• Hubs
  • Used to communicate on the same network
  • Doesn't identify MAC addresses (broadcasts all the ports) (Layer 1)
  • Doesn't provide equal speed out of each port
  • Uses single broadcast domain & single collision domain
  • Doesn't implement any security


• Switches
  • Used to communicate on the same network
  • Works on MAC addresses (Layer 2)
  • Provides equal speed out of each port
  • Uses single broadcast domain & multiple collision domains
  • Creates a CAM table (Content Addressable Memory) to speed up communication
  • Uses an ASIC chip as an hardware platform (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)


• Routers
  • Used to communicate over different networks
  • Works on IP addresses (Layer 3)
  • Chooses always the shortest path to reach a destination
  • Implements load balancing
  • Creates a routing table