Router
cisco 2800 series
- Layer 3 device
- block all broadcast traffic by default
- Packet switching
- Packet filtering
- Internetwork communication
- Path selection
- break up broadcast domains for every LAN interface, it will break up collision domains as well.
Switch (multiport bridges)
- Layer 2 device
- Switches are generally used to segment a large LAN into many smaller segments.
- Switches create separate collision domains but a single broadcast domain
- increase the number of collision domains in the network
- switches that are configured with VLANs will reduce the size of the collision domain by increasing the number of collision
- domains in a nwtwork, but making them smaller than that of one big, flat network
- Capables of VLAN configurations
- forward broadcasts and multicasts, by default, to all ports within the same VLAN
- More efficient than Hub in processing frames
- More expensive than Hub
- Both bridges and switches build the bridge table by listening to incoming frames and examining the source MAC address in the frame.
- Swithches are multicast bridges that allow you to create multiple broadcast domains.
- Switched are generally faster than bridges
- Both bridges and switches will forward broadcast and multicast traffic, assuming that the traffic remains in the same VLAN
- unlike hub, switch can forward messages to specific host
- full duplex
Bridge
- Layer 2 device domain
- Bridges are generally used to segment a LAN into a couple of smaller segments
- Both bridges and switches build the bridge table by listening to incoming frames and examining the source MAC address in the frame.
- Both bridges and switches will forward broadcast and multicast traffic, assuming that the traffic remains in the same VLAN
- bridges break up collision domains, which allow more bandwith for users.
Hub (multiport repeater)
- Layer 1 device
- Only one collision domain and only one broadcast domain (is not depends on how many hubs configured)
- Hubs don’t segmnet the network, the just connect network segment together.
- not capable of VLAN configurations
- Hubs are generally the least costly method
- - Only one message can be sent through an Ethernet hub at a time. It is possible for two or more hosts connected to a hub to attempt to send a message at the same time. If this happens, the electronic signals that make up the messages collide with each other at the hub.
- can not run full duplex
