Networking Devices

Any network and ultimately internet is based on devices that connects the networks. Hence devices have major role to play in Networking and are called as backbone devices. There are several devices that are used for connections based on the situation and demand. However the main task of all these devices is to connect and allow the traffic to flow from one point to another despite there are differences in each of them. Several devices are often used as synonyms for each other but there exists some parameters based on which these devices differ. Here a glance at most frequently used Networking devices and differences between them.

Hub-

Used for connecting multiple workstations and/or servers.

It is passive devices i.e. contains mostly electronic components and cannot make decisions.

Mostly used for broadcasting.

Since there is no decision making involved with Hub, there is no lookup or routing table associated

Switch-

Used to connect workstation and/or servers

Active device i.e. has decision making properties.

Switches are mostly used for unicasting.

Classified in two ways.

1.       Store and forward switches

2.       Managed and unmanaged switches.

Decision making requires some data structure to be maintained. Lookup tables are used to store information about physical addresses of the hosts/devices in the network

Bridge-

Bridge is somewhat similar to hubs but it is used to connect subnetworks (subnets) or LANs

Similar to switch, it is also an active device

Lookup table is maintained which contains physical addresses of the other hosts/devices

Router-

One of the mostly used networking devices. This is because of its multi-functionality features.

Used to connect similar networks or network of networks.

Router works at bottom three layers of OSI model-Physical, DLL and Network layer.

The main task of router is to find the best/optimal path for the incoming packets to reach their destinations.  

For this, it maintains a routing table containing information about packets, their source and destinations, logical and physical addresses etc.

Gateway-

Gateway is just another multi-protocol router

Just as its name suggest it is a high-end form of router which can be used to connect dissimilar networks.

Another major difference between a router and a gateway is that gateway works at Application, Transport along with the Network layers, considering OSI reference model.

Another device-Brouter is used which is a combination of Bridge and Router which can perform tasks of both of these devices.