September 2011
6
V1.44
Copyright © 2011 Adept Systems, Inc. and Control Network Solutions Ltd All Rights Reserved.
Fig.1.1: Network Layers
A network connector is a device that joins different parts of a network. Connectors have a
specific name that is dependent on the layer at which the connector operates. For example a
router operates at the network layer and a gateway at the application layer. Because higher
layers of the protocol do not have access to some of the information stripped away by lower
layers, network connectors operating at different layers have different capabilities. There is also
some abuse of terminology so that the descriptions of network connectors from different
manufacturers may be confusing. For example, a repeating router may be called a repeater for
short. Although a repeating router acts similarly to a physical layer repeater, it operates at the
network layer and is not equivalent. It is usually best to find out at which layer a network
connector operates.
Fig.1.2: Network Connector Types and Associated Layers
