What does a bridge and a router do?

Asked By FannyBK 0 points N/A Posted on - 01/02/2012

My knowledge on bridge and router is limited; so far, the only distinction I am aware of is that a bridge interconnects a wide area network while a router is locally connected to a machine. Can you please enlighten me further on comparing and contrasting what a bridge and a router do? 

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Answered By Techie1 0 points N/A #93901

What does a bridge and a router do?

The difference between bridge and router can be confusing. I will try to clear the confusion between these. To understand it more clearly you should have knowledge about OSL Model and its working strategy. Bridges operate on the Data Link layer of the OSI Model. Bridges increase the performance because it segments networks in separate collision domains and bridges are transparent protocol. It forward data depending upon the destination MAC address. The incoming Frame will be discarded, in case the destination port is similar to the port from which it arrived.

While Routers are used to interconnect more than one network or sub-networks and route the data between these networks depending on the network address, not the MAC (hardware) address. Bridges are 2 layer devices while Routers are 3 layer(Network Layer) devices. Router used to connect different types of networks and to interconnect Local Area Network into Wide Area Network.

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Answered By gaurav3282 0 points N/A #93902

What does a bridge and a router do?

Hello FannyBK

Well i shall explain the difference between a bridge and a router to you

The bridge examines the 48 bit destination address for the packet and directs the packet only to the cable where the recipient resides. One packet causes less congestion thereby. A bridge may buffer enough bits to interpret the destination address. It could buffer a whole packet and queue it for the correct outgoing link. I don’t know if they do. Bridges learn whose where by watching return addresses.

“A router is a node that forwards IP packets not explicitly addressed to it.” The router talks PPP over very fast links such as fiber. It probably talks only to switches and other routers. Routers must be known to confine packets with IP addresses that are of local scope. Network Address Translation (NAT) happens in routers.

Hope this helps

thank you

Gaurav3282

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• Posted on - 01/07/2012
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