How a Network Hub Works

Networking Hub Basics

Networks hubs allow a user to transfer data over a local area network. Networking hub manufacturers do not often put much processing equipment in these devices. The hub is intended to be a device that operates solely at the physical level of the OSI model. (The OSI model is a 7-layered tier for understanding networking. The physical layer refers to the hardware used to carry out networking tasks.)

How Hubs Work

A network hub can be thought of as a listening post and as a repeating station. A computer's network interface card sends out packets to the network. The hub receives this information and passes it through all the ports on the hub that have attached cables. This means that the computer that sent the data also gets it back. The networking protocols have ways of determining which computer on the network needs to process the information.

MAC Addresses

Each networking card has a physical address assigned to it. This address, called a Mac address is a six digit hexadecimal number that must be unique to each computer on the network. When a computer on a network receives data packets with its MAC address, it processes the data internally. Computers that do not have the MAC address ignore the data.

Networking Protocols

Hubs can operate independently of networking protocols, although newer hubs allow for a little more processing than do their "dumb" predecessors. Ethernet protocol will be the most commonly used protocol, and users do not usually need to worry about this or other things that happen using Ethernet, such as collisions and slow downs because of too many computers on the network. Network administrators and engineers can focus on the technical headaches that occur because of Ethernet topology.

References

• How a Hub Works