with bridge.
Bridges can analyze incoming data packets to
determine if the bridge is able to send the given
packet to another segment of the network.
5. Router: A router is an electronic device that
interconnects two or more computer networks, and
selectively interchanges packets of data between them.
Each data packet contains address information that a router
can use to determine if the source and destination are on
the same network, or if the data packet must be transferred
from one network to another. Where multiple routers are
used in a large collection of interconnected networks, the
routers exchange information about target system addresses, so that each router can
build up a table showing the preferred paths between any two systems on the
interconnected networks.
6. GateWay: In a communications network, a network
node prepared 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 gateway interconnects networks with different
network protocol technologies by performing the required protocol conversions.
