Bridging

Module 3

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 Bridging overview

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Bridging concepts

•Bridges are OSI layer 2 devices.

•Traditionally, they were used to join two
segments of different (or similar)
technology.

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Bridging concepts

•Bridges were also used to create smaller

collision domains.
–The goal was to improve performance by
reducing the size of the subnet. Especially useful
before the advent of switches.
•Switches are known as multi-port
bridges.
–Each port is a collision domain of ONE device!

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Example 1
•All computers can communicate with each
other.
•All have to wait for everybody to be quiet before
one can begin transmitting!

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Example 2
•All computers still “hear” each other.
•All computers now only share half the “wire”.
•All still have to wait for everybody to be quiet
before one can begin transmitting, but the group
is half the size now.
–Better performance for all devices!

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Using bridges

•By default, in MikroTik routers, Ethernet

ports are associated (slave) to a master
port.
–Advantage : Wire speed switching (through
switch chip, not software).
–Disadvantage : No visibility of traffic of slave
ports. Not desirable if using SNMP to monitor
port usage.

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Using bridges

•By removing master and slave

configuration, you must use a bridge
interface to bundle to it the required ports
in a single LAN.
–Advantage : Complete visibility of all port
statistics for those ports.
–Disadvantage : Switching done through
software. Some CPU hit. Less than optimal
packet transfer speed.
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Creating bridges

•Using the menus

–Bridge
–Add (+)
–Name the bridge
–Click “OK” and you’re done!

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08/04/2015
Adding ports to bridges

•Adding ports will define which ones

belong to the same subnet.
•Different technologies can be added, like
a Wi-Fi interface.

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Adding ports to bridges

•Menu path to add a port

–Bridge
–Ports tab
–Add (+)
–Choose the interface and the bridge
–Click “OK” and you’re done!

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08/04/2015
Bridging wireless networks

•The same can be done with wireless

interfaces.
•We will see this in the next module. Be
patient! 

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 Time for a practical exercise

End of module 3

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Laboratory

•Goals of the lab

–Create a bridge
–Assign ports to a bridge
–Validate that by following these steps, you can
assign all free ports to the same subnet

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Laboratory : Setup

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Laboratory : step 1

•Launch “ping –t –w 500 192.168.0.254”.

•Unplug your network cable from the
current port (#5) and plug it in another
port.
•Discuss the results.
•Leave the command window up and
running and visible throughout this lab.

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Laboratory : step 2

•Connect to your router in any way that

will work.
•Create a bridge interface. Name it “LAN”
and leave the other values at their default.
•Assign the pod’s LAN’s IP address
(192.168.X.1) to the bridge interface.
•Has anything changed?

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Laboratory : step 3

•Open the “Interface List” window and

check which interfaces are running.
•Assign ports #2 through #5 to the “LAN”
bridge interface.
•Discuss the results. When did your ping
return?
•Switch your cable to ports #2 through #5.
What happened? Discuss why. Look at
the status column. What does “I” mean?
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 End of Laboratory 3

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