Cisco Switching Fundamentals
Newer switches now use ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) for high speed hardware switching of packets. This results in much faster performance than packets processed in software. More ...
Transparent Bridging and MAC Address Filtering
A bridge uses a database to send frames across network segments. The database is a list of nodes MAC addresses and their locations on the network. To send a frame between two segments a bridge reads a frame's destination MAC address and decides to either forward or filter. More ...
Network Storage Server Options
Although the need for storage available over a shared network is evident, it is not always clear which solution is right for your organization. There are a variety of options available, direct-attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SAN). More ...
Beginners Guide to Fiber Optic Bit Error Ratio (BER) Measurement
Bit error ratio (BER) measurement is the fundamental measurement of the quality of the fiber optic communication system. It measures the system's probability that transmitted bits will be correctly received as logic ones and zeros. More ...
MPO Connector, MTP Connector, What's the Difference?
MPO stands for Multi-fibre Push On and is a fiber optic connector type. MTP is a registered trademark of US Conec. The MTP design complies with the MPO standard. More ...
A Guide to Broadband Internet Connections
By this point, most of America already has a Broadband Connection to the Internet. But for those that have not yet taken the plunge, a world of benefits awaits you. Broadband can get you surfing up to 50 times faster than a typical 56K modem. More ...
Network Broadcast Storms
When a switch receives a broadcast frame the switch floods the frame out all switch ports other than the port on which the frame was received. Because a layer 2 frame does not have a TTL (Time to live) field, a broadcast frame endlessly circulates through the Layer 2 topology. More ...
Ethernet Network
In 1973 Xerox invented Ethernet to solve the problem of transferring data between computers. In the early 1980s Xerox turned over control of the Standard to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE subcommittee 802.3 sets the standard for Ethernet. More ...
What Are Pseudo-Wires?
Pseudo-wire is a mechanism used in networking and telecommunications to emulate various services using packet switched networks with technologies such as Ethernet, MPLS (Multi Protocol Labelled Switching) and IP (Internet Protocol). More ...
How In-Row Cooling Increases Data Center Efficiency
Increased data center densities enable operators to meet the demands of cloud and hyper-scale environments. As more power is consumed per rack, however, heat becomes a big problem. Most modern data centers have adopted some sort of aisle-containment solution to minimize the mixing of hot and cold air. More ...
Network Hubs
A hub lives at Layer 1 of the OSI model, so it does not make forwarding decisions. Instead, a hub receives bits on one port and then retransmits those bits out all other ports. Because of this a hub is sometimes called a repeater. More ...
The Complete Guide to Fiber Optic Connectors
There have been over 100 different fiber optic connectors developed over the years but a select few have stood the test of time and beat out their competition. In this article we talk about the most common. More ...
Voice Over IP Protocols and Components
Voice over IP (VoIP) is a technology that digitizes speech into packets and transmits those packets across a data network. This allows voice, data, and video to share the same medium. More ...
