NETWORK DEVICES AND FUNCTIONALITES

8. Network Devices

8. Network Devices

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Identify collision and broadcast domains for each case

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY – Part I
8. Network Devices

Functions of network devices

• Separating (connecting) networks or
expanding network
• e.g. repeaters, hubs, bridges, routers,
brouters, switches, gateways
• Remote access
• e.g. 56K Modems and ADSL
modems

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8. Network Devices

A. Expanding Network
• Networks cannot be made larger by simply
adding new computers and more cables
• Less efficient !!

• Can install components to

• segment (divide) large LAN to form smaller
LANs
• connect LANs
• Required components
• Repeaters, bridges, routers, brouters,
6 switches or gateways
Location of Repeater
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8. Network Devices

a. Repeaters and Hubs

• Repeaters or hubs work at the OSI physical layer to
regenerate the network’s signal and resend them to
other segments
• Primitive hub can be viewed as a multiport repeater
• It regenerates data and broadcasts them to all
ports
Hub

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Hub

 Multi-port repeaters are often called hubs.

Hubs are very common internetworking
devices. Generally speaking, the term hub is
used instead of repeater when referring to the
device that serves as the center of a star
topology network.
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8. Network Devices

Limitations and Features

• Cannot link unlike segments
• Cannot join segments with different access methods
(e.g. CSMA/CD and token passing)
• Do not isolate and filter packets
• Can connect
different types of
media
• The most economic
way of expanding
networks
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8. Network Devices

b. Bridges
• Has one input and one output
• Used to isolate network traffic and computers
• Has the intelligent to examine incoming packet
source and destination addresses
• But cannot
interpret higher-
level information
• Hence cannot
filter packet
according to its
protocol
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8. Network Devices

How Bridges Work

• Bridges work at the Media Access Control Sub-
layer of the OSI model
• Routing table is built
to record the segment
no. of address
• If destination address
is in the same segment
as the source address,
stop transmit
• Otherwise, forward to
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8. Network Devices

Creating a Switching Table

• Based on the addresses of the sending computers
• New addresses are added if they are not in the
table Add02 S 02 D 01 Switching Table
Seg 1 Seg 2
Add01 01
Stop 02

Add03 S 01 D 02
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8. Network Devices

Remote Bridges
• Bridges are often used in large networks that
have widely dispersed segments
• Remote bridges can be used to connect remote
segments via data-grade telephone line

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8. Network Devices

Differences Between Bridges and Repeaters

Repeaters Bridges

OSI layer Physical layer Data link layer

Data Regenerate data at Regenerate data

regeneration the signal level at the packet
level
Reduce network No Yes
traffic
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 At what layer of the OSI model do
bridges operate?

 Because bridges operate at the data link layer, layer 2,

they are not required to examine upper-layer
information.
How do bridges filter network
traffic?
 How are bridge data-forwarding
decisions limited?

 Although bridges use tables to determine

whether or not to forward data to other
segments of the network, the types of
comparisons and decisions they make are
relatively low level, simple ones
 What types of network traffic
problems is a bridge incapable of
solving?
 Bridges work best where traffic from one
segment of a network to other segments is not
too great.
 However, when traffic between network
segments becomes too heavy, the bridge can
become a bottleneck and actually slow down
communication.
 How many addressing schemes
are there in networking?

 You have already learned what one of these

addressing schemes is. It is the MAC address.
 The second addressing scheme in networking
makes use of what is called the IP address.
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8. Network Devices

c. Switches
• Switches operate at the Data Link layer (layer 2)
of the OSI model
• Can interpret address information
• Switches resemble bridges and can be considered
as multiport bridges
• By having multiports,
can better use limited
bandwidth and prove
more cost-effective
than bridge
Cisco Catalyst 2900 switch
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8. Network Devices

• Switches divide a network into several isolated

channels
• Packets sending from 1 channel will not go to
another if not specify
• Each channel has its own capacity and need not be
shared with other channels
Hub 3.3Mbps
10Mbps
3.3Mbps
Switch
3.3Mbps
10Mbps
10Mbps

38 10Mbps
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8. Network Devices

Advantages of Switches
• Switches divide a network into several isolated
channels (or collision domains)
• Reduce the possibility of collision
• Collision only occurs when two devices try to get access
to one channel
• Can be solved by buffering one of them for later access
• Each channel has its own network capacity
• Suitable for real-time applications, e.g. video
conferencing
• Since isolated, hence secure
• Data will only go to the destination, but not others
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8. Network Devices

Limitations of Switches
• Although contains buffers to accommodate bursts of
traffic, can become overwhelmed by heavy traffic
• Device cannot detect collision when buffer full
• CSMA/CD scheme will not work since the data
channels are isolated, not the case as in Ethernet
• Some higher level protocols do not detect error
• E.g. UDP
• Those data packets are continuously pumped to
the switch and introduce more problems

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8. Network Devices

Method of Switching - Cut Through Mode

Preamble Des. Add Sour. Add Length Data FCS

7 1 2/6 2/6 2 46 - 1500 Bytes 4

Bytes Byte Bytes Bytes Bytes Bytes

• Read the first 14 bytes of each packet, then transmit

• Much faster
• Cannot detect corrupt packets
• Can propagate the corrupt packets to the network
• Best suited to small workgroups
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8. Network Devices

Method of Switching - Store and Forward Mode

• Read the whole packet before transmit
• Slower than the cut-through mode
• More accurate since corrupt packets can be detected
using the FCS
• More suit to large LAN since they will not propagate
error packets
• Facilitate data DB
transfer between 100Mbps
segments of
different speed
42 10Mbps
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8. Network Devices

Using Switches to Create VLANs

• Switches can logically group together some ports to
form a virtual local area network (VLAN)
SW1 VLAN1 VLAN2

Hub
SW2 Hub
Switches can
be configured
to communicate
SW3 only within the
devices in the
group Hub
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8. Network Devices

d. Routers
• Layer 2 Switches cannot take advantage of multiple
paths
• Routers work at the OSI layer 3 (network layer)
• They use the
“logical address”
of packets and
routing tables to
determine the best
path for data
delivery
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 What are routers?

 Routers are another type of

internetworking device.
 These devices pass data packets between
networks based on network protocol or
layer 3 information.
 Routers have the ability to make intelligent
decisions as to the best path for delivery of
data on the network.
 What network problems can
routers help resolve?

 The problem of excessive broadcast traffic

can be solved by using a router.
 Routers are able to do this, because they
do not forward broadcast frames unless
specifically told to do so
 How do routers differ from
bridges?

 Routers differ from bridges in several

respects. First, bridging occurs at the data link
layer or layer 2,while routing occurs at the
network layer or layer 3 of the OSI model.
 Second, bridges use physical or MAC
addresses to make data forwarding decisions.
Routers use a different addressing scheme
that occurs at layer three
 How do routers work?

 Routers are used to connect two or more

networks. For routing to be successful,
each network must have a unique network
number
The port where a router connects to
network A would have an IP address
of A5.
The IP address of the router's
second interface would be
B5.
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8. Network Devices

How Routers Work

• As packets are passed from routers to routers, Data
Link layer source and destination addresses are
stripped off and then recreated
• Enables a router to route a packet from a TCP/IP
Ethernet network to a TCP/IP token ring network
• Only packets with known network addresses will be
passed - hence reduce traffic
• Routers can listen to a network and identify its
busiest part
• Will select the most cost effective path for
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8. Network Devices

How Routing Table is formed

• Routing table is formed based on communications
between routers using “Routing Protocols”
• Routing Protocols  Routable Protocol
• Routing Protocols Routers communicate
collect data about within themselves
current network
status and
contribute to
selection of the
best path
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8. Network Devices

Routing Protocol Example - RIP for IP Routing

• RIP (Routing Information Protocol) ― the oldest one
• Use no. of hops between nodes to determine best path
• Does not consider the network congestion condition
• Broadcast every 30 sec the routing table to
neighbouring routers to convey routing information
• RIP is limited to interpreting a maximum of 16 hops
• Not suitable for large network (e.g. Internet)
• Can create excessive network traffic due to
broadcasting
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• May take a long time to reach the far reaches
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8. Network Devices

Routing Protocol Example - OSPF for IP

• OSPF - Open Shortest Path First
• Make up the limitations of RIP - can coexist with RIP
• In general case, best path refers to the shortest path
• In case of traffic congestion, can go a longer path
• Each router maintains a database of other router’s
links
• If link failure notice is received, router can rapidly
compute an alternate path
• Require more memory and CPU power
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8. Network Devices

Static and Dynamic Routers

Static Routers Dynamic Routers

Manual configuration Manual configuration of the first
of routes route. Automatic discovery of new
routes
Always use the same Can select the best route
route
More secure Need manual configuration to
improve security

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8. Network Devices

Distinguishing Between Bridges

and Routers
• Bridges forward everything
they don’t recognize
• Routers select the best
path

• Routers are layer 3

devices which recognize
network address
• Bridges are layer 2
devices which look at
the MAC sublayer node
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8. Network Devices

Layer-3 Switches
• Layer-3 switches operate in both layer 2 (data link layer)
and 3 (network layer)
• Can perform both MAC switching and IP routing
• A combination of switch and router but much faster and
easier to configure than router
Why Layer-3 switches?
• Traffic of LAN is no longer
local
• Speed of LAN is much faster
• Need a much faster router,
however, very expensive

62 Excerpt from www.intel.com

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8. Network Devices

Summary
• Repeaters are the least expensive way to expand a
network, but they are limited to connecting two
segments
• Bridges function similar to repeaters, but can
understand the node addresses
• Switches can be considered as multiport bridges, can
divide a network into some logical channels
• Routers interconnect networks and provide filtering
functions. They can determine the best route

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8. Network Devices

B. Remote Access Devices

1. Modems
• Allow computers to
communicate over a
telephone line
• Enable communication
between networks or
connecting to the world
beyond the LAN
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• Cannot send digital signal directly to telephone line

• Sending end: MODulate the computer’s digital
signal into analog signal and transmits
• Receiving end: DEModulate the analog signal back
into digital form

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8. Network Devices

1 0 1 1 1

Amplitude
Modulation

Frequency
Modulation

Phase
Modulation

Normal
sine wave
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