Network Devices (Hub, Repeater,
Bridge, Switch, Router, Gateways and
Brouter)
Network Devices: 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 do not amplify the signal. When the signal becomes weak, they
copy it bit by bit and regenerate it at its star topology connectors connecting
if 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.
Active Hub:- These are the hubs that have their power supply and can
clean, boost, and relay the signal along with the network. It serves both as
a repeater as well as a wiring center. These are used to extend the
maximum distance between nodes.
Passive Hub:- These are the hubs that collect wiring from nodes and
power supply from the 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.
Intelligent Hub:- It works like an active hub and includes remote
management capabilities. They also provide flexible data rates to network
devices. It also enables an administrator to monitor the traffic passing
through the hub and to configure each port in the 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:- 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
unnecessary. These bridges make use of two processes i.e. bridge
forwarding and bridge learning.
Source Routing Bridges:- In these bridges, routing operation is
performed by the source station and the frame specifies which route to
follow. The host can discover the frame by sending a special frame called
the discovery frame, which spreads through the entire network using all
possible paths to the destination.
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. 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.
