Setting up the network backbone
To interconnect BBB boards via Ethernet, we need a switch or a hub. There is a difference in the functionality between a switch and a hub:
- With hubs, computers can communicate with each other. Every computer is connected to the hub with a separate Ethernet cable. The hub is nothing more than a multiport repeater. This means that it just repeats all the information it receives for all other ports, and every connected PC has to decide whether the data is for it or not. This produces a lot of network traffic and can slow down the speed.
- Switches in comparison can control the flow of network traffic based on the address information in each packet. It learns which traffic packets are received by which PC and then forwards them only to the proper port. This allows simultaneous communication across the switch and improves the bandwidth. This is the reason why switches are the preferred choice of network interconnection for our BBB Beowulf cluster.
The following table...
