Computer Networking Concepts Reasons to use a Bridge

Computer Networking Concepts: Reasons to use a Bridge

Reasons to use a Bridge • There are four basic reasons to use a bridge: Security: Stops networks from forwarding sensitive data • Bandwidth: Reduce traffic by segmentation • Reliability: If 1 segment goes down, it does not take down the complete LAN • Translation: Translate different Data Link protocols such as Token Ring to Ethernet

Bridge Addressing • Bridges work at the Data Link Layer and recognize the MAC addresses. • Spanning Tree Protocol adds a Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU) for Bridge to Bridge communications. • Source Route Bridges and Token Ring provide special Data Link layer communication and will be discussed later.

Collapsed Backbones • Collapsed Backbones take the network backbone and electronically collapse it into a high speed electronic card cage. • Usually Collapsed Backbones operate at 100 Mbps. • The card cage holds plug-in cards for repeaters, hubs, bridges, routers, brouters and gateways.

Collapsed Backbones con’t • Software is provided to remotely configure all plugin cards using SNMP. • SNMP is a network management protocol that stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. • It is a standard for intelligent network devices to communicate their configuration to administrators operating from remote workstations. • The workstations can be thousands of miles away!

References Introduction to Data Communications Copyleft Sept. 1999 - Jan 2005 TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview An IBM Redbooks publication Published 19 December 2006 Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (7 th Edition) James Kurose & Keith Ross