Perle Systems 1700 Bridging and Routing Should You Bridge or Route?

Applications
13
Bridging and Routing
Should You Bridge or Route?
When connecting two networks together, the first question to ask is “should I bridge or
route”? The decision to bridge or to route may be decided by how the existing networks
have been already set-up.
Bridging should be used when the network consists of non-routable protocols or routable
protocols using the same network numbers. Some protocols can only be bridged; some of
the more well known are NetBEUI (used by Microsoft Windows), and LAT (used by Digital
Equipment Corp.).
If your IPX or IP network address is the same at both locations, bridging is simpler and
requires less configuration. If the locations are to be routed together, the network numbers
will have to be different in both cases; this could require extensive reconfiguration.
IPX routing should be used if the two locations are already set-up with different IPX
network numbers. Routing IPX will minimize the number of SAP and RIP messages being
sent across the WAN.
IP routing should be used if the two locations are already set-up with different IP network
numbers or if you wish to divide your one IP network number into two sub-networks.
In some cases both bridging and routing may be required. Routing may be required for IP
information and bridging may be required for NetBEUI.