Re: CVS commit: src/sys/net

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> Maybe "network interface" is not the right abstraction for bridges
>> to be instances of, then?  (Though, at least in my experience,
>> NetBSD's "bridge" interfaces are more like switches than bridges.)
> A switch is a bridge with more than two ports.

Then what is my 8-port 10Mb hub?  Switch, bridge, neither?  It has no
buffering and it always floods all traffic - traffic from port A to a
machine on port B at the same time as traffic from port C to a machine
on port D will produce a collision.  This means it is not a switch as
I've used the term throughout my career (well, throughout after the
point when devices smart enough to send unicast traffic to only the
appropriate port appeared).  But it has eight - more than two - ports.

I also own an AUI multiport transceiver box that's basically the same
thing, but AUI instead of twisted-pair - it has eight connectors which
present AUI transceiver interfaces (for connection to hosts) and one
which presents an AUI host interface (for connection to a transceiver).

Is it a bridge, a switch, neither, what?  Why?

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