Introduction

• LANs do not normally operate in isolation but

they are connected to one another or to the
Internet.
• To connect LANs, connecting devices are
needed and various connecting devices are
such as bridge, switch, router, hub, repeater.
 CONNECTING DEVICES
• Connecting devices into five different
categories based on the layer in which they
operate in a network.
 Hubs
• A hub is used as a central point of connection among
media segments.
• Cables from network devices plug in to the ports
on the hub.
• Types of HUBS :
– A passive hub is just a connector. It connects the
wires coming from different branches.
– The signal pass through a passive hub without regeneration
or amplification.
– Connect several networking cables together
– Active hubs or Multiport repeaters- They regenerate
or amplify the signal before they are retransmitted.
 Repeaters
• A repeater is a device that operates only at the
PHYSICAL layer.
• A repeater can be used to increase the length of the network by
eliminating the effect of attenuation on the signal.
• It connects two segments of the same network, overcoming the
distance limitations of the transmission media.
• A repeater forwards every frame; it has no
filtering capability.
• A repeater is a regenerator, not an amplifier.
• Repeaters can connect segments that have the same access method.
(CSMA/CD, Token Passing, Polling, etc.)
Repeater connecting two segments of a LAN

Function of a repeater
 Bridges

• Operates in both the PHYSICAL and the data link layer.

• As a PHYSICAL layer device, it regenerates the signal it receives.
• As a data link layer device, the bridge can check the PHYSICAL/MAC
addresses (source and destination) contained in the frame.
• A bridge has a table used in filtering decisions.
• It can check the destination address of a frame and decide if the frame
should be forwarded or dropped.
• If the frame is to be forwarded, the decision must specify the port.
• A bridge has a table that maps address to ports.
• Limit or filter traffic keeping local traffic local yet allow
connectivity to other parts (segments).
 A bridge connecting two LANs

A bridge does not change the physical (MAC) addresses in a frame.

 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 the other segment
Function of Bridge
 Characteristics of Bridges
• Routing Tables
– Contains one entry per station of network to which
bridge is connected.
– Is used to determine the network of destination station
of a received packet.
• Filtering
– Is used by bridge to allow only those packets
destined to the remote network.
– Packets are filtered with respect to their destination
and multicast addresses.
• Forwarding
– the process of passing a packet from one
network to another.
• Learning Algorithm
– the process by which the bridge learns how to
reach stations on the internetwork.
 Types of Bridges
• Transparent Bridge
– Also called learning bridges
– Build a table of MAC addresses as frames arrive
– Ethernet networks use transparent bridge
– Duties of transparent bridge are : Filtering
frames, forwarding and blocking
• Source Routing Bridge
– Used in Token Ring networks
– Each station should determine the route to the
destination when it wants to send a frame and therefore
include the route information in the header of frame.
– Addresses of these bridges are included in the frame.
– Frame contains not only the source and
destination address but also the bridge addresses.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Bridges
• Advantages of using a bridge
– Extend physical network
– Reduce network traffic with minor
segmentation
– Creates separate collision domains
– Reduce collisions
– Connect different architecture
• Disadvantages of using bridges
– Slower that repeaters due to filtering
– Do not filter broadcasts
– More expensive than repeaters
 Two and Three layer switches
• Two layer switch operate at PHY and data link layer
• Three layer switch operates at network layer
• Bridge is an example of two-layer switch.
• Bridge with few port can connect a few LANs

• Bridge with many port 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)
 3-layer switches
• E.g. router.
• Routes packets based on their logical addresses
(host-to-host addressing)
• A router normally connects LANs and WANs in the
Internet and has a routing table that is used for
making decision about the route.
• The routing tables are normally dynamic and are
updated using routing protocols.

Routers connecting
independent LANs and
WANs
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Routers
• Advantages
– Routers
 provide sophisticated routing, flow control, and traffic
isolation
 are configurable, which allows network manager to
make policy based on routing decisions
 allow active loops so that redundant paths are available
• Disadvantages
– Routers
– are protocol-dependent devices that must understand
the protocol they are forwarding.
– can require a considerable amount of
initial configuration.
– are relatively complex devices, and generally are more
expensive than bridges.
 Routers versus Bridges
• Addressing
– Routers are explicitly addressed.
– Bridges are not addressed.
• Availability
– Routers can handle failures in links, stations, and other
routers.
– Bridges use only source and destination MAC address,
which does not guarantee delivery of frames.
 Message Size
» Routers can perform fragmentation on packets and thus handle
different packet sizes.
» Bridges cannot do fragmentation and should not forward
a frame which is too big for the next LAN.
 Forwarding
» Routers forward a message to a specific destination.
» Bridges forward a message to an outgoing network.
 Priority
» Routers can treat packets according to priorities
» Bridges treat all packets equally.
 Error Rate
» Network layers have error-checking
algorithms that examines each received
packet.
» The MAC layer provides a very low undetected bit
error rate.
 Security
» Both bridges and routers provide the ability
to put “security walls” around specific
stations.
» Routers generally provide greater security than
bridges because
– they can be addressed directly and
– they use additional data for implementing
security
 Brouters: Bridging Routers

 Combine features of bridges and routers.

 Capable of establishing a bridge between two
networks as well as routing some messages from the
bridge networks to other networks.
 Are sometimes called (Layer 2/3) switches and are a
combination of bridge/router hardware and
software.
 Gateway
• Interchangeably used term router and gateway
• Connect two networks above the network layer of OSI
model.
• Are capable of converting data frames and network protocols
into the format needed by another network.
• Provide for translation services between different
computer protocols.
• Transport gateways make a connection between two
networks at the transport layer.
• Application gateways connect two parts of an application in
the application layer, e.g., sending email between two
machines using different mail formats
• Broadband-modem-router is one e.g. of gateway