Heterogeneous media packet bridging

A method comprising:

• maintaining, within a memory of a network device, one or more translation data structures defining translations (i) between a first framing media format of a plurality of framing media formats and an intermediate format and (ii) between the intermediate format and a second framing media format of the plurality of framing media formats, wherein the plurality of framing media formats are used for transmitting or receiving network packets via a plurality of media transmission channels supported by the network device;
• receiving, via a first media transmission channel of the plurality of media transmission channels by a first network interface of a first network module of a plurality of network modules of a network device, a network packet formatted in accordance with a first framing media format of the plurality of framing media formats;
• directing, by the first network module, the network packet to a virtual bridging application running on a first processing resource of a plurality of processing resources of the network device, wherein the virtual bridging application represents a single bridging domain for bridging all network traffic traversing the network device having an inbound framing media format of the plurality of framing media formats that differs from an outbound framing media format of the plurality of framing media formats;
• determining, by the virtual bridging application, whether a relay location to which the network packet is to be relayed is a second network module of the plurality of network modules that is associated with the second framing media format;
• responsive to an affirmative determination, translating, by the virtual bridging application, the network packet to the second framing media format based on the one or more translation data structures before relaying the translated network packet to the relay location;
• and
• transmitting, via a second media transmission channel of the plurality of media transmission channels that is associated with a second network interface of the second network module, the translated network packet to a destination specified by the translated network packet.