Why are switches preferable to hub in Ethernet network?

Answer 1

Switches are almost always faster than hubs and send out less data than hubs as well, these reason for this is the same; when a hub gets data from any connected device it sends the message to all connected devices, a switch just sends it to the device that it is for. As such switches are seen as "smarter" devices than hubs, which is another advantage.

Answer 2

Switches are preferable in a LAN because they switch the packet only to the device that really is supposed to get the packet. A hub repeats the packet to all devices on the LAN, whether they need it or not. This leads to multiple collisions with hubs, which do not happen as much with a switch.

The end result is a faster performing network with a switch.

Answer 3

A hub is essentially a "multi-port repeater"; it takes information from one jack and repeats it to all of the jacks regardless of destination. A switch on the other hand is more intelligent, it makes information, reads where its destination is (its MAC address), and sends that information across only the jack that has the destination rather than repeating it to all.

Answer 4

Most networks used in home and small office environments use Ethernet as the physical media. In an Ethernet network, devices are connected together using either hubs or switches. This is true whether the network operates at 10 Megabits-per-second, 100 Megabits-per-second, or 1 Gigabit-per-second.

Ethernet Hubs

An Ethernet hub is a central connection point for all computers, printers, servers, and internet gateways in a network. Several hubs can be connected together to expand the device count in the network. When this is done, all devices are still contained in the same network.

A hub is a half-duplex device. That means that only one connected device can transmit at a time. When a connected device transmits a message to the hub, the hub broadcasts the message to the entire network. This occurs even though each message carries a destination address. A broadcast message is received by all devices but only accepted by the intended device. In this way, all devices on the network share the available bandwidth equally. This can limit the throughput of the individual devices.

Ethernet Switches

When a large number of devices reside in a network, or many large files are sent across the network, an Ethernet switch is a better choice as a central connection point. This is because a switch is a full-duplex device, meaning that connected devices can transmit and receive messages at the same time.

An Ethernet switch uses the same physical connections as a hub and can operate at the same speeds as a hub. The difference is that switches do not broadcast messages to the entire network. The switch is aware of the network address of all devices connected to it. It reads the destination address of each message and sends that message only to the intended device. In this way, almost the entire network bandwidth is available to each device on the network at all times.

Because Ethernet switches are comparable to hubs in price; they are the better choice for systems that support high-throughput applications. Networks that include file servers or extreme gaming systems fall into this category.

Answer 5

Greater performance at lower cost

Answer 6

No