Comparing Hubs and Switches

Chapter 2 introduced hubs, switches, and the concepts of broadcast and collision domains. Before going too far, it’s worth repeating and expanding some of the key material.

A hub is a layer 1 device that connects multiple network devices. When using a hub, bandwidth decreases as you add more devices to the network since all devices share bandwidth equally. Any data sent into one port of a hub goes out all other ports. With a switch, each port is separated from each other. The ports do not share bandwidth with one another.

Hubs create a single collision domain and a single broadcast domain. Switches create multiple collision domains but share a common broadcast domain. Routers create separate collision and broadcast domains.