hub

1) Generally, a term used to describe a device that serves as the center of a star-topology network.

2) Hardware or software device that contains multiple independent but connected modules of network and internetwork equipment. Hubs can be active (where they repeat signals sent through them) or passive (where they do not repeat, but merely split, signals sent through them).

3) In Ethernet and IEEE 802.3, an Ethernet multiport repeater, sometimes referred to as a concentrator.