Network bridge

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A network bridge is a device which connects two parts of a network together at the data link layer (layer 2 of the OSI model).

Network bridges work similarly to network switches, but the traffic is managed differently. A bridge will only send traffic from one side to the other if it is going to a destination on the other side. This is different to a layer 1 switch which sends all traffic from either side. Sometimes network bridges are called layer 2 switches.

Since they need to look at the contents of the traffic going into them, they are much more complicated than a hub or repeater.