Assignment 2 Spring 2016

Course Name:
Introduction to Information Technology
Instructor: Junaid Ur Rahman Bin Umar

Course Code: CS 101

Due Date: 05-05-2016

Name: Mohamed AL Hosani

ID: S0000002116

Name: Hamdan Alahbabi

ID: S0000002199

The Assignment constitutes 10% of your final grade for the course. All rules and regulations
have been provided to you in the student handbook.

EXAM SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS

Submit a softcopy and Hardcopy of your work

Maximum number of member per group is Two
Work must be neat and readable.
Late Submissions will be deducted (10% for each day)

Question
a) Differentiate between Router & Switch
b) Write Note on bridge

Max Marks 20
GD LUCK

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Router vs. Switch

Routers and switches are both computer networking devices. They allow one or
more computers to be connected to other computers, networked devices, or to other networks.
However, the functions of a hub, switch and router are quite different, even if at times they are
integrated into a single device. Routers connect two or more logical subnets, which do not
necessarily map one-to-one to the physical interfaces of the router. The term layer 3 switches
often is used interchangeably with router, but switch is really a general term without a rigorous
technical definition. In marketing usage, it is generally optimized for Ethernet LAN interfaces
and may not have other physical interface types.

Technical

Router
Routers operate at Layer 3

Switch
Network switches operate at

Specifications:

(Network) of the OSI model.

layer two (Data Link Layer) of

Layer:

Network Layer (Layer 3

the OSImodel.
Data Link Layer (Layer 2

Transmission Type:

devices)
devices)
At Initial Level Broadcast then At Initial Level Broadcast then

Table:

Uni-cast & Multicast

Store IP address in

Uni-cast & Multicast

Store MAC address in

Routing tableand maintain

lookup tableand maintain

address at its own.

address at its own, Switch can

Used in

LAN. WAN

Learn MAC address.

LAN

(LAN/MAN/WAN):
Device Type:

Networking device

Networking device

2/4/8

Switch is multi port Bridge.

Packet

24/48 ports
Frame (L2 Switch) Frame &

Ports:
Data Transmission
form:

Packet (L3 switch)

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Collision:
Transmission Mode:
Device Category:
Bandwidth sharing:

Less

In Full Duplex Switch no

Full duplex
Intelligent Device
Bandwidth sharing is

Collision occurs.
Full duplex
Intelligent Device
If speed of switch is 10/100

Dynamic (Enables either static

Mbps then bandwidth of each

or dynamic bandwidth sharing

and every one of its ports gets

for modular cable interfaces.

10/100 Mbps.

The default percent-value is 0.

The percent-value range is 1Speed:

96.)
1-10 Mbps(Wireless) 100

10/100Mbps, 1Gbps

Routing Decision:

Mbps (Wired)
Take faster Routing Decision

Take more time for

NAT (Network

Can Perform NAT

complicated routing Decision

Switches can Not perform

Address
Translation):
Faster:

Features:

Latest Models:

NAT
In a different network

In a LAN environment L3

environment (MAN/ WAN)

switch is faster than Router

Router is faster than L3

(built in switching hardware)

Switch.
Firewall VPN Dynamic

Priority rt range On/Off

handling of Bandwidth

setting of port VLAN

Linksys WRT54GL Juniper

Port mirroring
Alcatel's OmniSwitch 9000;

MX & EX series Cisco

Cisco Catalyst switch 4500

3900,2900,1900

and 6500(10 Gbps),

Bridge
Bridge
A device used to connect two separate Ethernet networks into one extended Ethernet. Bridges
only forward packets between networks that are destined for the other network. Term used by
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Novell to denote a computer that accepts packets at the network layer and forward them to
another network.

Why Use Bridges?

Bridges are important in some networks because the networks are divided into many parts
geographically remote from one another. Something is required to join these networks so that
they can become part of the whole network. Take for example a divided LAN, if there is no
medium to join these separate LAN parts an enterprise may be limited in its growth potential.
The bridge is one of the tools to join these LANS.
Secondly a LAN (for example Ethernet) can be limited in its transmission distance. We can
eliminate this problem using bridges as repeaters, so that we can connect a geographically
extensive network within the building or campus using bridges. Hence geographically
challenged networks can be created using Bridges.
Third, the network administrator can control the amount of traffic going through bridges sent
across the expensive network media.
Fourth, the bridge is plug and play device so there is no need to configure the bridge. And
suppose any machine was taken out from the network then there is no need for the network
administrator to update the bridge configuration information as bridges are self-configured.

The MAC Bridge

Bridges are used to connect LANs. Therefore in determining how to transmit traffic between
LANs they use a destination MAC address. Bridges push the function of network layer such as
route discovery and forwarding to the data link layer. There is no conventional network layer
for bridge.
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The bridges cannot maintain the integrity of data transmission in the case of received errors.
For example suppose there is an error in one frame and that frame is not transmitted properly
the bridge will not give any acknowledgement to retransmit that frame. If the bridge becomes
congested the frames can be discarded to make the traffic smooth. On the other hand the
bridges are easy to implement and no need to configure them.
Types of Bridges

Transparent basic bridge

Source routing bridge

Transparent learning bridge

Transparent spanning bridge

The Transparent Basic Bridge

The simplest type of bridge is the transparent basic bridge. It stores the traffic until it can
transmit it to the next network. The amount of time the data is stored is very brief. Traffic is
sent to all ports except the port from which the bridge received the data. No conversion of
traffic is performed by a bridge. In this regard, the bridge is similar to a repeater.
Source Routing Bridge
The route through the LAN internet is determined by the source (originator) of the traffic hence
this bridge is called as source routing bridge. The routing information field (RIF) in the LAN
frame header, contains the information of route followed by the LAN network.

The Transparent Learning Bridge

The transparent bridge finds the location of user using the source and destination address.
When the frame is received at the bridge it checks its source address and the destination
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address. The destination address is stored if it was not found in a routing table. Then the frame
sent to all LAN excluding the LAN from which it came. The source address is also stored in
the routing table. If another frame is arrived in which the previous source address is now its
destination address then it is forwarded to that port.
The Transparent Spanning Bridge
The last type of bridge is transparent spanning bridge. These bridges use a subnet of the full
topology to create a loop free operation.

References

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/networking/bridge_types.htm

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https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/41392

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Bridging_and_Switching_Basics

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