Collision and Broadcast Domain

Collision Domain

A collision domain is a network segment connected by a shared medium or through repeaters where simultaneous data transmissions collide with one another. The collision domain applies particularly in wireless networks, but also affected early versions of Ethernet. A network collision occurs when more than one device attempts to send a packet on a network segment at the same time. Members of a collision domain may be involved in collisions with one another. Devices outside the collision domain do not have collisions with those inside.

The following example illustrates collision domains.

As you can see, we have 6 collision domains.

Here, each port on a hub is in the same collision domain. Each port on a bridge, a switch or router is in a separate collision domain.

 Broadcast Domain 

A broadcast domain is a domain in which a broadcast is forwarded. A broadcast domain contains all devices that can reach each other at the data link layer (OSI layer 2) by using broadcast. All ports on a hub or a switch are by default in the same broadcast domain. All ports on a router are in the different broadcast domains and routers don’t forward broadcasts from one broadcast domain to another.

The following example clarifies the concept.

In the picture above we have three broadcast domains, since all ports on a hub or a switch are in the same broadcast domain, and all ports on a router are in a different broadcast domain.