Transparent Bridging

The inability to allow more than one device to transmit simultaneously presents a major challenge when attempting to connect dozens or hundreds of users together through Ethernet.

Transparent bridging is the augmentation of Ethernet allowing partial segmentation of the network into two or more collision domains. The IEEE-defined transparent bridging is an industry standard in 802.1D. Transparent bridges improve network performance by allowing devices in the same segmented collision domain to communicate without that traffic unnecessarily being forwarded to the other collision domain.

Transparent bridges are the predominant bridge type for Ethernet, and it is important to understand Ethernet switches essentially act as multiport ...

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