In telecommunications, the term gateway is a term applicable in different situations and to different devices, programs and even computers, as long as they act as a node in a network, where their function is to connect two different networks.
* In network communications, a gateway is a network node equipped to interface with another network that uses a different protocol:
– Hardware, a gateway may contain devices such as protocol translators, impedance matching devices, ratio converters, error isolators or signal translators, necessary to provide interoperability to the system. An establishment of mutual acceptance between both networks is also required.
– Software, a translation/mapping gateway protocol that interconnects networks with different network protocols, performing the required protocol conversions.
* By extension, a gateway computer is a computer configured to perform gateway tasks.
Therefore, in general, any node that allows connecting two different networks and that acts as a converter between protocols is considered a gateway.
Various types of gateways
A gateway is a point in the network that acts as an entrance to another network. On the Internet, a node (or stop point) can be a gateway node or a host node (end point). Both the computers of Internet users and the computers that serve the pages to the users are host nodes, while the nodes that connect the networks in between are gateways. For example, the computers that control traffic between corporate networks or the computers used by Internet providers to connect users to the Internet are gateway nodes.
In a business network, a server computer that acts as a gateway node is often also a proxy server and a firewall server.
A router is also considered a special case of a gateway (which knows where to direct a data packet given that it arrives at the gateway), as is a switch (which provides the actual path in and out of a gateway for a given data packet). ).
Doubts? needs more information? Write and we will respond to your email: click here