Cost-effective ways to increase access: Bridges, Gateways, and Routers
Bridges
- Connection between two local rings.
- Unexpected physical breakdown in one ring will only affect this ring and not other rings.
- Discourage users on one ring to use resources on another ring.
- Operates in only the lowest levels of the OSI Model.
- Connection between two token ring networks.
Gateways
- Units that connect a Token Ring Network to a computer system or network that uses communications protocols other than Token Ring protocols.
- Establish connections between units in the token ring network and units that are not directly attached to the Token Ring Network.
- Handles/Requires protocol conversion
- Operates in all seven layers of OSI Model.
Routers
- Allow for selected higher level protocols to communicate through the network.
- LAN-to-LAN WAN Program.
- Remote NETBIOS Access Facility.