Network bridge

By means of these flooded frames, a host on the destination network will respond and a forwarding database entry will be created.

[6] Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) originally developed the technology in 1983[7] and introduced the LANBridge 100 that implemented it in 1986.

The bridge examines the destination address of the frame and does not find it in its forwarding table so it floods (broadcasts) it to all other ports: 2 and 3.

On the return path, the bridge adds an address and port number entry for B to its forwarding table.

Bridging is called transparent when the frame format and its addressing aren't changed substantially.

A multiport bridge connects multiple networks and operates transparently to decide on a frame-by-frame basis whether to forward traffic.

The forwarding information base stored in content-addressable memory (CAM) is initially empty.

[11][12][13] It is a proposed replacement for Spanning Tree Protocol which blocks any redundant paths that could result in a switching loop.

[14] TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is the successor to Spanning Tree Protocol, both having been created by the same person, Radia Perlman.

The catalyst for TRILL was an event at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center which began on 13 November 2002.