5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Bridge in Networking | Drawbacks & Benefits of Bridge

 

Bridge: What is it?

A Bridge is a kind of networking equipment that interconnects two or more networks together by separating LAN into various parts. It makes use of a bridge table or a forwarding database for this. Bridges efficiently manage and broadcast traffic to network segments in contrast to hubs, which only broadcast traffic. Furthermore, it operates at the OSI model's datalink layer.

Who manufacturers Bridge ?

Bridges for various networks are currently produced by firms like Linksys, Cisco, and D-Link. A bridge always ensures that packets arrive to their destination. Even while bridges provide numerous advantages, there are still a lot of things to think about before using one.


I'll be talking about 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Bridge in Networking | Drawbacks & Benefits of Bridge in this post. You will learn about the benefits and drawbacks of using bridges from this post.

Now let's get started,

 

Advantages of Bridges

1. Network Expansion

Bridges can occasionally be used as repeaters to expand a network. Bridges allow networks with different designs to be joined to one another.


2. Increased Bandwidth

Few of the nodes present in a network share a separate collision domain. Bridges provide these particular nodes more bandwidth.


3. High Reliability

In general, a bridge's network reliability is quite high, which facilitates network maintenance. Separating LAN into smaller parts is another way to lessen network congestion.


4. Frame Buffering

Various MAC protocols are used by various segments. It produces frame buffers as a result. Bridges therefore function to link disparate portions.


5. Protocol Transparency

Generally speaking, bridges operate at the MAC layer. Higher protocol layers become transparent as a result. 

 

 

 

Disadvantages of Bridges

1. Cost

A bridge typically costs more than a hub and repeaters combined. It is only recommended when there is a burden on the LAN network due to this reason. In other circumstances of changing data load it is advisable to utilize either a hub or a repeater.


2. Speed

A bridge does additional buffering of frames and introduce more relays. They are therefore slower than repeaters.


3. Network Performance

Bridges have the potential to reduce network performance since they add extra processing to the network by inspecting every MAC address.


4. Broadcast Filtering

The broadcast traffic cannot be individually filtered by bridges. All they do is relay broadcast packets.


5. Broadcast Storm

Another downfall of simply forwarding broadcast traffic is that they can situation known as broadcast storms. All that's known as a broadcast storm is an excessive volume of broadcast traffic.