Router (computing)

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A Cisco ASM/2-32EM router deployed at CERN in 1987

A router is a device that forwards data packets between computer networks, creating an overlay internetwork. A router is connected to two or more data lines from different networks. When a data packet comes in on one of the lines, the router reads the address information in the packet to determine its ultimate destination. Then, using information in its routing table or routing policy, it directs the packet to the next network on its journey. Routers perform the "traffic directing" functions on the Internet. A data packet is typically forwarded from one router to another through the networks that constitute the internetwork until it gets to its destination node.[1] The most familiar type of routers are home and small office routers that simply pass data, such as web pages and email, between the home computers and the owner's cable or DSL modem, which connects to the Internet through anISP. However more sophisticated routers range from enterprise routers, which connect large business or ISP networks up to the powerful core routers that forward data at high speed along the optical fiber lines of the Internet backbone.

Applications
When multiple routers are used in interconnected networks, the routers exchange information about destination addresses, using a dynamic routing protocol. Each router builds up a table listing the preferred routes between any two systems on the interconnected networks. A router has interfaces for different physical types of network connections, (such as copper cables, fiber optic, or wireless transmission). It also contains firmware for different networking protocol standards. Each network interface uses this specialized computer software to enable data packets to be forwarded from one protocol transmission system to another. Routers may also be used to connect two or more logical groups of computer devices known as subnets, each with a different sub-network address. The subnets addresses recorded in the router do not necessarily map directly to the physical interface connections.
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A router has two stages of operation called planes:

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Control plane: A router records a routing table listing what route should be used to forward a data packet, and through which physical interface connection. It does this using internal pre-configured addresses, called static routes.

A typical home or small office router showing the ADSL telephone line andEthernet network cable connections

Forwarding plane: The router forwards data packets between incoming and outgoing interface connections. It routes it to the correct network type using information that the packet header contains. It uses data recorded in the routing table control plane.

Routers may provide connectivity within enterprises, between enterprises and the Internet, and between internet service providers (ISPs) networks. The largest routers (such as the Cisco CRS-1 or Juniper T1600) interconnect the various ISPs, or may be used in large enterprise networks.
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Smaller routers usually provide connectivity for

typical home and office networks. Other networking solutions may be provided by a backbone Wireless Distribution System(WDS), which avoids the costs of introducing networking cables into buildings.

All sizes of routers may be found inside enterprises.

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The most powerful routers are usually found in ISPs,

academic and research facilities. Large businesses may also need more powerful routers to cope with ever increasing demands of intranet data traffic. A three-layer model is in common use, not all of which need be present in smaller networks.
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Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams (also known asnetwork packets) across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the Internet. IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering datagrams from the source host to the destination host solely based on the addresses. For this purpose, IP defines datagram structures that encapsulate the data to be delivered. It also defines addressing methods that are used to label the datagram source and destination. Historically, IP was the connectionless datagram service in the original Transmission Control Program introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974, the other being the connection-oriented Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The Internet Protocol Suite is therefore often referred to as TCP/IP. The first major version of IP, Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), is the dominant protocol of the internet. Its successor is Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), which is increasing in use.

Default gateway
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In computer networking, a gateway is a node (a router) on a TCP/IP network that serves as an access point to another network. A default gateway is the node on the computer network that the network software uses when an IP address does not match any other routes in the routing table. In home computing configurations, an ISP often provides a physical device which both connects local hardware to the Internet and serves as a gateway. Such devices include DSL modems and cable modems. In organizational systems a gateway is a node that routes the traffic from a workstation to another network segment. The default gateway commonly connects the internal networks and the outside network (Internet). In such a situation, the gateway node could also act as a proxy server and a firewall. The

gateway is also associated with both a router, which uses headers and forwarding tables to determine where packets are sent, and a switch, which provides the actual path for the packet in and out of the gateway. In other words, a default gateway provides an entry point and an exit point in a network. SWITCH
A switch is a telecommunication device which receives a message from any device connected to it and then transmits the message only to that device for which the message was meant. This makes the switch a more intelligent device than a hub (which receives a message and then transmits it to all the other devices on its network.) The network switch plays an integral part in most modern Ethernet local area networks (LANs). Mid-tolarge sized LANs contain a number of linkedmanaged switches. Small office/home office (SOHO) applications typically use a single switch, or an all-purpose converged device such as a residential gatewayto access small office/home broadband services such as DSL or cable internet. In most of these cases, the end-user device contains a router and components that interface to the particular physical broadband technology. User devices may also include a telephone interface for VoIP. An Ethernet switch operates at the data link layer of the OSI model to create a separate collision domain for each switch port. With 4 computers (e.g., A, B, C, and D) on 4 switch ports, A and B can transfer data back and forth, while C and D also do so simultaneously, and the two conversations will not interfere with one another. In the case of a hub, they would all share the bandwidth and run in half duplex, resulting in collisions, which would then necessitate retransmissions. Using a switch is called microsegmentation. This allows computers to have dedicated bandwidth on point-to-point connections to the network and to therefore run in full duplex without collisions.

Ethernet hub
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(Redirected from Network hub)

4-port Ethernet 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 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 (layer 1) of the OSI

model.[1] The device is a form of multiport repeater. Repeater hubs also participate in collision detection, forwarding a jam signal to all ports if it detects a collision. Some hubs may also come with a BNC and/or Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) connector to allow connection to legacy 10BASE2 or 10BASE5 network segments. The availability of low-priced network switches has largely rendered hubs obsolete but they are still seen in 20th century installations and more specialized applications.

Multiplexing
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General multiplex scheme: the input lines-channels are multiplexed into a single fast line. The demultiplexer receives the multiplexed data stream and extracts the original channels to be transferred.

In telecommunications and computer networks, multiplexing(also known as muxing) is a method by which multiple analog message signals or digital data streams are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share an expensive resource. For example, in telecommunications, several telephone calls may be carried using one wire. Multiplexing originated intelegraphy, and is now widely applied in communications. The multiplexed signal is transmitted over a communication channel, which may be a physical transmission medium. The multiplexing divides the capacity of the high-level communication channel into several low-level logical channels, one for each message signal or data stream to be transferred. A reverse process, known as demultiplexing, can extract the original channels on the receiver side. A device that performs the multiplexing is called a multiplexer (MUX), and a device that performs the reverse process is called ademultiplexer (DEMUX).

Packet switching

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Packet switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data regardless of content, type, or structure into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams (sequences of packets) over a shared network. When traversing network adapters, switches, routers and other network nodes, packets are buffered and queued, resulting in variable delay and throughput depending on the traffic load in the network. Packet switching contrasts with another principal networking paradigm, circuit switching, a method which sets up a limited number of dedicated connections of constant bit rate and constant delay between nodes for exclusive use during the communication session. In case of traffic fees (as opposed to flat rate), for example in cellular communication services, circuit switching is characterized by a fee per time unit of connection time, even when no data is transferred, while packet switching is characterized by a fee per unit of information. Two major packet switching modes exist; (1) connectionless packet switching, also known as datagram switching, and (2) connection-oriented packet switching, also known as virtual circuit switching. In the first case each packet includes complete addressing or routing information. The packets are routed individually, sometimes resulting in different paths and out-of-order delivery. In the second case a connection is defined and preallocated in each involved node during a connection phase before any packet is transferred. The packets include a connection identifier rather than address information, and are delivered in order

Inverse multiplexing (IMUX) has the opposite aim as multiplexing, namely to break one data stream into several streams, transfer them simultaneously over several communication channels, and recreate the original data stream

Circuit switching
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2009)

Circuit switching is a methodology of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel(circuit) through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full bandwidth of the channel and remains connected for the duration of the communication session. The circuit functions as if the nodes were physically connected as with an electrical circuit.

The defining example of a circuit-switched network is the early analog telephone network. When a call is made from one telephone to another, switches within thetelephone exchanges create a continuous wire circuit between the two telephones, for as long as the call lasts. Circuit switching contrasts with packet switching which divides the data to be transmitted into packets transmitted through the network independently. In packet switching, instead of being dedicated to one communication session at a time, network links are shared by packets from multiple competing communication sessions, resulting in the loss of the quality of service guarantees that are provided by circuit switching. In circuit switching, the bit delay is constant during a connection, as opposed to packet switching, where packet queues may cause varying and potentially indefinitely long packet transfer delays. No circuit can be degraded by competing users because it is protected from use by other callers until the circuit is released and a new connection is set up. Even if no actual communication is taking place, the channel remains reserved and protected from competing users. Virtual circuit switching is a packet switching technology that emulates circuit switching, in the sense that the connection is established before any packets are transferred, and packets are delivered in order. While circuit switching is commonly used for connecting voice circuits, the concept of a dedicated path persisting between two communicating parties or nodes can be extended to signal content other than voice. Its advantage is that it provides for continuous transfer without the overhead associated with packets making maximal use of available bandwidth for that communication. The disadvantage is the greater operational cost associated with the quality of service guarantees afforded by reserving bandwidth and keeping it protected from competing uses.

Link-state routing protocol

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(Redirected from Link state routing)

A link-state routing protocol is one of the two main classes of routing protocols used in packet switching networks for computer communications (the other is the distance-vector routing protocol). Examples of link-state routing protocols include OSPF and IS-IS. The link-state protocol is performed by every switching node in the network (i.e. nodes that are prepared to forward packets; in the Internet, these are calledrouters). The basic concept of link-state routing is that every node constructs a map of the connectivity to the network, in the form of a graph, showing which nodes are connected to which other nodes. Each node then independently calculates the next best logical path from it to every possible destination in the network. The collection of best paths will then form the node's routing table.

This contrasts with distance-vector routing protocols, which work by having each node share its routing table with its neighbors. In a link-state protocol the only information passed between nodes is connectivity related. Link state algorithms are sometimes characterized informally as each router 'telling the world about its neighbors'.

Node
In general, a node is a localised swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a vertex).