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41e. Reasons to use a Bridge |
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41e. 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
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 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.
Software is provided to remotely configure all plug-in 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!