CONNECTING DEVICES

Five different categories based on the layer in which they operate in a network

The five categories contain devices which can be defined as

1. Those which operate below the physical layer such as a passive hub.
2. Those which operate at the physical layer (a repeater or an active hub).
3. Those which operate at the physical and data link layers (a bridge or a two-layer switch).
4. Those which operate at the physical, data link, and network layers (a router or a three-layer
switch).
5. Those which can operate at all five layers (a gateway).

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 so as 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
the signal bit by bit and regenerate it at the
original strength. It is a 2 port device.

• A repeater connects different segments of a LAN.A repeater is not a device that can connect
two LANs of different protocols.
• A repeater forwards every frame it receives
• A repeater is a regenerator, not an amplifier
• It can be used to create a single extended LAN

2. HUB –

A hub is basically a multiport 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, collision
domain of all hosts connected through Hub remains one. Also, they do not have intelligence to
find out best path for data packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage. Because of its
working mechanism, a hub is not secure and safe. Moreover, copying the data packets on all the
interfaces or ports makes it slower and more congested which led to the use of network switch.

Types of Hub
Active hubs is a central connecting device in a networking that strengthen the signal, prior to
sending them to the destination devices. It is also known as "multi-port repeater". Generally,
Active hubs are used to create connections in a physical star topology. It can extend maximum
media distance over a network.
Passive hubs do not amplify the signal before broadcasting them over a network.They simply
maintaining physical connection and received the frames, then rebroadcast them across all
over the network. it is just a connector or connects the wires coming from different branches.The
Passive hub is the collision point where the signals are come from different stations and collide.

3.BRIDGE –

A bridge operates at data link layer. A bridge is a repeater, with add on functionality of filtering
content by reading the MAC addresses of 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. Bridges are used to separate parts of a network that do not need to
communicate regularly, but need to be connected.

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 makes use of two processes i.e.
bridge forwarding and bridge learning. It only blocks or forwards the data as per the MAC
address.
 Source Routing Bridges :- In these bridges, routing operation is performed by source
station and the frame specifies which route to follow. The hot can discover frame by sending
a specical frame called discovery frame, which spreads through the entire network using all
possible paths to destination.
4. SWITCHES –

We can have a two-layer switch or a three-layer switch. A three-layer switch is used at the
network layer; it is a kind of router. The two-layer switch performs at the physical
and data link layers.
A switch when compared to bridge has multiple ports. Switches can perform error
checking before forwarding data. Switches are very efficient by not forwarding packets that error-ed out or
forwarding good packets selectively to correct devices only.Switches can support both layer 2 (based on
MAC Address) and layer 3(Based on IP address ) depending on the type of switch.
A two-layer switch is a bridge, a bridge with many ports and a design that allows better
(faster) performance. A bridge with a few ports can connect a few LANs together. A bridge
with many ports may be able to allocate a unique port to each station, with each station on its own
independent entity. This means no competing traffic (no collision, as we saw in Ethernet). A two-
layer switch, as a bridge does, makes a filtering decision based on the MAC address of the frame
it received. However, a two-layer switch can be more sophisticated.
It can have a buffer to hold the frames for processing. It can have a switching factor that forwards
the frames faster. Some new two-layer switches, called cut-through switches, have been designed
to forward the frame as soon as they check the MAC addresses in the header of the frame.

5. ROUTERS –

A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets based on their IP addresses. Router is
mainly a Network Layer device. Routers normally connect LANs and WANs together and have
a dynamically updating routing table based on which they make decisions on routing the data
packets. A router isolates LANs in to subnets to manage and control network traffic. However, unlike
bridges it is not transparent to end stations. A router has four basic components: Input ports, output
ports, the routing processor and the switching fabric.

 Input port performs physical and data-link layer functions of the router. The ports are also
provided with buffer to hold the packet before forwarding to the switching fabric.
 Output ports perform the same functions as the input ports, but in the reverse order.
 The routing processor performs the function of the network layer. The process involves table
lookup.
 The switching fabric, moves the packet from the input queue to the output queue by using
specialized mechanisms.

A gateway is normally a computer that operates in all five layers of the Internet or seven layers of
OSI model. A gateway takes an application message, reads it, and interprets it. This means that it
can be used as a connecting device between two internetworks that use different models.
Gateways can provide security

NIC

A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network
adapter, LAN adapter or physical network interface,[1] and by similar terms) is a computer
hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. It is an expansion
card that enables a computer to connect to a network; such as a home network, or the Internet
using an Ethernet cable with an RJ-45 connector. Most new computers have a network interface
build directly into the motherboard.

The network interface card operates on layer two of the OSI model- the Data Link Layer.
They reside on this layer because they work with media access control addresses (abbreviated as
MAC). Every single NIC has a unique number on it. This number is burned into the card at the
factory in which it is made, and it can’t be changed. This is to ensure that every computer that
connects to a network will be unique.The MAC address of a NIC is displayed as six two-digit
hexadecimal numbers, separated by colons. And although we do need a unique MAC address for
each computer, it often doesn’t matter since logical addresses (Such as an IP address) are almost
always used, as compared to physical addresses, on large networks.
The network controller implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using
a specific physical layer and data link layer standard such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi.[a] This provides a
base for a full network protocol stack, allowing communication among computers on the
same local area network (LAN) and large-scale network communications through routable
protocols, such as Internet Protocol(IP).
The NIC allows computers to communicate over a computer network, either by using
cables or wirelessly. The NIC is both a physical layer and data link layer device, as it provides
physical access to a networking medium and, for IEEE 802 and similar networks, provides a low-
level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses that are uniquely assigned to network
interfaces.

MULTILAYER SWITCH

A multilayer switch is a network device that has the ability to operate at higher layers of the
OSI reference model, unlike the Data Link Layer (DLL) traditionally used by switches. A multi
layer switch can perform the functions of a switch as well as that of a router at incredibly fast
speeds. A switch traditionally inspects frames, while a multilayer switch inspects deeper into the
protocol description unit (at packet or even at segment level). Multilayer switches use ASIC
hardware circuits to perform routing functions. This differs from typical routers, which reside on a
microprocessor and use applications running on it to perform their routing operations
Traditionally, switches are the network devices that forward data packets based on the
Layer 2 information like media access control (MAC) addresses. Routers forward packets based on
IP addresses. The router strips off the old Layer 2 header, slaps on the new one and queues the
packet for transmission.
As multilayer switching technology developed, higher level functions were also added such as the
ability to look deep inside packets for information that could aid in the packet-forwarding process.
Thus, multilayer switches became devices that examine Layer 2 through Layer 7.
The generic widely used term multilayer switch means a switch that can do layer 2 and/or layer 3
switching on the same platform. This definition is used interchangeably with layer 3.However,
multilayer switch is also used to describe switches which can make decisions on information in
layer 4-7 as well.
Switches That forward frames based on Layer 3 and 4 information contained in packets. This is
known as multilayer switching (MLS).
A multilayer switch can have ports configured as layer 2 or layer 3. And is capable of routing
packets between networks (VLANs). A layer 3 switch is basically a router (ability to have very fast
and with a bunch of ports).