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Multi-layer Switch
A multilayer switch (MLS) is a computer networking device that switches on OSI layer 2 like an ordinary network switch and provides extra functions on higher OSI layers. The MLS was invented by engineers at Digital Equipment Corporation. Switching technologies are crucial to network design, as they allow traffic to be sent only where it is needed in most cases, using fast, hardware-based methods. Switching uses different kinds of network switches. A standard switch is known as a ''layer-2 switch'' and is commonly found in nearly any LAN. ''Layer-3'' or ''layer-4'' switches require advanced technology (see managed switch) and are more expensive and thus are usually only found in larger LANs or in special network environments. Multilayer switch Multi-layer switching combines layer-2, -3 and -4 switching technologies and provides high-speed scalability with low latency. Multi-layer switching can move traffic at wire speed and also provide layer-3 routing. There is no performanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Networking Device
Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices that are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission in a computer network.IEEE 802.3-2012 Clause 9.1 Units which are the last receiver or generate data are called hosts, end systems or data terminal equipment. Range Networking devices include a broad range of equipment classified as core network components that interconnect other network components, hybrid components that can be found in the core or border of a network, and hardware or software components that typically sit on the connection point of different networks. One of the most common types of networking hardware today is a copper-based Ethernet adapter, which is a standard inclusion on most modern computer systems. Wireless networking has become increasingly popular, especially for portable and handheld devices. Other networking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IEEE 802
IEEE 802 is a family of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards for local area networks (LANs), personal area networks (PANs), and metropolitan area networks (MANs). The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee (LMSC) maintains these standards. The IEEE 802 family of standards has had twenty-four members, numbered 802.1 through 802.24, with a working group of the LMSC devoted to each. However, not all of these working groups are currently active. The IEEE 802 standards are restricted to computer networks carrying variable-size packets, unlike cell relay networks, for example, in which data is transmitted in short, uniformly sized units called cells. Isochronous signal networks, in which data is transmitted as a steady stream of octet (computing), octets, or groups of octets, at regular time intervals, are also outside the scope of the IEEE 802 standards. The number 802 has no significance: it was simply the next number in the sequence that the IEEE used fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Datagram
A datagram is a basic transfer unit associated with a packet-switched network. Datagrams are typically structured in header and payload sections. Datagrams provide a connectionless communication service across a packet-switched network. The delivery, arrival time, and order of arrival of datagrams need not be guaranteed by the network. History In the early 1970s, the term ''datagram'' was created by combining the words ''data'' and ''telegram'' by the CCITT rapporteur on packet switching, Halvor Bothner-By. While the word was new, the concept had already a long history. In 1964, Paul Baran described, in a RAND Corporation report, a hypothetical military network having to resist a nuclear attack. Small standardized ''message blocks'', bearing source and destination addresses, were stored and forwarded in computer nodes of a highly redundant meshed computer network. Baran wrote: "The network user who has called up a ''virtual connection'' to an end station and has trans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IP Address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface identification, and location addressing. Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) was the first standalone specification for the IP address, and has been in use since 1983. IPv4 addresses are defined as a 32-bit number, which became too small to provide enough addresses as the internet grew, leading to IPv4 address exhaustion over the 2010s. Its designated successor, IPv6, uses 128 bits for the IP address, giving it a larger address space. Although IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s, both IPv4 and IPv6 are still used side-by-side . IP addresses are usually displayed in a human-readable notation, but systems may use them in various different computer number formats. CIDR notation can also be used to designate how much ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadcast Domain
A broadcast domain is a logical division of a computer network, in which all nodes can reach each other by broadcast at the data link layer. A broadcast domain can be within the same LAN segment or it can be bridged to other LAN segments. In terms of current popular technologies, any computer connected to the same Ethernet repeater or switch is a member of the same broadcast domain. Further, any computer connected to the same set of interconnected switches or repeaters is a member of the same broadcast domain. Routers and other network-layer devices form boundaries between broadcast domains. The notion of a broadcast domain can be compared with a collision domain, which would be all nodes on the same set of inter-connected repeaters and divided by switches and network bridges. Collision domains are generally smaller than and contained within broadcast domains. While some data-link-layer devices are able to divide the collision domains, broadcast domains are only divided by n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Repeater Hub
An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub, multiport repeater, or simply hub is a network hardware device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and making them act as a single network segment. It has multiple input/output (I/O) ports, in which a signal introduced at the input of any port appears at the output of every port except the original incoming. A hub works at the physical layer. A repeater hub also participates in collision detection, forwarding a jam signal to all ports if it detects a collision. In addition to standard 8P8C (" RJ45") ports, some hubs may also come with a BNC or an Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) connector to allow connection to legacy 10BASE2 or 10BASE5 network segments. Hubs are now largely obsolete, having been replaced by network switches except in very old installations or specialized applications. As of 2011, connecting network segments by repeaters or hubs is deprecated by IEEE 802.3. Physical layer function A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Collision Domain
A collision domain is a network segment (connected by a shared medium or through repeaters) where simultaneous data transmissions collide with one another as a result of more than one device attempting to send a packet on the network segment at the same time. The collision domain applies particularly in wireless networks, but also affected early versions of Ethernet. Members of a collision domain may be involved in collisions with one another. Devices outside the collision domain do not have collisions with those inside. A channel access method dictates that only one device in the collision domain may transmit at any one time, and the other devices in the domain listen to the network and refrain from transmitting while others are already transmitting in order to avoid collisions. Because only one device may be transmitting at any one time, total network bandwidth is shared among all devices on the collision domain. Collisions also decrease network efficiency in a collision domain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bridging (networking)
A network bridge is a computer networking device that creates a single, aggregate network from multiple communication networks or network segments. This function is called network bridging. Bridging is distinct from routing. Routing allows multiple networks to communicate independently and yet remain separate, whereas bridging connects two separate networks as if they were a single network. In the OSI model, bridging is performed in the data link layer (layer 2). If one or more segments of the bridged network are wireless, the device is known as a wireless bridge. The main types of network bridging technologies are simple bridging, multiport bridging, and learning or transparent bridging. Transparent bridging Transparent bridging uses a table called the '' forwarding information base'' to control the forwarding of frames between network segments. The table starts empty and entries are added as the bridge receives frames. If a destination address entry is not found in the ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Packet Forwarding
Packet forwarding is the relaying of packets from one network segment to another by nodes in a computer network. Models The simplest forwarding model unicastinginvolves a packet being relayed from link to link along a chain leading from the packet's source to its destination. However, other forwarding strategies are commonly used. Broadcasting requires a packet to be duplicated and copies sent on multiple links with the goal of delivering a copy to every device on the network. In practice, broadcast packets are not forwarded everywhere on a network, but only to devices within a broadcast domain, making ''broadcast'' a relative term. Less common than broadcasting, but perhaps of greater utility and theoretical significance, is multicasting, where a packet is selectively duplicated and copies delivered to each of a set of recipients. Networking technologies tend to naturally support certain forwarding models. For example, fiber optics and copper cables run directly from one m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forwarding Information Base
A forwarding information base (FIB), also known as a forwarding table or MAC (address) table, is most commonly used in network bridging, routing, and similar functions to find the proper output network interface controller to which the input interface should forward a packet. It is a dynamic table that maps MAC addresses to ports. It is the essential mechanism that separates network switches from Ethernet hubs. Content-addressable memory (CAM) is typically used to efficiently implement the FIB, thus it is sometimes called a CAM table. Applications at data link layer At the data link layer, a FIB is most notably used to facilitate Ethernet bridging based on MAC addresses. Other data-link-layer technologies using FIBs include Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). Bridging The role of an Ethernet switch is to forward Ethernet frames from one port to another. The presence of a FIB is one attribute that separates a switch from a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network Interface Controller
A network interface controller (NIC, also known as a network interface card, network adapter, LAN adapter and physical network interface) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged into a computer bus. The low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard, or is contained into a USB-connected dongle, although network cards remain available. Modern network interface controllers offer advanced features such as interrupt and Direct memory access, DMA interfaces to the host processors, support for multiple receive and transmit queues, partitioning into multiple logical interfaces, and on-controller network traffic processing such as the TCP offload engine. Purpose The network controller implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a specific physica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
