Comparison of 10/100 Hub and 10/100 NWay Switch

I. Connections look similar, but the internal fabric is different
-- 10/100 HUB Uses internal 10 <--> 100 bridge feature to interconnect both 10M and 100M Shared Bus.
-- 10/100 SWITCH Uses internal switched fabric to switch the data to the dedicated port.

II. Hop count* limitation
-- HUB Is Limited to 2 hop counts for 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet and 4 hop counts for 10Base-T Ethernet.
-- SWITCH Has no Hop count limitations, allows users to expand their network easily.
*From the IEEE802.3 and IEEE802.3u Ethernet standards, the HOP COUNT is defined as the numbers of HUBs that an Ethernet signal has to pass through to reach its final destination.

III. Total Bandwidth Comparison
-- HUB Is normally 10Mbps for 10Base-T Ethernet and 100Mbps for 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet.
-- SWITCH The aggregated bandwidth depends on the port numbers of a switch, e.g. total bandwidth of an 8-port SWITCH is 800Mbps.

IV. Full-Duplex Support
-- HUB Is not popular for 10Base-T and 100Base-TX HUB.
-- SWITCH Most up-to-date SWITCHes support Full-Duplex transmission mode which will double the speed of each link, e.g. aggregated bandwidth of a 8-port SWITCH will become to 1.6Gbps, which means 200Mbps per link.

V. Cost vs Performance Concern
-- HUB Less expensive per port, however, performance depends on the network traffics. Suggested for use with SWITCH to get higher system performance.
-- SWITCH Affordable solutions no matter the network configuration is simple or complicated. In addition, there's no expansion limitation in the future.

VI. Data Flow Comparion

Hubs
Switches

Half Duplex - Computer Sends Dat to Computer E; Simultaneously, Computer A cannot receive data.
Full duplex - Computer I sends data to computer M; simultaneously, Computer I can still receive data from other computers.

Shared Bandwidth
All computers shared the same bandwidth. for a 8-port hub, it will be 100/8 Mbps.
Dedicated Bandwidth
Each computer enjoy dedicated bandwith, ie, 100 Mbps

Data Flow Situation - When Computer A sends data to Computer H, the data will be broadcasted to computesr other than H. Also, only computer is allowed to talk.

When Computer I sends data to Computer P, Computer K can still send data to Computer M through the switch's internal fabric.

Hubs	Switches
Half Duplex - Computer Sends Dat to Computer E; Simultaneously, Computer A cannot receive data.	Full duplex - Computer I sends data to computer M; simultaneously, Computer I can still receive data from other computers.
Shared Bandwidth All computers shared the same bandwidth. for a 8-port hub, it will be 100/8 Mbps.	Dedicated Bandwidth Each computer enjoy dedicated bandwith, ie, 100 Mbps
Data Flow Situation - When Computer A sends data to Computer H, the data will be broadcasted to computesr other than H. Also, only computer is allowed to talk.	When Computer I sends data to Computer P, Computer K can still send data to Computer M through the switch's internal fabric.