Basic Switching Concepts Flashcards
7 cards from real Cisco CCNA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Basic Switching Concepts flashcards as text
A switch receives a frame with a destination MAC address not in its MAC address table. What does it do?
Answer: Floods the frame out all ports except the incoming port
When a switch receives a frame with an unknown unicast destination, it floods the frame out all ports except the one it arrived on.
Which switching method begins forwarding a frame before the entire frame is received?
Answer: Cut-through
Cut-through switching begins forwarding the frame as soon as the destination MAC address is read, without waiting for the full frame.
What is the size of a MAC address?
Answer: 48 bits
MAC addresses are 48 bits (6 bytes) long, typically expressed as 12 hexadecimal digits.
Which part of a MAC address identifies the manufacturer of the network interface card?
Answer: First 3 bytes (OUI)
The first 3 bytes of a MAC address form the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI), assigned by IEEE to the manufacturer.
A network administrator wants to prevent a switch from learning MAC addresses on a specific port dynamically. Which feature should be used?
Answer: Port security with sticky MAC
Port security with sticky MAC learning locks down dynamically learned addresses and converts them to secure sticky entries.
What happens when the MAC address table of a switch becomes full?
Answer: The switch floods all new unknown frames like a hub
When the CAM table is full, the switch cannot learn new MAC addresses and floods unknown frames out all ports, effectively behaving like a hub.
Which frame type is always flooded by a switch to all ports in the VLAN?
Answer: Broadcast frames
Broadcast frames (destination FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) are always flooded to all ports within the same VLAN.