NETGEAR ETHERNET SWITCH SW108 - Manual (Page 9)

Introduction 1-1
Chapter 1
Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of the NETGEAR ™ Model SW108 8-port Ethernet Switch.
The Model SW108 switch segments Ethernet networks to relieve bandwidth congestion instantly,
without having to replace network wiring, interface cards, or software.
This guide describes how to install and use the switch. It includes physical configuration
guidelines for connecting multiple 10 megabit per second (Mbps) hubs and for connecting
10 Mbps Ethernet stations, PCs, and servers.
Benefits of Using Switching Technology
Most of installed networks today are based on shared network technology. With this technology,
a number of users or groups of users share 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or other amounts of available
network bandwidth (network capacity). For example, with a total of 10 users, the average
bandwidth available to each user on a 10 Mbps network is calculated as 10/10 Mbps, or 1 Mbps
of bandwidth per user.
Ethernet switches significantly increase network throughput by segmenting network traffic. They
check traffic coming in to each port to learn which network device is located on which segment.
Based on this information, switches forward cross-segment traffic only to the appropriate segment.
The traffic will not show up in the other segments since it is filtered out. In this way, network
capacity is fully reserved for traffic destined for that segment only, and other segments are not
saturated with unnecessary traffic.
Ethernet switches provide private, dedicated, 10 Mbps capacity to each connected PC/server or
hub/workgroup segment, which is significantly higher than in a shared environment. The higher
bandwidth enables applications such as multimedia, imaging, video, or high- performance
client-server functions among users who are spread out over the network.
SW108.BK Page 1 Friday, June 27, 1997 10:48 AM