Monday, January 7, 2013

Ethernet Networks and the Impact of Star Topology Repeaters

By Emily Collins


Until the late 80s, the issue of large extended networks and speed caused problems for ethernet networks. Network providers originally used a repeater, which allowed users to form one large ethernet network by connecting ethernet devices together. However, as repeaters only had two ports, ethernet users could at most only double their network size.

To combat these issues with the ethernet network, hubs were introduced to the networking market. Hubs are formed of different components of software products and computer hardware which form the base of star topologies. In a star topology a hub is connected on a network to several different computers, and receives and transmits all data packets between the different computers on the network.

Using star topology repeaters between two twisted pair cables meant that many of the earlier faults concerning collisions and size could be easily managed. This meant that star topology repeaters soon became a necessary part of the installation process for ethernet networks.

There were still several issues surrounding ethernet networking. Cable breakage was a problem, and despite the repeaters, all traffic on the ethernet network was forwarded to all ethernet devices. This meant that the amount of communication over the ethernet network was limited as a result. The speed could be very slow depending on the number of repeaters on a network. Bridging was introduced to the ethernet network in order to rectify this.

Bridging allows for complete and detailed data packets to be transferred between repeaters, this essentially turns the two repeaters into their own aggregate network. In order to make sure that data packets were sent to the correct address on bridges, a switch was introduced. Any device connected to this computer networking device can send messages to it and these will be forwarded onto the appropriate address. This helped alleviate the issue networking devices faced when receiving information from the network.




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