Lesson 1 - Repeaters and Hubs

   Introduction

Repeaters and hubs are Physical Layer devices. Like a piece of wire, they transmit bits, but do not evaluate them. However, unlike a wire, these devices are not electrically passive; they add power to the signal as they actively retransmit it. Even though these devices are simple, they are important tools for organizing a physical network layout. This lesson looks at the primary features of both repeaters and hubs.

   Objectives

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1.	Describe what repeaters and hubs do
2.	Explain how repeaters and hubs are similar, and how they are different
3.	Explain what a collision domain is
4.	Name the main types of hubs

Key Point
Repeaters operate on bits and extend the length of a physical medium. Hubs provide a central point of connectivity for networking devices.

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