Project - 2-3 switchers vs. routers

[rytomross]

I'm working on a project for school, and it's beginning to dawn on me that the course isn't entirely up to date.

Anyway, I have six departments each with their own subnet, and I need to aggregate each department's labs and offices, etc. The course book maintains that hubs should be used to aggregate, and then each department should be sent to a router.

I don't see any hubs on the Cisco site, and the course hardly mentions 2-3 switches. I'm not trying to combine different protocol suites or even differnt topologies, so is a router really required?

And what should I be using to aggregate? The project is based on a university building with a lot of labs, faculty offices, and wireless access.

[cpembleton]

Hubs! LOL...

Here is a good doc about campus high availability design.

http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/netsol/ns431/c649/ccmigration_09186a008093b876.pdf

Hope this helps.

Chad

[glen.grant]

Hubs have been gone since the late 90's. Switches are now used. A lot switches have layer 3 capability now so a router would not need to be used in that case , if it is a layer switch then yes you would need a router or a l2/l3 switch to do routing between subnets.

[rytomross]

Thanks cpembleton and glen.grant, appreciate the help. The textbook used in the course is a CompTIA approved text from 2005. But even in 2005 I find it hard to believe that hubs were still being used - I've had a baby 4-port switch at home since 2003.

I've found a 2/3 switch to interconnect my subnets, a router, and a firewall, but is there a general recommendation for a cheap layer 2 switch? I also don't need any advanced services or PoE on these ones, I just need to aggregate connections, a lot of connections (500+ per floor, 10 floors).

Thanks again for the help.