In modern times, the internet has become a powerful resource of information. Without the internet, a person can’t lead a normal life. Everyone is engaged with the internet in some way. Also, such information needs to be sent or received. Router and bridge provide facilities to connect several devices to the network.
Router vs Bridge
The main difference between router and bridge is that various types of networks are facilitated by routers to be connected. While a bridge receives data from several points and links them to a single point of the network. But the data remains independent and separate while being efficient to communicate with each other.
A router is hardware that mainly works to provide a route for network packets. Is the process of making routes for networks is completely based on their address. A network packet needs a router so it can travel from one device to another device. Internet access is one of the essential requirements for a router to work.
The bridge in computer networking is considered to be a device that uses multiple segments to create a single bundle of the network. In other words, it connects several networks that are separate and independent to a single or common point. A bridge can connect to another bridge using a computer network.
Comparison Table Between Router and Bridge
| Parameters Of Comparison | Router | Bridge |
| Layer used | The layer used by a router to perform several operations is generally called a data link layer. | The layer used by a Bridge to perform several operations is generally called a Network layer. |
| Readability | A router is capable of reading MAC addresses of various devices that transmit data sets. | A bridge is capable of reading IP addresses of various devices that transmit data sets. |
| Connection type | The type of network used to establish a connection by the router is both LAN and WAN. | The type of network used to establish a connection by the bridge is only LAN. |
| Form of data | The data transmitted by a router is mostly in the form of packets. | The data transmitted by a bridge is mostly in the form of frames. |
| Tables | The table used by the router is known as a routing table. It consists of several protocols. | The routing tables are not used by bridges. They use the table for protocols known as forwarding information bases. |
What is Router?
To make packet-switched network travel from one point to another, the device known as the router is required. It is used to forward packets of data to the given address of computer networks. A router is a device that can be switched off and on according to the need. The most common use of a router is to enjoy the fast service of the internet.
The router also works to connect the branch and central offices using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Multiple access protocols are used by a router to provide communication such as ATM, Ethernet, DSL, etc. The IP address of the network is registered by a router so it can send the required data packet to the right place.
The router comes with many interfaces that are used in receiving the dataset. By evaluating the specification and IP address of the data packet, it selects a certain interface to store or analyze that particular data packet.
The process of decision-making of the router depends on the local routine table. BGP or OSPF are the two such routine protocols that are dynamic and used for the configuration and calculation of the local routing table statically.
What is Bridge?
Multiple segments of different networks get connected via a bridge. A bridge is also known as a computer networking device. This process is considered to be network bridging. A bridge can be denoted as a wireless bridge if one to two networks that are bridged are wireless. The technology of network bridging can be divided into several categories such as transparent bridging, multiport bridging, learning bridging, simple bridging, etc.
A table known as forwarding information base is used in the transparent bridging so that the frames that are being forwarded between network segments can be controlled. Somehow if the IP address of the destination can not be located in the table, it floods the data frame to the multiple ports except for the port it was received from.
While in simple bridging, two different network segments get linked with each other. This operation is transparent and is based on a frame-by-frame structure. This process is also used to decide whether to send the data or not.
The multiple bridging as the name suggests has multiple ports to connect different networks. Unlike simple bridging, the process of forwarding data packets is completely decided by multiple bridging. The forwarding method used by bridges is layer-2.
Main Differences Between Router and Bridge
- The routers are mainly used to link multiple networks. On the other hand, LANs are the primary types of networks connected by bridges.
- There are various ports found in the router to send and receive data packets while bridges have only two ports except for the multiport bridging.
- The workspace of the router can expand to many broadcast domains while a bridge uses only one broadcast domain to be operated.
- The routing tables are used by routers that provide protocols. On the other hand, bridges do not use a routing table.
- Routers do the data transportation in the form of packets while bridges do the data transportation in the form of frames.
Conclusion
To access the internet in several ways, routers and bridges are used. By using a bridge or router, one can connect multiple devices to the network at one time or a local network can be created. These local networks are very beneficial to manage the big data structure where several files can be shared to various devices.
Also, each employee becomes able to share different tools of software. When digitalization is at its peak, the form and ways of keeping data are also changing. People use different networks to exchange such details and information. Hence, routers and bridges become very advantageous.
References
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/62882.62892
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6917023/