What is SOHO ?

SOHO is the abbreviation of Small Office / Home Office Architectures. This architecture is the simplest network architectures that is mainly used in homes or in small enterprises as its names implies. It can be both wired and wireless LAN.

In SOHO architecture, there is a small switch, a router and connected devices  like PCs, printers, tablets, phones etc. The router that has routing capability provides Internet Access.  The switch provides the ports to provide network access to the devices that are used by users. Generally, one device that has both switch and router capability is used instead of two separate devices and that is the type of home router our internet service provides us or tell us to buy from best buy.

Ethernet technology is used to connect the devices in SOHO Architecture. The term Ethernet refers to a family of LAN standards that together define the physical and data-link layers of the world’s most popular wired LAN technology. The standards, defined the cabling, the connectors on the ends of the cables, the protocol rules, and everything else required to create an Ethernet LAN.

SOHO LANS (Wired and Wireless)

  1. This LAN needs a device called an Ethernet LAN switch, which provides many physical ports into which cables can be connected.
  2. This LAN needs Ethernet cables to connect different Ethernet devices or nodes to one of the switch’s Ethernet ports.
  3. In a typical LAN, you would require a router to route traffic to and from your internal network, many SOHO Ethernet LANs today combine the router and switch into a single device. Vendors sell consumer-grade integrated networking devices that work as a router and Ethernet switch, as well as doing other functions. These devices typically have “router” on the packaging, but many models also have four-port or eight-port Ethernet LAN switch ports built in to the device.
  4. Typical SOHO LANs today also support wireless LAN connections. Therefore, a single SOHO LAN includes both Ethernet LAN technology as well as wireless LAN technology
  5. Most wireless LANs rely on another networking device called a wireless LAN access point (AP). All the wireless LAN nodes (tablets and phones) communicate with the wireless AP and in todays world, the AP is built into the SOHO router. If the network uses an AP that is a separate physical device, the AP then needs a single Ethernet link to connect the AP to the Ethernet LAN, as shown in

Three (3) main functions of a SOHO router;

  • It operates as a switch where you can plug other computers with cable if they don’t have a Wi-Fi card like the laptops,
  • They act as a router routing traffic between your internal network and the internet through your service provider.
  • Acts as an access point for the wireless devices in your small home or office.

Other functions of a SOHO Router

firewall services and modem “MODulator/DEModulator,” which turns the digital signals of your internal network into the analog signals used by cable and DSL and vice-versa. It is the link between you and your Internet Service Provider, and the cable that goes out to the external world hooks into it. The modem must be compatible with your Internet service.

At the end, a SOHO single device router will have the features as depicted in the wireless router details.

Q&A

a. Only the devices that use cables are using Ethernet.√
b. Only the devices that use wireless are using Ethernet.
c. Both the devices using cables and those using wireless are using Ethernet.
d. None of the devices are using Ethernet.

Only the devices that use cables are using Ethernet because wired and wireless LAN have different standards  as defined by IEEE