Purpose and Functions of Various Network Devices

It is likely that at some point you’ll have to break up one large network into a bunch of smaller ones because user response will have dwindled to a slow crawl as the network grows and grows. And with all that growth, your LAN’s traffic congestion has reached epic proportions. The answer to this is breaking up a really big network into a number of smaller ones—something called network segmentation.

You do this by using devices like routers, switches, and bridges. Figure 1.1 displays a network that’s been segmented with a switch so each network segment connected to the switch is now a separate collision domain. But make note of the fact that this network is still one broadcast domain.


Keep in mind that the hub used in Figure 1.1 just extended the one collision domain from the switch port. Here’s a list of some of the things that commonly cause LAN traffic congestion:

• Too many hosts in a broadcast domain

• Broadcast storms

• Multicasting

• Low bandwidth

• Adding hubs for connectivity to the network

• A bunch of ARP or IPX traffic ( IPX is a Novell protocol that is like IP but really, really chatty. Typically, it is not used in today’s networks.)

Now routers are used to connect networks together and route packets of data from one network to another. Cisco became the de facto standard of routers because of its high-quality router products, great selection, and fantastic service. Routers, by default, break up a broadcast domain -the set of all devices on a network segment that hear all the broadcasts sent on that segment. Figure 1.2 shows a router in our little network that creates an internetwork and breaks up broadcast domains.

The network in Figure 1.2 shows that each host is connected to its own collision domain, and the router has created two broadcast domains. And don’t forget that the router provides connections to WAN services as well! The router uses something called a serial interface for WAN connections, specifically, a V.35 physical interface on a Cisco router.


Breaking up a broadcast domain is important because when a host or server sends a network broadcast, every device on the network must read and process that broadcast—unless you’ve got a router. When the router’s interface receives this broadcast, it can respond by basically saying, “Thanks, but no thanks,” and discard the broadcast without forwarding it on to other networks. Even though routers are known for breaking up broadcast domains by default, it’s important to remember that they break up collision domains as well. There are two advantages of using routers in your network:

• They don’t forward broadcasts by default.

• They can filter the network based on layer 3 (Network layer) information (e.g., IP address).

Four router functions in your network can be listed as follows:

• Packet switching

• Packet filtering

• Internetwork communication

• Path selection

Remember that routers are really switches; they’re actually what we call layer 3 switches. Unlike layer 2 switches, which forward or filter frames, routers (layer 3 switches) use logical addressing and provide what is called packet switching . Routers can also provide packet filtering by using access lists, and when routers connect two or more networks together and use logical addressing (IP or IPv6), this is called an internetwork. Last, routers use a routing table (map of the internetwork) to make path selections and to forward packets to remote networks.

Conversely, switches aren’t used to create internetworks (they do not break up broadcast domains by default); they’re employed to add functionality to a network LAN. The main purpose of a switch is to make a LAN work better—to optimize its performance—providing more bandwidth for the LAN’s users. And switches don’t forward packets to other networks as routers do. Instead, they only “switch” frames from one port to another within the switched network.

By default, switches break up collision domains . This is an Ethernet term used to describe a network scenario wherein one particular device sends a packet on a network segment, forcing every other device on that same segment to pay attention to it. At the same time, a different device tries to transmit, leading to a collision, after which both devices must retransmit, one at a time. Not very efficient! This situation is typically found in a hub environment where each host segment connects to a hub that represents only one collision domain and only one broadcast domain. By contrast, each and every port on a switch represents its own collision domain.

The term bridging was introduced before routers, switches and hubs were implemented, so it’s pretty common to hear people referring to bridges as switches. That’s because bridges and
switches basically do the same thing—break up collision domains on a LAN (in reality, you cannot buy a physical bridge these days, only LAN switches, but they use bridging technologies, so Cisco still calls them multiport bridges).

So what this means is that a switch is basically just a multiple-port bridge with more brainpower, right? Well, pretty much, but there are differences. Switches do provide this function, but they do so with greatly enhanced management ability and features. Plus, most of the time, bridges only had 2 or 4 ports. Yes, you could get your hands on a bridge with up to 16 ports, but that’s nothing compared to the hundreds available on some switches!