BRIDGING vs Switching/Routing

[gaurav.prakash]

Hi,

i want to understand what is the usage of bridging in comparision of ip routing and switching..in many config i see that the router has bridge config.... can somebody send me links for sample cases/config..

Thx,

G

[devang_etcom]

hi gaurav...

when you are going for bridging then you can have common broadcast and collision domain... here by bridging the multiple interface of same router you can have the same IP addressing and subnetting schem in deployment... or you can use the briding for both the end ... what ever i think is its extention of the broadcast domain over the other end...

hope this will help you

rate this post if it helps

regards

Devang

[scottmac]

Minor correction: bridging provides separate collision domain (but does offer the same broadcast domain).

FWIW

Scott

[devang_etcom]

look at this artical:http://www.cedmagazine.net/ced/9810/9810adn.htm

regards

Devang

[scottmac]

Some protocols are not routable (like NETBIOS).

It's not unusual to hve a router set to route IP, but bridge other (non-IP) transport protocols (like some flavors of SNA deployment).

You might also see a Bridged Virtual Interface (BVI). Cisco Access Points use BVI to tie the wireless segmant to the wired segment (Cisco APs don't route) or, if you have multiple router interfaces to several workgroup switces and you want to have all the clients on the same logical segment/IP address block. With a BVI, all of the bridged interfaces see each other on the same segment, that bridged segment is then routed to the rest of the network.

BTW:

L2 switches, by basic definition and operation, are bridges.

L3 switches, by basic definition and operation, are routers.

Good Luck

Scott