Also called a "brouter," a network device that combines the functions of a bridge (connecter) and a router (forwarder). For protocols that the device supports, it forwards those packets to the appropriate port. All other packets are bridged (connected) from one segment to the other.
Bridge Routers vs. Routing Bridges
Although the terms are often used synonymously, a routing bridge can be different than a bridge router (you gotta love this carefully thought-out terminology). Various types of routing bridges (RBridges) can be used to interconnect two disparate networks. A routing bridge that implements the TRILL protocol can turn an Ethernet network, which is inherently not routable, into a routable network (see
TRILL). See
bridge and
router.