Bridges

• A bridge is a internetworking device used to conserve the bandwidth available an the network


• Bridge reduce the amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing into two segment


• Bridge operate at the data link layer


• bridge inspect incoming traffic & decide whether to forward or discard it


• An ethernet bridge inspect each incoming Ethernet frame including the source & destination MAC address & sometimes the Frame size in making individual forwarding decision


• The bridge can help keep the data traffic that is local to the particular segment from spreading to other network segment that are serviced by bridge