Re: Need a metaphor for routing



On 30 Mar 2006 06:01:23 -0800, "Christopher Nelson"
<cnelson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have to explain the difference between hubs, switches, and routers to
a audience with weak networking backgrounds so I need some simple (if
slightly inaccurate) analogies or metaphors. I'm considering the
following:

A hub is like a PA system what goes in is broadcast to all the outputs
(in the mike and out the speakers, in one port and out all others).

A switch is like a telephone switch board: it establishes
point-to-point connections (albeit you dial a phone and a switch
learns, but I'm not too concerned about that detail)

But how do I describe a router?

That would be your operator at the switchboard.
Take an incomming call and decide:
- if the destination is local, connect it to the extension
- if the destination is remote, patch it through,
- if the destination is unknown, refuse the call

--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok
.



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