Unicast vs Multicast vs Broadcast: What Are the Differences?

Unicast, multicast and broadcast are the three simple methods used to transmit packets over a network. However, do you really have a good understanding of these networking terms? Here focus on unicast vs multicast vs broadcast to tell you their differences.

What Is Unicast?

Unicast is defined as the connection that only between a server and a client, which means it’s a one to one transmission. In computing world, it’s the most common kind of traffic in TCP/IP networks. For example, when you send or receive the email, you have to connect to the email server. And here you use the unicast transmission. In this case, a unicast frame contains the unique unicast MAC address of the destination receiver. Therefore, only the specified destination can receive the unicast traffic, and all other destinations will ignore or can’t receive unicast traffic. Using this transfer method, the server can send personalized and accurate information to each client with different requests. However, when the same information needs to be sent to a large audience, multicast and broadcast methods will be more efficient.

Figure 1: Example of Unicast One to One transmission

What Is Multicast?

Multicast is a one to many technology that efficiently sends data from one source to many destinations simultaneously, generally within a Local Area Network. A multicast frame contains the unique multicast MAC address of an application, protocol or data stream. To implement IP multicast communication, equipment like data switch, router between the source and receivers is required to support IP multicast function. In multicast model, the network traffic will not increase since the data packet can be sent to different destinations of one multicast group by sending one copy of the data, which means the overall network load can be reduced. However, as we mentioned above, the operation of multicast requires the assistance of switches with IP multicast function, so no matter you choose a 10gb ethernet switch or Gigabit PoE switch, please make sure the switch has that function.

Figure 2: Example of Multicast One to Many Transmission

What Is Broadcast?

Broadcast is a one to all technology. When a device sends a packet to the broadcast MAC address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF), it will be delivered to all receivers that connected on the LAN no matter the receiver needs it or not. Cable television network is the typical broadcast network example. However, broadcast is not the suitable choice for the public Internet, because it will generate unnecessary interference and tons of unwanted data.

Figure 3: Example of Broadcast One to All Transmission

Unicast vs Multicast vs Broadcast: What Are the Differences?

After knowing the definitions of unicast, multicast and broadcast, we’ll make a comparison of unicast vs multicast vs broadcast.

Multicast vs Unicast

The basic difference is that, in unicast, there is only one sender and one receiver, while there is a single sender but multiple receivers in multicast. When we want to send the message to a number of people, we’d better choose multicast transmission since it can utilize the bandwidth more efficiently.

Multicast vs Broadcast

In broadcast, the packet transmission is one to all, but in multicast the transmission is one to many. Besides, multicast requires group management, in order to ensure the message can be sent to those hosts which are interested in receiving the message. And the traffic on the multicast network is under control.

Unicast vs Broadcast

The process of data transmission is different. Unicast only sends the data to one receiver, but broadcast sends the same data to all receivers connected in one LAN. Moreover, if you want to share some private or unique information with another person, you must use unicast network but not the broadcast.

Here is a table to give you a clear comparison of unicast vs multicast vs broadcast.

	Unicast	Multicast	Broadcast
Transmission	One to one	One to many	One to all
Bandwidth	Wasted	Utilized efficiently	Wasted
Group management	No	Yes	No
Security	Safest	Safe	Not safe

From the table, we can see that multicast is the most efficient method for data transmitting. To meet the market demand, almost all FS network switches have multicast function.

Conclusion

As regard with unicast vs multicast vs broadcast, we know the key difference between them is the different transmission paths. So when you need to transmit some information, choose the suitable transmission method based on your actual needs.

What Is QSFP56 and QSFP56-DD Transceiver Module?

Optical transceiver is one of the most important elements in data centers. Currently, QSFP28 transceiver module is the leading product on the market that supports 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet application. However, the world is constantly changing and evolving, new applications such as 4K HD video, webcast, VR and cloud computing have driven a sharp growth of network traffic. Therefore, today, QSFP56 and QSFP56-DD are developed to provide 200G or 400G applications, in order to satisfy people’s higher transmission speed.

Introduction of QSFP

In order to have a good understanding of QSFP56 and QSFP56-DD, we’d better know what QSFP is first. QSFP means Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable, which is a compact, hot-pluggable transceiver. It’s an industry format that is developed and supported by many network component vendors, and it’s widely used to connect network switch, computer, server, video and some other communication systems. QSFP, QSFP56 and QSFP56-DD transceivers share the same package form, but their transmitting rates are different. This has lead to some other differences such as functions and applications, which will be explained in the following parts.

What Is QSFP56 Transceiver Module?

QSFP56 optical transceiver is the solution for 200G applications. It’s a pluggable transceiver module that has the same size as QSFP. However, this 200G transceiver can provide the top data rate of 50Gb/s of each channel. In addition, products of the transceiver will be compatible with previous QSFP standards. Therefore, the data center are able to reuse and easily refresh their systems designs and cost in an effective way. Communication specialists forecast that QSFP56 transceivers may accelerate the upgrade of the next generation network switches that the density of their front panel would be doubled, which will create more network throughput. QSFP56 will be the most competitive product due to its powerful processing capacity.

Figure 1: Example of QSFP56 Transceiver Connection

What Is QSFP56-DD Transceiver Module?

QSFP56-DD refers to a double-density QSFP optical transceiver that supports 200Gbps and 400Gbps Ethernet applications. It’s designed to employ eight lanes that operate up to 25Gb/s NRZ modulation or 50Gb/s PAM4 modulation. This means the new 400Gbps optical transceiver will increase the bandwidth and panel density by several times compared to the similarly sized QSFP transceivers. It’s based on the widely applied QSFP interconnection system, which is particularly suitable in data centers and HPC centers. In addition, this transceiver provides backward compatibility to lower-speed QSFP forms, so that when the technicians need to upgrade their networks to a higher speed, they could continue to use the other existing cabling infrastructure.

Figure 2: QSFP-DD vs QSFP

Conclusion

Traffic growth for data centers operators and service suppliers requires the adoption of 200G and 400G optical interfaces in the next generation of network devices. QSFP56 and QSFP56-DD transceiver modules are the best innovations to support customers with high speed and reliable connections. With these optical transceivers, technicians are able to achieve a breakthrough in network transmitting capability. We believe that the applications of QSFP56 and QSFP56-DD are the general trend in the future.

Related Article: Global Optical Transceiver Market: Striding to 200G and 400G

VPLS vs VPWS—How Much Do You Know?

Recently, network virtualization technology is the most popular and advanced technology both in our daily life and professional fields. There is a wide range of VPN technology available, such as VPLS and VPWS. Based on the use of Ethernet transport, VPLS and VPWS provide high-speed communications. But many business users who are seeking the most cost-efficient and efficient solutions for their network are confused when they face the two technologies VPLS and VPWS. Here focus on VPLS vs VPWS, to unveil their mysteries.

What Is VPLS？

Virtual private LAN service (VPLS) is a Layer 2 technology that uses MPLS and VPN to connect different LANs over the Internet. It’s a point to multipoint service that enables geographically isolated sites to be connected through a MAN or a WAN. And all services in a VPLS are on the same LAN. CE and PE are the two basic concepts used in VPLS. CE stands for custom edge, which is the device like a router or a 10gbe switch at the customer premises. PE, the provider edge, is defined as the router at the network of the service provider. It’s typically connected with the CE and responsible for VPN access.

How VPLS Works?

Now let’s look at how VPLS works. In VPLS, first, the packet from a service provider network is sent to a CE device (for example, a 48 port 10gbe switch ). Then, the packet is sent to a PE router. It goes through the service provider network via the MPLS label-switched path. At last, when the packet arrives at the exist PE router, it will forward the traffic to the CE device at the destination customer site. For people who implement VPLS on a data switch, they will enjoy a fast, secure and homogeneous network with lower latency.

Figure 1: Example of VPLS

What Is VPWS?

Virtual private wire service or VPWS is built on MPLS network and provides point to point connections that connect end customer sites in a VPN. It’s also a Layer 2 technology that consists of three main elements, PE routers, Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) and Label Switched Path Tunnel. Unlike the traditional VPNs over Layer 2 circuits, which needs extra separate networks for IP and VPN services, VPWS can share the provider’s core network infrastructure between IP and Layer 2 VPN services. Thus, the cost of these services will be reduced. In addition, a VPWS Layer 2 VPN can be a full mesh or a hub and spoke topology. And MPLS is the tunneling in the core network. But other tunneling protocols like GRE also can be used in VPWS.

Figure 2: Example of VPWS

VPLS vs VPWS: What Are the Differences?

From the above, we can see clearly that the biggest difference of VPLS vs VPWS is that the VPLS provides a point to multipoint servers, while the VPWS provides a point to point service. It means that the CE devices of VPLS and VPWS are different. For VPLS, the CE routers just send all traffic to the PE devices. In contrast, in VPWS, CE routers are used to carry out Layer 2 switching and have to decide which virtual wire could be used to send data to another customer site.

Conclusion

As regard with VPLS vs VPWS, we know they both can build a Layer 2 VPN service to meet today’s high speed network requirement. So don’t be hesitated, use your data switches or routers to set up a safety and efficient VPLS or VPWS service to optimize your network.

Home Server Rack Setup: Making Your Home Intelligent

As we know, the server rack can organize numbers of network equipment into standard-sized rack, which greatly improves the working and management efficiency throughout the data center. Meanwhile, with the 5G IoT era approaching, more and more intelligent home appliances gradually enter our lives. People especially the IT men desire to use a centralized management to run these equipment. Of course, the best solution is the home server rack. But how much do you know about home server rack setup?

Figure 1: Intelligent Life is Coming.

What Can I Do With Home Server Rack?

Home server rack is the centralized point in your house where the wiring meets switches, routers etc. The most obvious thing that we can do with home server rack is protecting our hardware. Mounting them into the rack instead of putting them on or under a desk can avoid the risk of getting knocked over, having water or other liquids spilled on them. Besides, for the IT passionate and technology enthusiasts, they can use home server rack to build a small data center. With this, they can control and add whatever they please, like installing some game servers and email server in the meantime. So they can build their own services and have fun in running the services.

Considerations of Home Server Rack Installation Guide

As for the home server rack build, here are two aspects that must be considered so as to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Equipment numbers. Before you start the home server rack setup, you should take an inventory of your equipment such as switches, routers. Only know the specific numbers, we can determine the home server rack size. And here I suggest leaving some extra rack space, which is beneficial for cables go through the patch panel rack.

Rack location. We should determine the rack location based on convenience and available space. Because all the interior wiring like Cat5e, Cat6 for network and coax for television may join the home rack. Besides, an airy room is good for rack cooling. Thus choosing the right place in your building is critical.

How to Set Up a Server Rack?

Unlike the racks in the server room, there is no need to use a large server rack at home. So some people are fond of DIY. But I think to make a server rack may spend lots of time and energy. And most of them use the wood as the main material, which is not good for protecting the environment. Here I recommend the 12U server rack from FS.COM to you. Only cost 110 dollars, you can get a server rack that can be mounted on walls and placed on floors. It uses SPCC cold roll steel, which is more sturdy and durable than the wood ones. This equipment is specially designed with glass door to offer a better protection for your network devices, and cooling vents on the back to ensure airflow.

Figure 2: Server Rack for Home

Now, we can place the 12U home server rack in the determined location. Then mount your various devices into the rack. If you have a budget for cable management tools, you can buy a keystone patch panel to manage your cables on racks. Thus, a home server rack setup has been established, you can manage your home network devices conveniently and enjoy the customized services.

Conclusion

Home server rack brings many advantages which may make your life a lot easier and intelligent. After all the work in home server rack setup, you can pride yourself in the creation and effort. So let’s design a home server rack, and start our smart life.

What Is DHCP and How It Works

To transmit data back and forth across the Internet, an IP address that administrators have to accomplish and configure on a router or Lay3 fiber switch is the essential cornerstone of a host. Besides, when you want to communicate with other networks, you need to know the default gateway address and subnet mask for the local network, as well as the DNS server. DHCP can help you get all the information dynamically. So what is DHCP and how it works?

What Is DHCP?

DHCP wiki defines the term dynamic host configuration protocol as a network management protocol used on UDP/IP networks. It assigns an IP address and some other configuration parameters to each network device automatically, so that the device will be authorized to communicate with other IP networks. This means users don’t need to configure the network, just plug the wire into your computer or connect to the WiFi, your computer will automatically receive the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS server. Then how to enable DHCP? DHCP can be installed on a single server or integrated in most network equipment like a Gigabit PoE switch, a router or even the firewall. The following are some related terms we should know.

• DHCP Client—It obtains an IP address and other parameters from a DHCP server. It is the initiator of an IP address allocation.
• DHCP Server—It assigns IP address and other parameters to the DHCP client.
• DHCP Repeater—It forwards DHCP messages between a DHCP server and DHCP clients.
• DHCP Snooping—It records the users’information that has applied for IP address through the layer 2 equipment.

What Are the Advantages of DHCP?

DHCP protocol reduces the complexity and numbers of administrative work by using automatic TCP/IP configuration. This is the greatest benefit. Today, no matter in the data center or at home, more and more devices are being networked from printers and fax machines to TV and fridges. Often times, these devices are placed in different locations, without DHCP, you have to get up out of your comfy chair and find the device and configure each manually. But assisted by DHCP protocol, all you need to do is changing the settings on the server or may be a 10gbe switch. As addresses are assigned automatically, there is no need to keep a record of the used and free ones. Besides, DHCP snooping can detect unauthorized DHCP server on the network.

How DHCP Works?

As the title mentions what is DHCP and how it works, now we have learned what DHCP is, let’s turn to its operation. In essence, DHCP leases IP address and other parameters to the specific clients for a period of time. The following picture shows how DHCP works.

Step one: When a new client wants to join a network, it will broadcast a DHCP discover packet to the servers.

Step two: To answer the request, DHCP servers will send the free DHCP offer packet to the client.

Step three: The client takes the first DHCP offer message from different serves. Then it will send a DHCP request to the Internet to indicate which IP address it has taken.

Step four: DHCP server sends an acknowledge message to make sure the IP address has been used that will not assign to any other client. And now the client can participate on the network.

Conclusion

With regard to the question, what is DHCP and how it works, I think you have found the answer. Any questions of DHCP or network switch supporting DHCP, you can visit FS.COM or contact via sales@fs.com.

What Is IGMP Snooping

With the development of Internet technology, traditional network unicast mode can’t meet today’s data transmission requirement. On the contrary, this mode increases network load and consuming network bandwidth greatly. IGMP snooping is developed to solve the problem. So what is IGMP snooping?

Introduction of IGMP Snooping

IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) is a communications protocol. So what is IGMP used for? Commonly, it’s used to establish membership in a multicast group. And each member host of an IP multicast is a transmitter or receiver.

As for IGMP snooping, which sounds like an obscure hacker technique that may break into one’s network, is actually an advanced option available on most of switches or routers. Wiki defines it as the process of listening to IGMP network traffic. It is a multicast constraint mechanism running on the two-layer device, which is used to manage and control the multicast group. If there are plenty of multicast traffic in your network, the whole performance may be effected due to the excessive false flooding. At this moment, IGMP snooping switch can help to optimize your network. It enables the Gigabit Ethernet switch configured with IGMP snooping decides which devices will receive the applicable multicast traffic, thus the others won’t receive the message. This means broadcast packet on layer 2 has been reduced so that the network bandwidth will be conserved. Besides, IGMP snooping helps improve message information.

IGMP Snooping Process

After knowing what is IGMP snooping, let’s see how it works. Once a device joined the multicast group, the router or fiber switch will notice this. Then the message cab forwarded to the devices that have joined the multicast group. Look at Figure 1, when the switch runs without IGMP snooping, the multicast packet will be transmitted to host A, B and C. But when the switch has set up IGMP snooping, only multicast group members host A and C can receive the multicast packet. This is the main IGMP snooping tutorial.

Figure 1: The picture shows how IGMP works.

Using FS.COM Switch to Build IGMP Snooping 

To keep pace with the technology development, FS.COM releases a set of switches to help customers establish IGMP snooping. Here is a 24 port switch named S3700-24T4S. The 1G managed switch provides an affordable solution for business of all sizes requiring switches with essential L2 switching features like VLAN and IGMP snooping, along with a simple and intuitive management interface. It includes 24 10/100/1000Base-T Ports and 4 10G SFP+ ports to extend your home or business network at gigabit speeds. Equipped with ARM CPU and BCM53346 chip, the Lay 2 switch has a switching capacity of 128Gbps, which is compliant with the international standard.

Figure 2: S3700-24T4S 24 Port Switch

Conclusion

Now I think you know the answer of the question we posed at first, what is IGMP snooping. When IGMP snooping is enabled, the bandwidth consumption will be reduced in a multi-access LAN environment so as to avoid flooding the entire VLAN. Any question about IGMP snooping configuration, please contact us via support@feisu.com.

Ethernet Switch vs Splitter—How Much Do You Know?

Today, our lives hardly do without Internet communication. We do shopping, letter writing and business all relying on the Ethernet connections both at home and office. And Gigabit Ethernet switch and splitter are the networking devices that are primarily used for connecting different computers or other networking devices. However, they are quite different. Here focus on Ethernet switch vs splitter.

Ethernet Switch vs Splitter: What Are They?

First, let’s figure out the definitions of the two terms.

What Is Ethernet Switch?

An Ethernet switch is a high speed networking device that provides more ports for subnets to connect more computers, printers, cameras and so on in a building or campus. Through the ports, the data switch can receive incoming data packets and redirects the data to their intended destination within a LAN. Usually, an Ethernet switch not only works at the data link layer which is also called layer 2, but also can operate at the network layer (layer 3) or above.

What Is Splitter?

A network splitter acts as the optical power distribution device, like a coaxial cable transmission system. It’s one of the most important passive devices which means it doesn’t need external power except for light. As the name implies that it can split a single Internet connection to create extra connections, as a result the additional or other computers on a network could be connected.

Ethernet Switch vs Splitter: What Are the Differences?

Ethernet switch can be used for networks that include different devices, for example, a computer and a video game console or a printer. In addition, general switch needs a power input so that it can divide an Ethernet signal into various signals, and the signals can operate at the same time. As a result, different devices can be connected by the switch and work simultaneously.

As for Ethernet splitter, there is no need for power input. And splitters need to be used in pairs. It physically splits a single Ethernet connection into two connections. Simply put, if you want to connect two computers in one room and a switch in another room, then you need the splitters. Instead of using two Ethernet cables from one room to another, the splitters can physically split one Ethernet cable into two to connect the computers and the switch. This is the main principle for the issue that how to use Ethernet splitter.

Ethernet Switch vs Splitter: Where to buy?

The following products of Ethernet splitter vs switch are from FS.COM.

S5800-48F4S Switch

This is a 10gb Ethernet switch that has 48×1GbE SFP ports and 4×10GbE SFP+ ports. With a switching capacity of 176Gbps, it supports comprehensive L2 and L3 network management features. The switch offers MLAG, MPLS, IPv4/IPv6, SNMP etc. Designed with the max power draw of 75W and switching capacity of 176Gbps, this switch is ideal for traditional or fully virtualized data center.

Figure 1: S5800-48F4S Switch

Conclusion

As for Ethernet switch vs splitter, we have known how do Ethernet splitters work and how do switch work. Both of them can optimize our network that allow us to work in an efficient and high secure way. Welcome to visit FS.COM to pick your own Ethernet switch and splitter.

Single-Sided Vertical Cable Manager for 45U Server Rack

Server rack cable management is a finicky thing. In addition to a better organization of the fiber cables and power cords within racks, you have to run them orderly in vertical direction. Vertical cable manager is an important role for cable management, which will hold the cables snugly and safely to ensure the smooth data transmission. Here focus on single-sides vertical cable manager for 45U server rack.

Importance of Vertical Cable Management

The most significant usage of vertical cable management is cable bend radius protection. As we know, cable performance is determined by the physical properties of the cable, and therefore no matter when the cable changes direction, the fiber’s bend radius which has potential to impact cable performance will be generated at any point. To enhance the cables’ long-term reliability and reduce signal attenuation, vertical wire management tools allow convenient cable access with the acceptable bend radius.

Additionally, pulling behavior is inevitable during cable installation, so using a vertical cable management to define the vertical cable routing paths is of great importance, which will be the physical protection of the installed cables.

Overview of Single-sided Vertical Cable Manager for 45U Server Rack

Vertical cable organizer is similar to the horizontal cable category except for the orientation. Just as the name implies, single-sided vertical cable manager is perfect for keeping cables along a single rack or between two bayed racks. Here is a sample from FS.COM.

This 45U equipment is specifically designed to readily manage the challenges proposed by the data center’s high volume and density cabling system. It features contoured front door with easy-open knobs. Made of PVC material, the manager has plastic T-shaped cable fingers only on the front, which is comp

ly with RoHS standard. You can use it to support and manage large bundles of cables on the front rack. Besides, it has smooth oval holes that allow cables to come out wherever they are needed. Creatively, this 45U cable manager is composed by two 22.5U sections. Thus, you can utilize them to combine a 22.5U dual sided vertical cable manager.

Figure: Example of Single-sided Vertical Cable Manager

How to Use Single-sided Vertical Cable Manager

The following video gives a brief introduction of this FS vertical cable manager usage.

First, we should install the single-sided vertical cable manager. Adjust the vertical mounting rails and identify the mounting slots, then install finger directly onto the manager backbone. Don’t forget to insert the specially designed keyed brackets into the complete vertical cable manager.

Second, after that, we are ready to mount the manager on a server rack. Place the manager on one side of the rack, then use the screw to fix it. The installation is finished.

Last, manage the cables on the rack to go through the fingers, and the space is enough for both fiber and copper cables. Finally, remember to close the cover to protect the cables from dust.

Conclusion

Vertical cable manager is the perfect way for holding cables, which ensures everything is neatly and safely in place. FS.COM offers both vertical and horizontal cable management products to create the various cable pathways. Want to find a valuable cable management tool, please visit FS.COM.