What is An Ethernet Hub in a Network?

CoreNetworkZ has a series of tutorials for beginners to understand basic network engineering concepts.

This post is one among them. Today we explain an obsolete network device called Hub.

We will check about Hub and its role in a LAN.

That means we can connect multiple devices to a Hub. However, it has many limitations.

Hub is a network device that connects multiple devices in a single network segment.

Hub works in the Physical layer of the OSI Reference Model.

Since it is a layer one device, it does not have the feature to read the signals it transmits.

So we can say the Hub has a single collision domain. In other words, a Hub repeats the signal it receives.

Let us check the working of a Hub.

Let us check the working of Hub.

Consider a network where five devices have a connection to a Hub.

Now the first computer wants to send a packet to the fourth computer.

Let us check how Hub handles this situation.

Here we can see the difference between Switch and Hub. Hub does not read the packets, and it broadcasts to all ports.

Switch reads the packet and unicasts it. So Switch is more efficient compared to a hub.

Another problem with the Hub is the higher the chances of packet collisions. We know a Hub has a single collision domain, and the chances of collisions are very high.

Hub is an obsolete device now.

Most networks use Switches to connect multiple network devices in a single network.

However, it is an excellent device for a beginner in network engineering to create a dummy network in a lab to learn the networking basics.