Communication Devices/Network Hardware

Devices

By Rajender
A communication device is a hardware that is used for transmission of
information from one place to another place, between computers and other
devices.
Commonly used Devices in Data Communication:
1. Dial-up Modem
2. Network Interface Cards (NICs)
3. Hub
4. Bridges
5. Switches
6. Routers
Dial-up Modem
It provides internet connection through telephone lines.
Modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into
a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A
modem transmits data by modulating one or more carrier wave signals to
encode digital information, while the receiver demodulate the signal to recreate the
original digital information.
Maximum speed of dial-up modem is 56 kbps.
It is being replaced by cable, digital subscriber line, wireless broadband, mobile
broadband, optical fibre cable and satellite.
Network Interface Card (NIC)
A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware component, typically a circuit board
or chip, which is installed on a computer so it can connect to a network.
Types of network interface cards:
Wireless. These use an antenna to provide wireless reception through radio
frequency waves. Wireless NICs are designed for Wi-Fi connections.
Wired. These have input jacks made for cables. The most popular wired LAN
technology is Ethernet.
USB. These provide network connections through a device plugged into the USB
port.
Fiber optics. These are expensive and more complex NICs that are used as a high-
speed support system for network traffic handling on server computers.
Hub
A hub is a connection point for different types of devices on a network. It is a
physical layer networking device which is used to connect multiple devices in a
network.
These multiple devices used to connect computers in a LAN.
A hub has many ports in it.
It broadcasts the packets it receives to all nodes attached to its ports.
These are replaced by network switches.
Bridge
It is a network device that connects multiple LANs or two segments of same
LAN.
It is used to increase the network capacity as it can integrate multiple LANs
together.
Databases use the bridge to decide whether to accept or reject the data.
It transmit the data to multiple nodes of the network.
It control the traffic in the network.
Switch
A switch is a networking device that connects devices on a computer network
by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destination
device.
It is responsible for filtering and forwarding the packets between LAN
segments.
It operate in data link layer in OSI Model.
It performs error checking before forwarding data.
It has many ports, and when data arrives at any port, the destination address is
examined first and some checks are also done and then it is processed to the
devices.
Router
It is a networking device that connects two or more packet switched networks or
sub networks. It forwards data packets between computer networks.
It connects two or more data lines from different IP networks.
It manages traffic between these networks by forwarding data packets to their IP
addresses.
It allows multiple devices to use the same internet connection.
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