Dedicated Micros dv-ip Setup Manual page 14

Router
A Router or more commonly known as a 'Gateway' is the device that acts as a filter for transmission of
information from one network to another.
The router looks at the data and identifies if it is for a host on the LAN or if it is to be transmitted across
the WAN, what is the priority of the information (optimum path = high priority), is it time critical and what
speed is it being transmitted.
ATM
ISDN
DSL
A router also has the capabilities of converting one medium to another, e.g. Ethernet to ISDN and
buffers the data to slow high speed information transfer is successful over slower speed links, 10Mbpt to
128kbps.
A simple router can have a single LAN and WAN connection, where more sophisticated routers have a
LAN and multiple WAN connections (ISDN as a back up route, DSL, E1 as the main transmission paths)
and will identify the optimum route for the data to be transmitted.
IP Internet Protocol
The World Wide Web protocol, IP sits on top of the network hardware (described above) and is
responsible for transmission of Ethernet (or other networks such as Token Ring) packets to be sent from
host to host across the LANs, WANs and the WWW.
Any device connected to a network must have a unique address to identify who and where it is, this
address is an IP address, see below for more information on IP Addresses.
Page 6 Dedicated Micros Ltd