Switching Technology For A Network

“Networks are all around us. They are in our walls, in the air. At schools, hotels, hospitals, even coffee shops. Always there, always on…This power exists today. In our routers. In our switches... . (Cisco, n.d.)

3: Network Layer: The use of network layer is switching and routing technologies. It demonstrates logical path and virtual circuits for transferring data from one node to

According to (Burke, 2004),A switch is a multiport bridge. When a switch receives a frame (A data packet with address and other protocol information embedded), it amplifies the signal, looks at the MAC address to determine which port should retransmit the frame to get it to the intended network device and sends it to that port. The switch can be configured to disconnect any attached device, to discard frames intended for an attached device, to send frames with a specific hardware address to another hardware address instead and to copy a frame to a mirror port which can send it to an attached traffic monitor.

You will discover different network topologies and different types of networks: LANs, WANs, and internetworks (internets). The concept of switching is discussed to show how small networks can be combined to create larger ones. You will learn about the Internet: its early history, the birth of the Internet, and the issues related to the Internet today. This module covers standards and standards organizations.

In the design, the topology used is a star topology. The computers in every office or classroom are linked to the central device known as the switch. The star topology leads to the expansion of the network without any disruption. This defines the use of a hub, a router or a switch to interconnect various computers together. All the workstations in this topology are connected with a connection of point-to-point to the central device. The data is first passed through the primary device before reaching the planned destination. Hub controls and manages the whole network. The hubs connect several nodes that are present in the star system. The hub acts as the signal booster (Elhakeem, 2010).

HUB - An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub, multiport repeater or hub is a device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and making them act as a single network segment.

It is generally limited to a geographic area such as a writing lab, school, or building. Rarely are LAN computers more than a mile apart. In a typical LAN configuration, one computer is designated as the file server. It stores all of the software that controls the network, as well as the software that can be shared by the computers attached to the network. Computers connected to the file server are called workstations. The workstations can be less powerful than the file server, and they may have additional software on their hard drives. On many LANs, cables are used to connect the network interface cards in each computer; other LANs may be wireless.

Switches are much like a bridge where they can connect networks that use the same protocols. They are used to direct traffic over multiple networks. Some switches will check

Legacy Ethernet is half-duplex, meaning information can move in only one direction at a time. In a totally switched network, nodes only communicate with the switch and never directly with each other. Switched networks also employ either twisted pair or fiber optic cabling, both of which use separate conductors for sending and receiving data. In this type of environment, Ethernet stations can forgo the collision detection process and transmit at will, since they are the only potential devices that can access the medium. This allows end stations to transmit to the switch at the same time that the switch transmits to them, achieving a collision-free environment. (Pidgeon, 2011)

The networking of the system is recommended after a system study and the fact that there has been a 100% expansion of the demand for the system- from 5 to 50 have been noted. It is also shown that as of now there are machines that are stand alone with windows 7 operating system. The task is to provide a network connectivity that would provide direct connections between the employees, and be centralized in the operation. This essentially requires the creation of a network. This means that all the computers must be installed with a network card and this would be the case with windows 7. The question then comes is if there must be windows networking or use other protocols. We can also partly use the most modern practical solutions.

The definition of a switch or network switch is a small device that joins multiple computers together, working on layer two of the OSI, to form a local

The two authors follow the story from the conception of the idea of "packet switching" in the early 1960s to the creation and development of the Internet. We see how one idea led to another and how the intelligent people around the circumstances influenced the developments.

Switches are multilayer and can sit on the data link layer (layer 2) when processing and forwarding data, also on the network layer (layer 3) by using IP addresses when forwarding

LAN Switch- A LAN Switch performs the same work as a hub except that, a switch does not broadcast packets to every computer in the network like hubs. All the computers and computer devices will be connected to the switch by Ethernet cables. The LAN Switch costs $150.

Speed: The speed of the network depends on how the network is built amongst other factors. The 10 base5 backbone infrastructure has a transmission speed of 10Mbps. The backbone is connected using bus topology, the bus being a shared medium causes all nodes to share the maximum data rate, depending on how many users are trying to access the network at a time (Frenzel, 2009). This means that the maximum aggregate throughput is 10Mbps. Furthermore, the use of hubs and repeaters puts all the nodes on the network in one large collision domain and because hubs and repeaters do not learn mac addresses they encourage broadcasts which takes up bandwidth that could be used to transfer frames. In addition all nodes on the network operate in half duplex mode. With half-duplex transmission, a node cannot both transmit and receive at the same time. If two nodes try to transmit at the same time it leads to a collision and the two packets are discarded. All these factors serve to slow down the network.