A gateway is a network node that joins two networks, acting as the entry and exit point through which traffic leaves a local network for another — most commonly the wider internet.1
Overview
On a home or office network the default gateway is usually the router: the address a host sends packets to when their destination is not on the local LAN. More broadly, a gateway can translate between dissimilar networks or protocols — bridging an IoT radio network onto IP, for instance — doing more than a router that merely forwards IP packets. The term describes a role at a network boundary rather than one specific box.
Where it fits
A gateway marks the edge of a network, which is also where edge computing and protocol bridging often live. In a distributed GopherTrunk setup a small box can act as a gateway, gathering decoded data from several capture nodes on a private LAN and forwarding it out through one egress point to a remote server.
Sources
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Gateway (telecommunications) — Wikipedia, on the node that joins two networks. ↩