What is A COLLISION domain?

[jayman007]

any insite on this would be appricated

 

[jayman007]

anyone know?

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.ots.utexas.edu/ethernet/10quickref/ch7qr_4.html

http://support.intel.com/support/express/hubs/10124.htm

 

[jayman007]

thanks

 

[Shadow07]

A COLLISION domain is an area on the physical network where all nodes are contending for the bandwidth. You first have to understand how Ethernet works (CSMA/CD - Carriar Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection).

http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/1042/8.htm Is a good reference.

With a switch, the Collision Domain is reduced, because a switch issolates node communication to a specific port (based on the MAC address). But, a Broadcast Domain is when a node needs to talk with ALL nodes on the network. A switch cannot issolate Broadcasts. A VLAN can, however. With a VLAN in place, not only do you reduce the Collision Domain (the very nature of a switch), but you also reduce the Broadcast Domain. Reason being is that broadcasts operate mainly at Layer 2 of the OSI model. You need to ROUTE between VLANs, and we all know that Layer 3 is needed when communicating with other nodes that are members on another VLAN.

If you need any more info, PM/IM/email me.