Kingston Technology KNS800/WG, KNS500/WG manual Appendix D Frequently Asked Questions

16 ______________________Appendix D Frequently Asked Questions

Appendix D Frequently Asked Questions

What is a switch and what does it do?

Switching hubs are low-latency devices that allow you to maximize the bandwidth of a network using concurrent access within the unit. Switches allow you to segment LANs, connect LANs of different speeds, or extend the collision domain of an existing LAN.

What’s the difference between a repeater and a switch?

A repeater is a device that extends the diameter of a network by regenerating and forwarding received Ethernet packets. It repeats incoming signals to all other ports on the device.

Like a repeater, a switch can also extend the diameter of a network. However, a switch can also extend the collision domain of a network, like bridging a 10Mbps Ethernet LAN with a 100Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN. See the illustration below. A switch can also be configured to operate in half-duplex or full-duplex mode, whereas a repeater can only operate in half-duplex mode.

Switching fabric isolates each of the shared buses (repeaters) into its own collision domain.

			Switching Fabric
Repeater (Shared Bus)			Repeater (Shared Bus)			Repeater (Shared Bus)
100	100	100	10	10	10	100	100	100

Collision Domain 1 Collision Domain 2 Collision Domain 3

Kingston Technology Company KNS800/WG User’s Guide - Rev. B01