Chapter Summary
The key points covered in this chapter are as follows.
- Bridges selectively relay packets between network segments, depending on their data-link layer destination addresses.
- Bridges maintain a single broadcast domain while creating separate collision domains.
- Transparent bridging and source route bridging are techniques that bridges use to gather information about the network segments they're servicing.
- Local bridges connect network segments of the same type; translation bridges connect network segments of different types, and remote bridges connect network segments at distant locations.
- Switches improve on the function of bridges by forwarding packets only to their destination systems.
- Switches reduce the collisions on a network and increase the bandwidth available to each computer.
- Virtual LANs can help you create multiple broadcast domains on a switched network.
- Several types of switches are available, from relatively simple and inexpensive workgroup units to complex enterprise network switches.
- Routers are used to connect networks together at the network layer of the OSI reference model.
- Routers strip away the data-link layer frame of incoming packets and build a new frame using the data-link layer protocol of the outgoing network.
- Routers use internal tables of information about the surrounding networks to forward packets to their destinations.
- Routing tables are created either manually by the network administrator or automatically by a routing protocol. These techniques are called static routing and dynamic routing, respectively.