Which statement describes the purpose of an integrated routing and bridging (IRB) interface on a...

An integrated routing and bridging interface, configured as irb.x on an EX Series switch, is the mechanism that bridges the Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding planes for a given bridge domain or VLAN. By assigning an irb logical unit to a VLAN and configuring an IP address on that unit, the switch gains a routable Layer 3 gateway address that hosts within that VLAN can use as their default gateway, enabling traffic destined for other subnets to be routed off the local broadcast domain. Internally, when a frame destined for the gateway's MAC address arrives on any port belonging to that VLAN, the switch's integrated circuitry hands the packet from the Layer 2 bridging domain to the Layer 3 routing engine associated with the corresponding irb interface, and vice versa for the return path — hence the name 'integrated routing and bridging.' IRB does not eliminate the need for routing instances, which remain a separate mechanism for isolating routing tables; it does not itself perform inter-VLAN switching, since switching still happens strictly within a VLAN's own broadcast domain; and it has no relationship to trunk ports, which remain necessary for carrying multiple tagged VLANs between switches. IRB is the standard method for enabling inter-VLAN routing on a single EX Series switch without an external router. Reference topics: Junos Enterprise Switching – Routing VLANs, Configuring Integrated Routing and Bridging.