Difference Between Router And Bridge

Difference Between Router and Bridge in Tabular Form with working Diagram

Sno.	Routers	Bridges
1.
2.	Routers operate in the network layer of OSI Model.	Bridge operates in data link layer of OSI Model.
3.	The router is used to connect the LAN and WAN.	The bridge is used to connect two different LAN segments.
4.	The router transmits data in the form of packets.	Bridge transmit data in the form frames.
5.	It reads the IP Address of a device.	Bridge reads the MAC Address of a device.
6.	The router has more ports compare to bridge.	The bridge has only two ports.
7.	It uses routing table for sending data.	The bridge does not use any routing table for sending data.
8.	It works on more than one broadcast domain.	It works on a single broadcast domain.
9.	Routers use a software-configured network address to determine the address.	Bridges determine the destination address with the help of the MAC address of the device.
10.	It communicates with other routers to decide the best way to transfer the data.	With the help of MAC addresses of the devices, the Bridges listen to the network traffic and then decide the way to send the data.
11.	The router creates multiple paths to send data.	The bridge does not create multiple paths to send data.
12.

Benefits Advantages & Disadvantages

Benefits And Advantages of Routers

• Routers can reduce network traffic by creating collision domains and also by creating broadcast domains.
• Routers provides connection between different network architectures such as Ethernet & token ring etc.
• Routers are configurable which allows network manager to make policy based on routing decisions.
• Routers can choose best path across the inter-network using dynamic routing algorithms.
• Routers provides sophisticated routing, flow control and traffic isolation.

Drawbacks And Disadvantages of Routers

• Dynamic router communications can cause additional network overhead. This results into less bandwidth for user data.
• Routers are protocol dependent devices which must understand the protocol they are forwarding.
• Routers are slower as they need to analyze data from layer-1 through layer-3.
• Routers are require considerable amount of initial configurations.
• Routers are operate based on routable network protocols.
• Routers are expensive compare to other network devices.

Benefits or Advantages of Bridges

• Bridges creates separate collision domains. Hence it increases available bandwidth to individual nodes as fewer nodes share a collision domain.
• Some bridges connect networks having different architectures and media types.
• Bridges reduces collisions.
• Bridges helps in extension of physical network.
• Bridges reduces network traffic with minor segmentation.

Drawbacks or Disadvantages of Bridges

• Bridges is slower compare to repeaters due to filtering.
• Bridges does not filter broadcasts.
• Bridges is more expensive compare to repeaters.

Features

Features of Router in Networking

• Routers works on more than one broadcast domain.
• Routers use the software-configured network address to determine the address.
• Routers communicate with other routers to decide the best way to transfer the data.
• The router creates multiple paths to send data.
• Routers operate in the network layer of OSI Model.
• Routers is used to connect multiple LAN and WAN.
• The router transmits data in the form of packets.
• The router uses routing table for sending data.

Features of Bridge in Networking

• Bridge has only two ports to connect two LAN segments.
• Bridge works on a single broadcast domain.
• Bridges determine the destination address with the help of the MAC address of the device.
• Bridge operates in data link layer of OSI Model.
• Bridge can used to connect two different LAN segments.
• Bridge transmit data in the form frames.