Understanding the network.pdf - Back to Home

Figure 6.6. A Token Ring network interconnected
with source route bridges.
Along with its complexity and limited network length, each bridge and
each LAN must be configured with a unique bridge ID and the LAN
numbers to which it connects (as you can see from Figure 6.6). An
unconfigured or misconfigured bridge would result in problems
resembling those experienced by transparent bridges when multiple
active bridge links exist between LANs.
Bridging Versus Routing
Until switching appeared in the early 1990s, network administrators
were limited to using shared network transmission media to provide
data transport. The size of the LAN network was determined largely
by the Layer 2 technology used to provide transport. With 10Mbps
Ethernet, depending on which Layer 1 medium was used, the network
could be as small as 90 hosts or as large as 1,024 hosts. Token Ring
network diameter sizes ranged from 72 to 260 hosts. The problem is
that as shared-medium networks increase in size, their bandwidth
utilization decreases. So, after the LAN grows beyond its operational