1-4 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW
What is a BRouter? A BRouter is an interface between two networks, functioning as a router and/or a bridge. A router finds the best route between networks and provides network management capabilities. The OfficeConnect Remote 840 is a protocol independent router that does not rely on the workstations on a LAN for routing information, such as the destination location and best route.
Routing vs. Bridging Routers forward packets based on
In each case, the unit maintains either a forwarding table (bridges) or a routing table (routers) that contains information about which port to use to reach the destination address. These tables are for the most part maintained automatically by the unit so the administrator does not have to add or delete entries as the network topology changes.
An example illustrating the difference between bridges and routers would be the case where both a bridge and a router have tables with 256 entries. Because the bridge forwards based on MAC address, it can know about the location of 256 MAC addresses (physical machines such as workstations, servers, etc.). The router can know about the location of 256 networks, where each network can contain many physical machines.
Bridges make forwarding decisions based on destination addresses, while routers makes forwarding decisions based on networks to which destination addresses belong. Therefore, routers are more efficient and capable of handling more traffic.
The OfficeConnect Remote 840 provides a Bridge Firewall function which allows flexible configuration of simultaneous bridging and routing. For more information on the Bridge Firewall, see Appendix A, “Bridging and Routing”.
enabled, the network level addresses are used for forwarding, but the
