Working principle of Hirschmann modular switch from Germany

Hirschmann switches have a high bandwidth back bus and internal switching matrix. All ports of the switch are connected to this back bus. After the control circuit receives the data packet, the processing port will look up the address comparison table in memory to determine which port the destination MAC (hardware address of the network card) of the NIC (network card) is connected to. The data packet is quickly transmitted to the destination port through the internal switching matrix. If the destination MAC does not exist, it will be broadcasted to all ports. After the receiving port responds, the switch will "learn" the new address and add it to the internal MAC address table.

Switches can also be used to "segment" the network. By comparing with the MAC address table, switches only allow necessary network traffic to pass through them. By filtering and forwarding through switches, broadcast storms can be effectively isolated, reducing the occurrence of packet errors and sharing conflicts.

Hirschmann switches can perform data transmission between multiple port pairs at the same time. Each port can be regarded as an independent network segment, and the network devices connected to it enjoy all the bandwidth independently, without competing with other devices for use. When node A sends data to node D, node B can simultaneously send data to node C, and both transmissions enjoy the full bandwidth of the network and have their own virtual connections. If a 10Mbps Ethernet switch is used here, the total flow rate of the switch is equal to 2 × 10Mbps=20Mbps, and when using a shared HUB with 10Mbps, the total flow rate of one HUB will not exceed 10Mbps.