You have just assumed management responsibility over an older network consisting of passive hubs and some layer 2 switches. The network is experiencing massive slow downs on an irregular basis…

Layer 3 switches combine hardware-based switching and routing, simultaneously eliminating collision domains created by hubs and segmenting broadcast domains via VLAN routing. This directly targets the root cause of irregular slowdowns - broadcast storms and collisions - while providing a scalable, immediate upgrade path that layer 2 devices alone cannot match.

A software-based gateway introduces processing latency and does not resolve the physical-layer collision domain or broadcast domain congestion caused by hubs.

Adding bridges reduces collision domains but does not segment broadcast domains, leaving the network still vulnerable to the broadcast storms responsible for the slowdowns.

Segmenting into smaller domains describes a desired outcome rather than a specific actionable mechanism, and does not specify how broadcast domain separation would be achieved.