Hubs

Working of hub :-

All networks require a central location to connect various segments of media coming from various nodes.

Such a central location is called as a hub.A hub organises the cables and relays signals to other media segments.

There aren’t three main types of hubs :-

1.Passive Hubs :-

– A passive hub combines signal of network segments. There is no signal processing or regeneration.It act as a connector.

– A passive hub reduces the cabling distance by half because it doesn’t boost the signal and infact absorbs some of the signal.

– With a passive hub, each computer receives the signals sent from all the other computers connected to the hub.

2.Active hubs :-

– They are like passive hubs but have electronic components for regeneration and amplification of signal.

– by using active hubs the distance between the devices can be increased.An active hub is equivalent to a multipoint repeater.

– The main drawback of active hub is that they amplify noise as well as along with the signal.

– They are more expensive then passive hubs.

3. Intelligent Hub :-

– In addition to signal regeneration, intelligent hub performs some of their intelligent functions such as network management and intelligent path selection.

– A switching hub chooses only the path of the device where the signal needs to go,rather than sending the signal along all paths.