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Experiment Name: To study about different physical equipment used for networking.
Objective: The goal of networking devices is to provide for smooth communication between various
hardware linked to a network. Adding a network device facilitates the seamless sharing of network
resources between different systems.
Purpose: Network devices, or in other words network hardware, are physical devices intended to provide
communication and interaction between hardware in a computer network. More specifically, network
devices act as intermediaries for data transfer in a computer network.
The equipment range of network devices is extremely wide. This equipment may include core network
components that serve to interconnect other network components, hybrid components, and hardware or
software components located at different ports of the network.
Network devices can be classified according to their location and role in the network.
Equipment's: Here is the common network device list:
• Hub
• Switch
• Router
• Bridge
• Gateway
• Repeater
Theory: Hardware devices that are used to connect computers, printers, fax machines and other electronic
devices to a network are called network devices. These devices transfer data in a fast, secure and correct
way over same or different networks. Network devices may be inter-network or intra-network. Some
devices are installed on the device, like NIC card or RJ45 connector, whereas some are part of the
network, like router, switch, etc.
Description:
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.
Fig 1.1 :Hub
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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.
Fig 1.2 :Switch
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.
Fig 1.3 :Router
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.
Fig 1.4 :Bridge
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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.
Fig 1.5:Gateway
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.
Fig 1.6:Repeater
Application:
Repeater
A repeater is a device that operates only on the physical layer of OSI model. Repeaters have two ports and
can connect two segments of a LAN. It amplifies the signals, when they are transported over a long
distance so that the signal can be as strong as the original signal. A repeater boost the signal back to its
correct level.
Hub
Hub is like a repeater with multiple ports used to connect the network channels. It acts as a centralised
connection to several computers with the central node or server. When a hub receives a packet of data at
one of its ports from a network channel, it transmits the packet to all of its ports to all other network
channel. It is also known as concentrator but does not amplify the incoming signals.
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Gateway
A gateway is an interconnecting device, which two different network protocols together. They are also
known as protocol converters. It accepts packet formated for one protocol and converts the formated
packet into another protocol.The gateway is a node in a network which serves as a proxy server and a
firewall system and prevents the unauthorised access. It holds the information from a website temporarily,
so that the repeated access to same website or web page could be directed to the proxy server instead of
actual web server. Thus helps in reducing the traffic load.
Switch
It is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one LAN. Switches work on
the data link layer of the OSI model. It helps to reduce overall network traffic. Switch forwards a data
packet to a specific route by establishing a temporary connection between the source and the destination.
There is a vast difference between switch and a hub. A hub forwards each incoming packet (data) to all
the hub ports, while a switch forwards each incoming packet to he recipient. Switches are sometimes
called multiport bridges.
Bridge
Bridges serve a similar function as switches. A bridge filters data traffic at a network boundary. Bridges
reduce the amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing it into two segments. It operates at the data link layer
of the OSI model. Traditional bridges support one network boundary, whereas switches usually offer four
or more hardware ports.
Router
Router is a hardware device which is designed to take incoming packets, analyse the packets, moving the
packets to another network, converting the packets to another network interface, dropping the packets,
directing packets to the appropriate locations, etc.
Advantages:
Hub : The top three advantages of the hub network device are:
• Easy to install
• Inexpensive
• It does not affect the performance of the network seriously
Switch : The top three advantages of the switch network device are:
• Increases the available bandwidth of the network.
• It helps in reducing the workload on individual host PCs
• Increases the performance of the network
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Router : The top three advantages of the router network device are:
• Connects various network architectures such as ethernet and token ring, among others.
• Reduces network traffic by establishing collision domains as well as broadcast domains.
• Chooses the best path across the internetwork using dynamic routing algorithms.
Bridge : The top three advantages of the bridge network device are:
• Reduces collisions
• Reduces network traffic with minor segmentation
• Connects similar network types with different cabling
Gateway : The top three advantages of the gateway network device are:
• Allows to broaden the network
• Handles traffic issues effectively
• Permits to link two different kinds of networks
Repeater : The top three advantages of the repeater network device are:
• Repeaters are simple to set up and inexpensive.
• Repeaters do not necessitate any additional processing.
• They can connect signals with various types of cables.
Disadvantages:
Hub : The top three disadvantages of the hub network device are:
• Can not filter information
• It can not reduce the network traffic
• Broadcast of the data happens to all the port
Switch : The top three disadvantages of the switch network device are:
• They are more costly than network bridges.
• Broadcast traffic can be problematic.
• Network connectivity problems are challenging to track down via the network switch.
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Router : The top three disadvantages of the router network device are:
• They work with routable network protocols.
• More expensive than other network devices.
• They are slower because they must analyze data from layer 1 to layer 3.
Bridge : The top three disadvantages of the bridge network device are:
• Does not filter broadcasts
• More expensive compared to repeaters
• Slower compare to repeaters due to the filtering process
Gateway : The top three disadvantages of the gateway network device are:
• Never filter data
• Costly and difficult to manage
• Protocol conversion is performed, thus resulting in a slower transmission rate.
Repeater : The top three disadvantages of the repeater network device are:
• Repeaters are unable to connect disparate networks.
• They are unable to distinguish between actual signals and noise.
• They will not be able to reduce network traffic.
Conclusion : A solid understanding of network equipment can help you design and build a secure
network for your business. However, you must closely monitor the activities surrounding your network
equipment and the system to ensure that each component operates at peak efficiency. Strong security is
also critical for keeping it safe from unauthorized access.
