Switched Networks
Networks are getting more and more popular, and because of this more people use them, which slows them down. Networks in the future will need to have enough bandwidth to support applications, like multimedia, witch require larger bandwidth. Switching will change the way networks are designed. These changes will maximize productivity.
Switching technology is increasing the efficiency and speed of networks. This technology is making current systems more powerful. Many networks are experiencing bandwidth shortages. There are several reasons for this including: an increase in traffic, because networks have so many users, Amount of data between client/server applications,
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It sends information directly from the port of origin directly to its destination port. Switching increases network performance, enhances flexibility and eases moves, add-ons and changes. One of the benefits of switching is that it maintains a direct line of communication between two ports, and maintains multiple simultaneous links between various ports. It reduces network traffic by reducing media sharing.
This technology has some benefits over ethernet routed networks. First, a 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps shared media can be changed to 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps of dedicated bandwidth. Routers have many devices attached to their ports, sharing the bandwidth. Switches let you to connect either a shared segment of bandwidth (workgroup) or a dedicated one (server) to each port. Second, this can be done without changing any software or hardware already on the workstations Finally, a switch installation is less complex than a bridge/router
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It is used for general, or simple task, RISC switches are not as well at performing specific tasks.
One of the advantages of RISC is that it is inexpensive compared to one with customized CPU. RISCs are already somewhat common in businesses and are off-the-shelf processors. This type of switch can perform some functions similar to a router. The downside of this type of RISC is that it is a store-and-forward processor that is not as fast as an ASIC switch.
ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) This is the other design widely used in switches to process. They are custom designed to handle specific operations, all of the functions are in hardware. If any changes are needed, manufacturing must be done to rework hardware. No software upgrades are available.
Another type of network architecture that is benefiting from switching is, token ring. One of the advantages is – faster and larger networks. Since switches do all of the work that routers and bridges do, and are deticated, it makes since that companies are using more and more switches in a token ring network. There is another technology that is starting to get more popular than ethernet or token ring, it is called
“A bridge is a device that is used for the interconnection of LANs that use identical
Telecommunications and networking use specialized systems-on-chips, such as network processors, to handle the huge data rates presented by modern transmission equipment.
Meanwhile, the advent of early PC’s and the recognition of the value in networking devices together gave rise to Local Area Networks. These LAN’s were developed from a business customer perspective, which placed more emphasis on costs and ease of use over reliability. There were a number of different competing LAN technologies, two of the most common being Token Ring (IBM) and Ethernet (everyone else). The triumph of Ethernet in the marketplace, to the extent where it is included in every PC, game console and some refrigerators, provides a consistent and relatively inexpensive way to build internal networks with relative ease.
A network switch is a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one LAN.
In order to have a greater understanding of the terminology and descriptions offered in this paper, we must first understand what a network switch is. A brief definition of a network switch is a computer networking device that connects network segments. It uses the logic of a Network bridge, but allows a physical and logical star topology. It is often used to replace network hubs. A switch is also often referred to as an intelligent hub.
Network hardware is used in the first three layers of the OSI reference model. The OSI reference model is the Open Systems Interconnections standard and consists of seven layers that build from the wire. At the first layer, “the physical layer”, hubs maybe used for simple, inexpensive technology within a corporation. Hubs, when receiving data sent to it, sends that data too all network interface cards, or NICS on each computer. If the data is at its correct destination, the NIC to read the data, but if it is not, the data is discarded. Of course, this setting is much slower, because the other NICS are waiting for there turn, which is after the first message is delivered or timed out. Raymond R. Panko writes this about the waiting state a hub goes in when transmitting data: “This creates latency (delay), which grows as the number of stations grows. Another way of saying this is that the speed of the hub is shared. (Panko 108)” As, you can tell, hubs are simple, and don’t use more information than needed.
... access to what and in which sequence. The router connects the LAN to other networks, which could be the Internet or another corporate network so that the LAN can exchange information with networks external to it. The most common LAN operating systems are Windows, Linux, and Novell. Each of these network operating systems supports TCP/IP as their default networking protocol. Ethernet is the dominant LAN standard at the physical network level, specifying the physical medium to carry signals between computers, access control rules, and a standardized set of bits used to carry data over the system. Originally, Ethernet supported a data transfer rate of 10 megabits per second (Mbps). Newer versions, such as Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet, support data transfer rates of 100 Mbps and 1 gigabits per second (Gbps), respectively, and are used in network backbones.
So far, only circuit-switched networks have provided the differentiated services and guarantees required by many of these applications. But a new technology called Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is changing all that. With MPLS, you can support all the above applications on an IP network without having to run large subsets of the network with completely different transport mechanisms, routing protocols, and addressing plans.
Ethernet Latency can be defined as the time it takes for a network packet to get to a destination or the time it takes to come back from its destination. It also impacts the time an application must wait for data to arrive at its destination [1]. This is as important as download speed because a network with high latency (a slow network) will take a longer time to pass information about and this can have a negative effect as web pages will take longer to load as each request for the next picture, script or text has a significant delay in between [2]. Latency in a packet-switched network is stated as either one-way latency or Round-Trip Time (RTT). One-way latency is the time required to send a packet from the source to the destination or the RTT divided by two (RTT/2) which means the one-way latency from the source to the destination plus the one-way latency from the destination back to the source divided by two (RTT/2) [1]. Latency also refers to any of several kinds of delays typically incurred in processing of network data. Systems with low latency do not only need to be able to get a message from A to B as quickly as possible but also to be able to do this for millions of messages per second.
Perhaps the most redundant, fault-tolerant of all network topologies is the mesh LAN. Each node is connected to every other node for a true point-to-point connection between every device on the network.
A network switch is a networking device that connects devices together on a network enacting a form of packet switching. It operates in the Data Link layer of the OSI model. It essentially acts like a multi-port network bridge that processes and forwards data. Other types of switches have additional features such as the ability to route packets. Those switches are commonly known as layer-3 or multilayer switches.
Beasley, J. (2004). The Network switch. In J. Beasley, Networking (pp. 92-93). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bus topology refers to a local area network (LAN) arrangement where each node or device is connected to a main cable or link called a bus. A bus network is simple yet very reliable. Since nodes themselves are not relied upon for communication, the failure of a single node is not problematic for the rest of the network. For a major issue to occur, there must be a problem with the bus itself.
In comparison to circuit switching, packet switching has some pros and cons over circuit switching.
Server-based networks are higher in cost because money is invested for dedicated servers, network operating software, and network administrators with technical expertise required for network management and configuration. On a small network consisting of fewer than five workstations, client/server architecture is not recommended and is very costly.