DISCOVERY OF CONVENTIONAL NETWORK DEVICES AND BRIDGES

A hybrid network device can implement functionality for automatically detecting and locating legacy bridges in a communication network. In one embodiment, a first network device of a first class of network devices can determine that a second network device of a second class of network devices is communicatively located adjacent to at least one of a plurality of network interfaces of the first network device based, in part, on detecting that a packet originating from the second network device does not include a predetermined tag. The first network device can determine whether network segments associated with the first network device and a target network device are communicatively coupled via a network bridge device of the second class of network devices based on transmitting probe messages to the second network device and determining whether the target network device detected the probe messages.