Short for port-switching hub, a special type of hub that 
forwards packets to the appropriate port based on the 
packet's address. Conventional hubs simply rebroadcast 
every packet to every port. Since switching hubs forward 
each packet only to the required port, they provide much 
better performance. Most switching hubs also support load 
balancing, so that ports are dynamically reassigned to 
different LAN segments based on traffic patterns. 
Some newer switching hubs support both traditional Ethernet 
(10 Mbps) and Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) ports. This enables 
the administrator to establish a dedicated, Fast Ethernet 
channel for high-traffic devices such as servers.