CCNA®: Cisco® Certified Network Associate: Fast Pass, Third Edition

1.1. Describe the purpose and functions of various network devices

It is likely that at some point you'll have to break up one large network into a bunch of smaller ones because user response will have dwindled to a slow crawl as the network grows and grows. And with all that growth, your LAN's traffic congestion has reached epic proportions. The answer to this is breaking up a really big network into a number of smaller ones—something called network segmentation.

You do this by using devices like routers, switches, and bridges. Figure 1.1 displays a network that's been segmented with a switch so each network segment connected to the switch is now a separate collision domain. But make note of the fact that this network is still one broadcast ...