Two or more computers connect to shared resources (such as printers or CDs), exchange files, or enable electronic communication to form a network. You can connect networks to your computer using cables, radio waves, phone lines, satellites, or infrared laser beams.
Criteria for Dividing the Local Network:
As networks expand, it becomes necessary to separate one access layer network into many access layer networks. There are numerous techniques to split networks according to various criteria. These separate local networks are connected by the distribution layer, which also manages the traffic that passes through them. We are responsible for ensuring that all traffic within the local network is restricted to the hosts. Only information intended for other networks is transferred. In order to control traffic and maintain security, the distribution layer can also filter both incoming and outgoing traffic. The network hardware that makes up the distribution layer is made to connect to networks, not specific hosts. Access layer components like switches are used to connect individual hosts to the network. Through a distribution layer device, such as a router, access layer devices are linked to one another.
- Broadcast Control: Broadcasts can only be heard within the local network with the help of routers in the distribution layer. While broadcasts are required, having too many hosts connected to the same local network might cause a lot of broadcast traffic, which will slow down the network.
- Security: Routers in the distribution layer have the ability to isolate and safeguard specific computer groups that house sensitive data. To help thwart assaults, routers can also be used to regulate access to and exit the local network, as well as to conceal the addresses of internal computers from the public Internet.
- Locations: To connect to local networks at diverse, geographically dispersed locations of an organization, routers in the distribution layer can be employed.
- Grouping logic: Routers in the distribution layer can be utilized to logically organize users, such as divisions within a business, who have similar requirements or need access to resources.
Reasons to divide a Network Into Subnets:
- Security: By using a subnet mask on the IP addresses that make up the network, a subnet is a split of a local area network. As the “division” only divides IP addresses into subsections, subnets may or may not correspond to specific geographic areas. Managing several subnets gives a number of benefits over managing a single huge network.
- Concealment: When a network is divided, a new routing layer is created for messages forwarded to specific computers within the subnet. A network router or another computer on the subnet must receive the message before it can be sent to the destination computer. Since the subnet router handles all the forwarding, the destination machine cannot be determined solely by its IP address. By hiding the network architecture from communications partners, this relative anonymity raises security.
- Administration and Division of Duties: You can designate a distinct network administrator for each subnet after segmenting a network into subnets. This can be helpful when working with huge organizations because it keeps the logs distinct and makes it simple to find a specific computer by first identifying its subnet. Additionally, you can only send a “broadcast” message to other users in a specific subnet by separating a network with routers. An engineering firm, for instance, might administer its engineering and marketing departments separately and in different subnets.
- Troubleshooting and Security: Connecting each subnetwork to a different router and having all messages for a particular computer go through that router is one way to create separate subnetworks. By effectively separating subnets, you can separate networked PCs into “guest” and “trusted” segments. Subletting a distributed network limits the number of transmissions that a single data packet can make within the network, making it easier to track the exact path of a packet and isolate errors if there are routing problems.
- Bandwidth Issues: When a network is divided into subnetworks, it is made sure that only communication intended for a specific computer in a subnet uses that subnet’s network, which is beneficial for networks with limited intra-network bandwidth. Preventing network congestion in other areas. This particular advantage only applies if you have a sizable network with constrained bandwidth between machines, not if you have a network with a slow Internet connection.
- Efficiency: The network can be segmented to improve communication efficiency. During communication, computers send “packets” of data to one another, that contains the communication’s content, sender and recipient details. A “packet collision,” which muddles the information delivered and breaks communication, can happen if two computers send data to each other at the same time or if numerous computers send data to each other. Collisions are possible when working with big, unsegmented networks, since any computer can communicate with every other machine. Computers can typically communicate inside segments of a segmented network, which lowers traffic on the overall network and lessens the possibility of packet collision.
- Effectiveness: Many computers on an unsegmented network increase the network’s bandwidth utilization in addition to packet collision. You can order that incoming traffic be “balanced” across segments if the network has servers that offer web pages, ensuring that no one segment or network needs to handle all incoming or outgoing traffic. As a result, your network will be better equipped to handle future growth and handle higher total traffic volumes.
- Security: Segmentation offers you a number of security advantages. The first is the result of segments that do not share traffic, which means that if a computer is compromised in one segment, it does not instantaneously grant the attacker access to computers in another segment. Exposure to the threat is thus reduced. Second, it is possible to separately secure each segment using firewalls and security software, making it more difficult for an attacker to compromise the system as a whole by requiring them to compromise various security suites in order to access various segments.
Conclusion:
A router is a network hardware device used to split a network. Broadcasts are not sent by routers. As a result, a router can divide a broadcast domain or network. Communication between divided networks is possible because routers connect to separate networks.