tination address. If the frame is a broadcast or a unicast to the station (omitting
multicasts), the frame will be processed further. The negative to this is unnecessary
processing at all the workstations for which the frames were not intended. The col-
lision domain on a hub is inclusive of all ports and stations on that hub. The
broadcast domain on a hub is identical to the collision domain, although this
assumes that a single hub represents the entire network or that a single hub is the
only device connected to the router port. Technically, routers contain the broad-
cast domain. All other stations will hear any frame sent from a station on the hub.
greatly reduces workstation overhead because the frames received by the
workstation should be intended for that station. In addition, the switch can
provide a dedicated pipe to the workstation. Thus, a 10Mbit network interface
card can provide 10Mbit, rather than sharing that bandwidth with all other
stations. A small 12-port Ethernet switch provides a theoretical 120Mbit of
bandwidth, compared to the 10Mbit provided by an Ethernet hub.
tion port.
to the same VLAN.
each port times num-
ber of ports. A 12-port
Ethernet switch is capa-
ble of providing a total
bandwidth of 120Mbit.
(Note that backplane,
processor, and other
factors may change this
simplification.)
dium--an Ethernet
hub would provide a
total of 10Mbit.