There are two switching modes that can
be selected to forward a frame through a switch. The latency of each of
these switching modes depends on how the switch forwards the frames.
The faster the switch mode the smaller the latency in the switch. To
accomplish faster frame forwarding the switch takes less time to check
for errors. The trade off is less error checking which can lead to a
higher number of re-transmissions. 
There are two ways to forward frames
through a switch: 
- Store and Forward - the entire frame
is received before any forwarding takes place. The destination
and/or the source addresses are read and filters are applied before
the frame is forwarded. Latency occurs while the frame is being
received; the latency is greater with larger frames because the
entire frame takes longer to read. Error detection is high because
of the time available to the switch to check for errors while
waiting for the entire frame to be received.
- Cut-through (Fast Forward) - the switch reads the
destination MAC address and begins forwarding the frame before it is
completely received. This mode decreases
the latency of the transmission and has poor error detection.

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