The use of Ethernet switches in a local network. This term was more commonly used when networks were being transitioned from hubs to switches. Today, Ethernet switches are the norm, even a low-cost 5-port unit is a switch rather than a hub.
Throughout the 2000s, migrating from shared Ethernet hubs to Ethernet switches provided a dramatic increase in throughput. An Ethernet hub shared the total bandwidth of the unit with all the devices transmitting. With an Ethernet switch, each sender/receiver pair transmits at the highest common speed between them. See
Ethernet switch,
N-way and
hub vs. switch.