If you’re working solely with IP-based networks, you’re likely assuming that hop-by-hop destination-only forwarding is the only packet forwarding paradigm that makes sense. That is not true; even today’s networks use a variety of forwarding mechanisms, most of them called some variant of routing or switching.

What exactly is the difference between the two, and what is bridging? I’m answering these questions (and a few others, like what’s the difference between data-, control- and management planes) in the Bridging, Routing, and Switching Terminology video.