Editing Broadcast domain (section)

== Further explanation ==
The distinction between broadcast and collision domains comes about because simple [[Ethernet]] and similar systems use a [[shared medium]] for communication. In simple Ethernet (without switches or [[network bridge|bridges]]), [[Frame (networking)|data frames]] are transmitted to all other nodes on a network. Each receiving node checks the destination address of each frame and simply ignores any frame not addressed to its own [[MAC address]] or the [[broadcast address]].

Switches act as buffers, receiving and analyzing the frames from each connected network segment. Frames destined for nodes connected to the originating segment are not forwarded by the switch. Frames destined for a specific node on a different segment are sent only to that segment. Only broadcast frames are forwarded to all other segments. This reduces unnecessary traffic and collisions.

In such a switched network, transmitted frames may not be received by all other reachable nodes. Nominally, only broadcast frames will be received by all other nodes. Collisions are localized to the physical-layer network segment they occur on. Thus, the broadcast domain is the entire inter-connected [[layer-2]] network, and the segments connected to each switch or bridge port are each a collision domain. To clarify; repeaters do not divide collision domains but switches do. This means that since switches have become commonplace, collision domains are isolated to the specific segment between the switch port and the connected node. Full-duplex segments, or links, don't form a collision domain as there is a dedicated channel between each transmitter and receiver, eliminating the possibility of collisions.