net. segment traffic from the rest of the network. The latest generation of routers, however, now supports a variety A network management capability has been added on more intel- of LAN types and concurrently supports more than one routing ligent bridging devices to provide extended network management protocol. performance statistics and remote configuration of bridges. The speeds at which routers process data have also increased, and One of the problems of implementing bridges in complex network in some cases performance now almost matches that of a straight- topologies, particularly networks that involve looped data paths, is forward bridging device. the likelihood of a 'broadcast storm'. That is, certain types of packets could be perpetually circulated around the extended net- 56.5.7 Hybrid interconnection devices work causing a degradation of throughput performance and event- ually bringing the network down. To overcome this problem, many The concurrent developments in bridging and routing technology bridges now implement the IEEE 802.1(D) Spanning Tree algo- led to the emergence of hybrid interconnection products such as the rithm. router bridge, sometimes referred to as bridge/routers, or brouters. The Spanning Tree algorithm decides which bridge in the network These devices are capable of operating at both layers 2 and 3, is to become the 'root bridge', based upon the number and speed of (Data Link and Network respectively), of the OSI model. 56/16 Local and Wide Area Networking A router/bridge can provide a Network Layer (routing) service to one or more protocols that it has been programmed to support, while SIMPLE BRIDGE at the same time offering a Data Link Layer (bridging) service to protocols that it does not recognise. Therefore, a router/bridge can simultaneously route the DECnet protocol and bridge the DEC LAT protocol, (which cannot be routed) over the same link. The term brouter is also commonly applied to a bridge (Layer 2) device, which rather than using the standards based Spanning Tree algori