The classical repeater as described in the first couple of chapters of nearly every networking/internetworking technologies survey is a little before my time, but here are some thoughts:
-bridges are often described as multi-port repeaters, leaving the impression that mere repeaters have but a single port (please note, that the coinage described might involve distinguishing ingress from egress ports, but that's hardly clear to the uninitiated). I suppose that an argument might be made to lend legitimacy to the practice of contrasting the prefix multi with something other than a term specifically denoting "one" or "single", but I'm not sure how relevant that will turn out to be as time erodes those cases without corroborating evidence. -to the extent that the purpose of the repeater is to extend a LAN, one might picture a device with two cables (or other data-traversing-friendly media) attached: one connected to the original network, one connected to the extension. I'm honestly not sure how else it would function. -to the extent that the characterization i've provided is accurate, it might be useful to apply bridging concepts in order to discern the functionality of the repeater. A bridge accepts packets on a given port and, by charter, does NOT transmit replicas of those packets on the same (ingress) port. I therefore picture a repeater as a device that has 2 connections: one to the original network, one to the LAN extension. If this is the case, I would presume that the relevant functionality is to perpetuate packets received on one port to the other. If that is the case, the repeater cannot be said to create a loop. Note: if a loop already exists, the repeater would perpetuate that condition, by design. All: as I mentioned, repeaters ceased to be relevant before my time. If anyone knows differently about the topics I've alluded to, please post your dissenting statement. Thanks, ----- Original Message ----- From: "mlh" To: Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2002 3:18 PM Subject: How does repeater work? [7:36323] > Could anybody tell me how repeaters work ? I don't understand how repeater > can regenerate > the two-way signals from both segment connected to the repeater. Isn't it > forming a loop? > Pls forgive me asking the stupid question. > > Thanks in advance. > > mlh Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=36362&t=36323 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
