What Does Hub Mean?

Local Area Networks (LAN) used different hardware for example personal computer, HUB Network Interface Card (NIC) and cables (coaxial, fiber optics and twisted pair cable) etc depending in network requirement. In telephone system all telephone calls are handled by central switching station. Similarly in LAN HUB is used. HUB is the most important central device used for providing the central connection points for work stations. HUB is like a box used to connect multiple computers. CAT 5 twisted pair cables us used to connect computers with each other. HUB also collects data coming from different workstations and then sends it on LAN cable for delivery to the server. HUB is not intelligent device so it does not examine the network traffic. Collision occurs when there is high traffic on the network. In Local Area Network (LAN) HUB supports the single broad cast domain and single collision domain. There are two types of HUB used in networking. These are passive hubs and active hubs. Passive devices are responsible for connecting devices. Active hubs are regenerating the data bits to maintain powerful signal. Another name of active hubs is multiport repeaters. Hubs are inefficient because they forward all the traffic to host.

A network is a collection of computers connected with each other. Two or more computers can be connected to form a network. A HUB is used a central point for all the connections of a network. Normally, we use twisted pair cables in LAN and if we are using the star topology of LAN then we use HUB. Every computer is connected to HUB with a separate cable and then the HUB is connected to Server if the LAN is based on a Domain structure. A domain is such a network in which all the communication is done by a central computer, called server. But if we have a workgroup where there is no central computer all the computers are connected with HUB and there is no uplink to server.

HUB is available in different number of port. 8 port, 16 ports or 24 ports. One port is used to connect one computer. If our network consists of 30 computers and we have 16 ports HUB then we have to use two HUBS to form the network.

Now a days, switches are also used to replace HUB. HUB send data to whole network and the destination picks up the desired data where the switch sends data directly to the destination.

Hub implies "the centre" or "core" of any thing. For instance, the central part of fan or a wheel is called as the hub. The hub can also imply the crux of a matter or a centre point of attraction or interest. In computer terminology, the connection point between the terminal or workstation and the server in a local area network or LAN is called as the Hub.

The synonyms of the word "hub" are "focus," "root", "centre," "core," "focal point," "focus", "heart," etc. Hub can also stand for the centre part of a town or a city. In any place, a hub is the place where the major action or activity centres on. The Hub, at the crown of Edinburgh's Royal Mile, hosts the Edinburgh International Festival, and the main source of information on all the Edinburgh Festivals.

Hub means center point.

Hub refers to a networking component which acts as a convergence point of a network allowing the transfer of data packets.
In its simplest form a hub works by duplicating the data packets received via one Port and making it available to all ports, therefore allowing data sharing between all devices connected to the hub.
A hub may be of three types as; passive hub , active hub and switched hub .
A passive hub simply accepts the data packets from one port and sends it to all ports on network. An active hub, unlike passive hub, regenerates the data signals before sending it to all other ports. A switched hub directs the received data directly to recipient port.
A hub is the central part of a wheel where the spokes come together. The term is familiar to frequent fliers who travel through airport "hubs" to make connecting flights from one point to another. In data communications, a hub is a place of convergence where data arrives from one or more directions and is forwarded out in one or more other directions. A hub usually includes a switch of some kind. (And a product that is called a "switch" could usually be considered a hub as well.) The distinction seems to be that the hub is the place where data comes together and the switch is what determines how and where data is forwarded from the place where data comes together. Regarded in its switching aspects, a hub can also include a router.
1. In describing network topologies, a hub topology consists of a backbone (main circuit) to which a number of outgoing lines can be attached ("dropped"), each providing one or more connection port for device to attach to. For Internet users not connected to a local area network, this is the general topology used by your access provider. Other common network topologies are the bus network and the ring network. (Either of these could possibly feed into a hub network, using a bridge)
2 .As a network product, a hub may include a group of modem cards for dial-in users, a gateway card for connections to a local area network (for example, an Ethernet or a Token Ring) and a connection to a line (the main line in this example).

We can define a hub as it is a point which is used to connect all the devices in a network. A hub consists of multiple ports. Whenever a port gets a packet then that packet is sent to all the ports so that they can store this packet and this enables all the segments of Local Area Network to see packets.

Three types of hubs are mentioned below.

Passive hub: Main function of passive hub is to pass the data from one port to another or you can say that a passive hub simply broadcast a packet to every port.. it is called unintelligent hub because it does not take good route to transfer the data from one device to another. But as every thing has some advantages and disadvantages so it has one advantage, it does not take time to transfer the data.

Intelligent Hub: Intelligent hub consists of some additional features. These additional features make this hub intelligent. By using these features an administrator monitors the traffic and configures ports in the hub. An administrator can manage these hubs so that's why intelligent hub is also known as manageable hub.

Switching hub: Function of switching hub is to read the destination address of each packet and then forward the packet to correct port.This hub provides much better performance than conventional hubs because this hub forwards each packet only to the required port not to every port as conventional hubs do.