• A hub is a common connection point, also known as a network hub, which is used for connection of all the devices in a network.
• The hub has numerous ports.
• If a packet reaches at one port, it is able to see by all the segments of the network due to a packet is copied to the other ports.
• A network hub has no routing tables or intelligence (unlike a network switch or router), which is used to send information and broadcast all network data across each and every connection.
• The network hubs were popular in the past time as they were cheaper as compared to a switch or router.
• Nowadays, switches are much cheaper than a hub and provide a better solution for any network.
• A hub is no IP address, as it is a dumb device.

Types of Hub

There are three types of the hub that are given below:

1. Passive Hub
2. Active Hub
3. Intelligent Hub

Passive Hub: 

• The passive hubs are the connection point for wires that helps to make the physical network.
• It can determine the bugs and faulty hardware.
• Simply, it accepts the packet over a port and circulates it to all ports.
• It includes connectors (10base-2 port and RJ-45).
• This connector is connected to all local area network (LAN) devices.
• The advanced passive hubs have AUI ports, which are connected as the transceiver according to the network design.

Active Hub: 

• It can monitor the data sent to the connected devices.
• It plays an important role between the connected devices with the help of store technology, where it checks the data to be sent and decides which packet to send first.
• It has the ability to fix the damaged packets when packets are sending, and also able to hold the direction of the rest of the packets and distribute them.
• If a port receives a weak signal, but still it is readable, then the active hub reconstructs the weak signal into a stronger signal before its sending to other ports.
• It can boost the signal if any connecting device is not working in the network.

Intelligent Hub: 

• These hubs have some kinds of management software that help to analyze the problem in the network and resolve them.
• It is beneficial to expend the business in networking; the management can assign users that help to work more quickly and share a common pool efficiently by using intelligent hubs.
• However, it offers better performance for the local area network.
• And with any physical device, if any problem is detected, it is able to detect this problem easily.

Features of Hub

• It acts with shared bandwidth and broadcasting.
• It includes only one collision domain and broadcast domain.
• It works at the physical layer of the OSI model and also offers support for half-duplex transmission mode.
• It cannot create a virtual LAN and does not support spanning tree protocol.
• It has a high transmission rate to different devices.

Applications of Hub

• Hub is used to create small home networks.
• It is used for network monitoring.
• They are also used in organizations to provide connectivity.
• It can be used to create a device that is available thought out of the network.

Functions of HUB

• Hubs work as a central connection between all network equipment and handle a data type, which is called frames.
• Hub transmit it to the port of the destination computer after amplifying it.
• A frame is passed to each of its ports in the hub, whether it is destined only for one port.
• It does not decide the port it should be sent.
• Therefore, a frame has to transmit to every port.
• For this reasons only, it generates a lot of traffic on the network and can be caused to damage the network.
• The hub is slower as compared to standard switch as it is not able to send or receive information at the same time, but a switch is more costly than a hub.

Advantages of Hub

• It provides support for different types of Network Media.
• It can be used by anyone as it is very cheap.
• It can easily connect many different media types.
• The use of a hub does not impact on the network performance.
• It can expand the total distance of the network.

Disadvantages of Hub

• It has no ability to choose the best path of the network.
• It does not include mechanisms such as collision detection.
• It does not operate in full-duplex mode and cannot be divided into the Segment.
• It cannot reduce the network traffic as it has no mechanism.
• It is not able to filter the information as it transmits packets to all the connected segments.
• It is not capable of connecting various network architectures like a ring, token, and ethernet, and more.

Difference between a Hub and a Switch

• It is a passive device. But switch is an active device.
• It is not an intelligent device. But a switch is an intelligent device.
• In the hub, the transmission mode is Half-duplex. But in switch, the transmission mode is full-duplex.
• It uses electrical signal orbits. But Switch uses frame & packet.
• A hub is not capable of storing MAC addresses. But a Switch uses accessible content memory, which can be accessed by application-specific integrated chips (ASIC).
• A hub contains a single domain of collision. But in switch, several ports include separate collision domains.
• A hub works at the physical layer of the OSI model. A switch works at the data link layer of the OSI model.
• In the hub, mostly collisions occur in setup. In full-duplex switch does not occur collisions.
• The speed of the hub network is up to 10 Mb per second. The speed of switch is 10/100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps.