9.5 Microsegmentation of a Network
9.5.2 Switches and buffering
Another advantage to a switch is that it has a buffer, or memory. If two hosts are sending a frame (or frames) to the same destination, instead of a collision occurring, those frames get buffered by the switch. The switch will send frames out the port to the destination, one frame at a time. The advantage of the switch buffering these frames, is that the source hosts do not need to resend the frame. They are completely unaware that there is contention with another host for that destination. If, for example, Host A and Host B were both sending frames to Host D, as shown in the Figure, the switch would send one of the frames to Host D, and then the next one.