Network Interfaces

A network interface – or network interface controller, network interface card, network adapter – is a hardware component that is designed to allow computers to access an interconnection network for communication and synchronization purposes. Therefore, a network interface typically provides two different kinds of interfaces, one toward the computer (host) side and one toward the network side. The network interface translates the protocol of the host interface to the network protocol and vice versa, and translates between the different physical media. From the network’s point of view, network interfaces are the end points of the network, as here the network packets are injected into, respectively retrieved from the network. As all end points of a network must be uniquely addressable, each network interface is assigned a unique number. The major task of a network…