Repeaters
regenerate, and retime signals, which then
enables cables to extend farther to reach longer distances. They only deal with packets at
the bit level, therefore they are Layer 1 devices. Repeaters
are internetworking devices that exist at the physical layer (Layer 1) of the OSI model.
They can increase the number of nodes that can be connected to a network, and thus, the
distance over which the network can extend. Repeaters re-shape,
regenerate, and retime
signals before sending them on along the network.
The disadvantage of using repeaters is that they cannot
filter network traffic. Data (bits) that arrive at one port of a repeater are sent out on
all other ports. The data gets passed along to all other LAN segments of a network
regardless of whether or not it needs to go there.
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