A repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it at a higher level or higher power, or onto the other

side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances. A device that reproduces the signal on a different frequency is called a transponder. Contents [hide]

1 History 2 Description 3 Usage 4 See also 5 References 6 External links [edit]History Before the invention of electronic amplifiers, mechanically coupled carbon microphones were used as amplifiers in telephone repeaters. The invention of the audion tube made transcontinental telephony practical. In the 1930s vacuum tube repeaters using hybrid coils became commonplace, allowing the use of thinner wires. In the 1950s negative impedance gain devices were more popular, and atransistorized version called the E6 repeater was the final major type used in the Bell System before the low cost of digital transmission made all voiceband repeaters obsolete. Frequency froggingrepeaters were commonplace in frequency-division multiplexing systems from the middle to late 20th century. [edit]Description The term "repeater" originated with telegraphy and referred to an electromechanical device used by the army to regenerate telegraph signals.[citation needed] Use of the term has continued in telephonyand data communications.

In telecommunication, the term repeater has the following standardized meanings: 1. An analog device that amplifies an input signal regardless of its nature (analog or digital). 2. A digital device that amplifies, reshapes, retimes, or performs a combination of any of these functions on a digital input signal for retransmission.[1] Because repeaters work with the actual physical signal, and do not attempt to interpret the data being transmitted, they operate on the Physical layer, the first layer of the OSI model. [edit]Usage Repeaters are used to boost signals in coaxial and twisted pair cable and in fiber optics. A network hub is one such device. In optical communications the term [[optical communications repeater is used to describe a piece of equipment that receives an optical signal, converts that signal into an electrical one, regenerates it, and then retransmits an optical signal. In contrast, Optical amplifiers are often used in transcontinental and submarine communications cables, because the signal loss over such distances would be unacceptable without them. Radio repeaters are used in radio communication services. Radio repeaters are also used extensively in broadcasting, where they are known as broadcast relay translators. A digipeater is a blend meaning "digital repeater", particularly used in amateur radio. Store and forward digipeaters generally receive a packet radio transmission and then retransmit it on the same frequency. When providing a point-to-point telecom link using radio beyond line of sight, one uses repeaters in a microwave radio relay. A reflector, often on a mountaintop, that relays such signals around an obstacle, is called a passive repeater.

Definition: A local area network (LAN) supplies networking capability to a group of computers in close proximity to each other such as in an office building, a school, or a home. A LAN is useful for sharing resources like files, printers, games or other applications. A LAN in turn often connects to other LANs, and to the Internet or other WAN. Most local area networks are built with relatively inexpensive hardware such as Ethernetcables, network adapters, and hubs. Wireless LAN and other more advanced LAN hardware options also exist. Specialized operating system software may be used to configure a local area network. For example, most flavors of Microsoft Windows provide a software package called Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)that supports controlled access to LAN resources. The term LAN party refers to a multiplayer gaming event where participants bring their own computers and build a temporary LAN. Also Known As: local area network Examples:

The most common type of local area network is an Ethernet LAN. The smallest home LAN can have exactly two computers; a large LAN can accommodate many thousands of computers. Many LANs are divided into logical groups called subnets. An Internet Protocol (IP) "Class A" LAN can in theory accommodate more than 16 million devices organized into subnets.

Hub
This is a hardware device that is used to network multiple computers together. It is a central connection for all the computers in a network, which is usually Ethernet-based. Information sent to the hub can flow to any other computer on the network. If you need to connect more than two computers together, a hub will allow you to do so. If you only need to network two computers together, a simple crossover Ethernet cable will do the trick.
HDLC (High-level Data Link Control) (High-level Data Link Control) A data link protocol from ISO for point-to-point communications over serial links. Derived from IBM's SDLC protocol, HDLC has been the

basis for numerous protocols including X.25, ISDN, T1, SS7, GSM, CDPD, PPP and others. Various subsets of HDLC have been developed under the name of Link Access Procedure (LAP). In HDLC, one side is set up as the primary control station and the other as secondary. In Normal mode, the secondary station responds to requests only from the primary station. In Asynchronous mode, the secondary can initiate transmission, and in Asynchronous Balanced mode, both sides can send and receive over full-duplex lines. See LAP and SDLC.

router

A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP??s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts. Very little filtering of data is done through routers

network topology What is a network topology? In communication networks, a topology is a usually schematic description of the arrangement of a network, including its nodes and connecting lines. There are two ways of defining network geometry: the physical topology and the logical (or signal) topology. The physical topology of a network is the actual geometric layout of workstations. There are several common physical topologies, as described below and as shown in the illustration. n the bus network topology, every workstation is connected to a main cable called the bus. Therefore, in effect, each workstation is directly connected to every other workstation in the network. In the star network topology, there is a central computer or server to which all the workstations are directly connected. Every workstation is indirectly connected to every other through the central computer. In the ring network topology, the workstations are connected in a closed loop configuration. Adjacent pairs of workstations are directly connected. Other pairs of workstations are indirectly connected, the data passing through one or more intermediate nodes. If a Token Ring protocol is used in a star or ring topology, the signal travels in only one direction, carried by a socalled token from node to node. The mesh network topology employs either of two schemes, called full mesh and partial mesh. In the full mesh topology, each workstation is connected directly to each of the others. In the partial mesh topology, some workstations are connected to all the others, and some are connected only to those other nodes with which they exchange the most data.

The tree network topology uses two or more star networks connected together. The central computers of the star networks are connected to a main bus. Thus, a tree network is a bus network of star networks. Logical (or signal) topology refers to the nature of the paths the signals follow from node to node. In many instances, the logical topology is the same as the physical topology. But this is not always the case. For example, some networks are physically laid out in a star configuration, but they operate logically as bus or ring network