What is the primary difference between a hub and a switch in terms of collision domains?

What is the primary difference between a hub and a switch in terms of collision domains?

• A. A hub forwards to all ports creating a single collision domain; A switch creates a separate collision domain for each port
• B. A hub creates separate collision domains per port; A switch creates a single collision domain for all ports
• C. Both create a single collision domain
• D. Switch creates no collision domains

Answer: (A)

Collision domains are the network segments where node transmissions can collide. A hub acts as a simple repeater; it forwards every signal to all connected ports, so all devices on that single hub share one collision domain. Any device on the hub can cause a collision with any other device on that same hub. A switch, by contrast, keeps separate collision domains for each connected link. Each port on a switch operates as its own isolated collision domain (and in practice many links run in full-duplex, avoiding collisions altogether). So devices on different ports don’t share a collision domain with each other. Therefore, the best description is that a hub creates one collision domain for all its ports, while a switch creates a separate collision domain for each port.

Collision domains are the network segments where node transmissions can collide. A hub acts as a simple repeater; it forwards every signal to all connected ports, so all devices on that single hub share one collision domain. Any device on the hub can cause a collision with any other device on that same hub.

A switch, by contrast, keeps separate collision domains for each connected link. Each port on a switch operates as its own isolated collision domain (and in practice many links run in full-duplex, avoiding collisions altogether). So devices on different ports don’t share a collision domain with each other.

Therefore, the best description is that a hub creates one collision domain for all its ports, while a switch creates a separate collision domain for each port.