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February 2003 © 2003 Foundry Networks, Inc. 3-1
CHAPTER 3
NETWORK PLANNING
Introduction to Switching
A network switch allows simultaneous transmission of multiple
packets via non-crossbar switching. This means that it can
partition a network more efficiently than bridges or routers. The
switch has, therefore, been recognized as one of the most
important building blocks for today’s networking technology.
When performance bottlenecks are caused by congestion at the
network access point (such as the network card for a
high-volume file server), the device experiencing congestion
(server, power user or hub) can be attached directly to a switched
port. And, by using full-duplex mode, the bandwidth of the
dedicated segment can be doubled to maximize throughput.
When networks are based on repeater (hub) technology, the
maximum distance between end stations is limited. For Ethernet,
there may be up to four hubs between any pair of stations; for
Fast Ethernet, the maximum is two. This is known as the hop
count. However, a switch turns the hop count back to zero. So
subdividing the network into smaller and more manageable
segments, and linking them to the larger network by means of a
switch, removes this limitation.
A switch can be easily configured in any Ethernet or Fast
Ethernet network to significantly boost bandwidth while using
conventional cabling and network cards.