Chapter five

Networking Components and Devices

Contents:
• hubs, switches, bridges, repeaters
• routers, gateways
• NICs, wireless access points (WAPs)
• modems
• Firewalls

Introduction
Common Network Connectivity Devices
Now that you are familiar with the various types of network media and connections, you
should learn about some devices commonly found on today’s networks. Because these
devices connect network entities, they are known as connectivity devices.

Hub
o As you learned earlier, in a star topology Ethernet network, a hub is the device
that connects all the segments of that network together. Every device in the
network connects directly to the hub through a single cable. Any transmission
received on one
port will be rebroadcast to all the other ports in the hub. So, if one station sends
it, all the others receive it, but only the intended recipient listens to it.
o Hubs are actually multiport repeaters. In many cases, the difference between the
two devices is the number of ports that each provides. While a typical repeater
has just two ports, a hub generally has from four to twenty-four ports
o Hubs are most commonly used in Ethernet 10BASE-T or 100BASE-T
networks, although there are other network architectures that use them as
well.
o Using a hub changes the network topology from a linear bus, where each device
plugs directly into the wire, to a star. With hubs, data arriving over the cables to a
hub port is electrically repeated on all the other ports connected to the same
network segment,
except for the port on which the data was
sent. o Concentrate connections.
o In other words, they take a group of hosts and allow the network to see them as a
single unit.
o -This is done passively, without any other effect on the data transmission.
o Active hubs not only concentrate hosts, but they also regenerate signals.
o Hubs come in three basic types:
•Passive – A passive hub serves as a physical connection point only. It does not manipulate
or view the traffic that crosses it. It does not boost or clean the
signal. A passive hub is used only to share the physical media. As
such, the passive hub does not need electrical power.
-Passive hubs, which today are seen only on older networks, do not
need power and they don't regenerate the data signal.

• Active – An active hub must be plugged into an electrical outlet because it needs power to
amplify the incoming signal before passing it out to the other ports. Active
regenerate a signal before forwarding it to all the ports on the device and requires
a power supply.
 •Intelligent – Intelligent hubs are sometimes called smart hubs. These devices
basically function as active hubs, but also include a microprocessor chip
and diagnostic capabilities. Intelligent hubs are more expensive than
active hubs, but are useful in troubleshooting situations.

o Sometimes hubs are called concentrators, because hubs serve as a central connection
point for an Ethernet LAN.
o It is a layer 1 device in the OSI reference Mode
o The basic function of a hub is to take data from one of the connected devices and
forward it to all the other ports on the hub.

Switches
o A switch is sometimes described as a multiport bridge
o add more intelligence to data transfer management.
o Not only can they determine whether data should remain on a LAN or not, but they
can transfer the data only to the connection that needs that data.
o Another difference between a bridge and switch is that a switch does not convert
data transmission formats.
o While a typical bridge may have just two ports linking two network segments, the
switch can have multiple ports depending on how many network segments are to
be linked.
o Although there are some similarities between the two, a switch is a more
sophisticated device than a bridge. A bridge determines whether the frame should
be forwarded to the other network segment based on the destination MAC address.

o A switch has many ports with many network segments connected to them. A switch
chooses the port to which the destination device or workstation is connected.
Ethernet switches are becoming popular connectivity solutions because, like bridges,
switches improve network performance by improving speed and bandwidth.
o Switching is a technology that alleviates congestion in Ethernet LANs by reducing the traffic
and increasing the bandwidth. Switches can easily replace hubs because switches work
with existing cable infrastructures.
Bridges
o Like a repeater, a bridge can join segments or workgroup LANs. However, a bridge can
also divide a network to isolate traffic or problems. For example, if the volume of
traffic from one or two computers or a single department is flooding the network with
data and slowing down the entire operation, a bridge could isolate those computers or
that department.
o It is a layer 2 device of OSI layers
o Convert network transmission data formats as well as perform basic data transmission
management.
o Bridges, as the name implies, provide connections between LANs.
o Not only do bridges connect LANs, but they also perform a check on the data to
determine whether it should cross the bridge or not. This makes each part of the
network more efficient.
o There are times when it is necessary to break up a large LAN into smaller, more
easily managed segments
This decreases the amount of traffic on a single LAN and can extend
the geographical area past what a single LAN can support.
o The devices that are used to connect network segments together include bridges,
switches, routers, and gateways. Switches and bridges operate at the Data Link layer
of the OSI model.
o The function of the bridge is to make intelligent decisions about whether or not to
pass signals on to the next segment of a network.
o When a bridge receives a frame on the network, the destination MAC address is
looked up in the bridge table to determine whether to filter, flood, or copy the frame
onto another segment.
If the destination device is on the same segment as the frame, the bridge
blocks the frame from going on to other segments. This process is known
as filtering.
If the destination device is on a different segment, the bridge forwards the
frame to the appropriate segment.
If the destination address is unknown to the bridge, the bridge forwards the
frame to all segments except the one on which it was received. This rocess is
known as flooding.
o If placed strategically, a bridge can greatly improve network performance.
o In general, Bridges can be used to:
ƒ Expand the length of a segment.
Provide for an increased number of computers on the network.
Reduce traffic bottlenecks resulting from an excessive number of
attached computers.
 Split an overloaded network into two separate networks, reducing the amount of
traffic on each segment and making each network more efficient.
ƒ Link unlike physical media such as twisted-pair and coaxial Ethernet.

A bridge connecting two networks

Repeaters
o Is a network device used to regenerate a signal.
o Repeaters regenerate analog or digital signals distorted by transmission loss due to
attenuation.
o A repeater does not perform intelligent routing like a bridge or router.
o As signals travel along a cable, they degrade and become distorted in a process called
"attenuation." If a cable is long enough, attenuation will finally make a signal
unrecognizable. Installing a repeater enables signals to travel farther.

Differentiating Between Bridges and Repeaters

Bridges work at a higher OSI layer than repeaters. This means that bridges have more intelligence than
repeaters and can take more data features into account. While bridges resemble repeaters in that they can
regenerate data, bridges do this at the packet level. This means that bridges can send packets over long
distances using a variety of long-distance media.

Routers
o Routers have all the capabilities listed above.
o Routers can regenerate signals, concentrate multiple connections, convert data
transmission formats, and manage data transfers.
o They can also connect to a WAN, which allows them to connect LANs that are separated by great
distances. None of the other devices can provide this type of connection.
o Routers are responsible for routing data packets from source to destination within the
LAN, and for providing connectivity to the WAN. Within a LAN environment the router
 contains broadcasts, provides local address resolution services, such as ARP and RARP,
and may segment the network using a subnetwork structure. In order to provide these
services the router must be connected to the LAN and WAN.

Gateways
o Is any hardware and software combination that connects dissimilar network environments.
o Gateways are the most complex of network devices because they perform translations at
multiple layers of the OSI model.
o For example, a gateway is the device that connects a LAN environment to a mainframe
environment. The two environments are completely different. LAN environments use
distributed processing, baseband communications, and the ASCII character set. Mainframe
environments use centralized processing, broadband and baseband communications, and
the EBCDIC character set. Each of the LAN protocols is translated to its mainframe
counterpart by the gateway software.
o The term gateway is applied to any device, system, or software application that can perform
the function of translating data from one format to another.
o Actually, the term gateway refers more to a network role than a network device.
o For example, a router that can route data from an IPX network to an IP network is,
technically, a gateway.
o Another example of a gateway involves the Systems Network Architecture (SNA)
gateway, which converts the data format used on a PC to that used on an IBM
mainframe or minicomputer. A system that acts as an SNA gateway sits between the
client PC and the mainframe and translates requests and replies from both directions.
o The definition of gateways is vague, it's because there is no definite answer. The function of
a gateway is very specific, but how the gateway functionality is implemented is not.

NIC:
o Is a printed circuit board that fits into the expansion slot of a bus on a computer
motherboard, or it can be a peripheral device.
o It is also called a network adapter.
o Laptop or notebook computer NICs are usually the size of a PCMCIA card.
o Each individual NIC carries a unique code, called a Media Access Control (MAC) address.
o Host devices like computers, printers, and scanners are physically connected to the network
media using a network interface card (NIC).
N.B:
Layer 1 devices, such as repeaters and hubs, serve the primary function of extending the
Ethernet cable segments. By extending the network more hosts can be added.

Modem
o Modem is a contraction of the terms modulator and demodulator.
o Modems perform a simple function: They translate digital signals from a computer into
analog signals that can travel across conventional phone lines.
o Modems provide a relatively slow method of communication. In fact, the fastest
modem available on the market today has a maximum speed of 56Kbps.
o Available as
internal devices that plug into PCI/ISA slots
external devices that plug into serial or USB ports;
PCMCIA cards designed for use in laptops

Wireless Access Point (WAP)

o Are a transmitter and receiver (transceiver) device used for wireless LAN (WLAN) radio signals. o
Depending on the size of the network, one or more WAPs may be required. Additional WAPs
are used to allow access to more wireless clients and to expand the range of the
wireless network.
o Communication depends on
• Distance between the client and the WAP
• Environmental conditions
Firewall
o A hardware or software system that is used to separate one computer or network from
another one.
o The most common type is used to protect a computer or an entire network from
unauthorized access from the Internet.
o Can also be used to control the flow of data to and from multiple networks within the
same organization. Firewalls
o Can be programmed to filter data packets based on the information that is contained in
the packets.
o Is a set of related programs, located at a network gateway server, that protects the resources
of a private network from users from other networks.
o Working closely with a router program, filters all network packets to determine whether
to forward them toward their destination.
o Often installed away from the rest of the network so that no incoming request can get directly
at private network resources. There are a number of firewall screening methods. A simple
one is to screen requests to make sure they come from acceptable (previously identified)
domain names and IP addresses.

Internal
Firewall
Network Internet