A router is a device or in some cases software in a computer device which determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded toward their destination. A router is located at any gateway include as part of a network switch while the bridge is a product that connects LAN to another LAN that uses the same protocol. Here this article gives the difference between router and bridge to better understand this topic.
- The router operates in the network layer of the OSI model while the bridge operates in a data link layer of the OSI model
- A router is used to connect the LAN and WAN while in a bridge is used to connect two different LAN segments
- Router transmit data in the form of packets while in bridge transmit data in the form frames
- The router reads the IP address of the devices, Bridge read the MAC address of a device
- The router has more ports than a bridge, Bridge has only two ports
- A router uses the table for sending data whereas bridge does not use any a routing table for sending data
- Router work on more than one broadcast domain while in bridge work on a single broadcast domain
- A protocol must be used TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, Apple talk while including transparent bridge and translational bridge
- Router communicates with other routers to decide the best way to transfer the data while in a bridge with the help of MAC addresses of the devices the bridge listen to the network traffic and then decide the way to how to send the data
- A router uses a software configured network address to determine the address while Bridge determine the destination address with the help of the MAC address of the device
- The router creates basically multiple paths to send data, but in a bridge does not create multiple paths to send data
- A router can configure such as RIP, IGRP, OSPF etc, while bridge cannot configure any routing protocols in a bridge
Explore more information: