Network standards
While network protocols provide a unified method for communication, network standards govern the hardware and software that uses them.
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of hardware suppliers, yet all of their technology seamlessly integrates with your computer or network with minimal effort. Network standards provide a framework that enables interoperability between devices.
Repeater
A physical layer device that boosts signals in order to allow a signal to travel farther and prevent attenuation. Attenuation is the degradation of the signal as it travels farther from its origination. The repeater doesn’t modify or interpret data packets before it resends them, and it doesn’t amplify the signal. Instead, it regenerates the data packet at the original strength, bit by bit.
Hub
Hub is a physical layer network device used to connect multiple Ethernet devices together. Active Hub acts as a repeater and boosts the signal in order to allow for it to travel farther, while passive hubs simply pass the signal through.
Modem
The modem is a layer 2 device that converts digital information to analog by MODulating it on the sending end and DEMODulating the analog information into digital information at the receiving end.
Bridge
A bridge is a layer 2 device that splits a network into network segments and can filter and forward data packets between these segments. Bridges use the network device’s MAC address to decide the data package’s destination. Typically, a bridge is used to improve network performance by reducing unnecessary network traffic on network segments.
Switch
A switch is a layer 2 device that combines the functionality of a bridge and a hub. It segments networks and can interpret and filter packet data to send it directly to an attached network device. Switches use the network device’s MAC address to decide the data package’s destination. A switch operates in full-duplex mode, which means it can send and receive data to and from network devices at the same time.
Router
Routers are layer 3 devices that link networks with different ranged addresses together. They can interpret and filter data packets, and then forward them to the correct network. Routers use the network device’s IP address information to route the data package to its destination.
Routers are more intelligent than bridges as they make smarter decisions i.e., they determine the fastest way possible to pass information between two networks, which is also usually the shortest way possible.
Gateway
Gateway is a network device used to connect two or more dissimilar networks. In networking parlance, networks that use different protocols are dissimilar networks. It can be either be a piece of software i.e., a gateway application installed on a server, or an actual hardware device.
Gateways are similar to routers, the only difference being routers can transmit data only over networks that use the same protocols.
Firewall
Firewalls are either a hardware or software entity (or a combination of both) that protects a network by stopping network traffic from passing through it.
In most cases, a firewall is placed on the network to allow all internal traffic to leave the network but to stop unwanted traffic from the outside world from entering the internal network.
Network topologies: https://gowdas1307.medium.com/network-topologies-a8ac0fdf219e
