Meaning – The term intermediate node, refers to a node that is at the end of more than one branch. Intermediate nodes do not perform any decoding and are only responsible for performing the XOR operation to encode data packets.
If the intermediate node is a physical layer device like repeater/hub, then the device confines its processing to the physical layer (bits). It does not try to interpret the rest of the higher layers information like datalink, network, transport and application headers.
If the intermediate node is a Layer2 switch, then the L2 switch examines and processes only the datalink and physical layer headers/trailers of a data unit.
Example of usage – “If the intermediate node is a Layer3 router, then the L3 router examines and processes only the Network, datalink and physical layer headers/trailers of a data unit. It does not process the rest of the higher layers information like transport and application headers.”
