Which device is responsible for evaluating and acting upon a packet's Internet protocol (IP) address?

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The router is the device primarily responsible for evaluating and acting upon a packet's Internet Protocol (IP) address. Routers operate at the network layer of the OSI model and are designed to route data packets between different networks. When a packet arrives at a router, it examines the destination IP address contained within the packet header. Based on this information, the router determines the best path to forward the packet to its destination.

The functionality of a router includes not only forwarding packets based on IP addresses but also maintaining a routing table, which is a map of routes to different IP addresses, enabling intelligent decision-making regarding the best next hop for packets. This allows routers to handle traffic efficiently and ensures that data is directed accurately across interconnected networks.

In contrast, switches operate primarily at the data link layer and deal with MAC addresses rather than IP addresses, making them unsuitable for tasks involving IP address evaluation. Hubs transmit data packets indiscriminately to all devices on a network segment without any filtering based on address information, while bridges connect two network segments at the data link layer and also do not evaluate IP addresses. Thus, a router is uniquely equipped to manage packet routing based on IP addresses.

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