Network Collisions

A network collision occurs when two or more hosts transmit simultaneously on the same physical medium, such as a copper wire, leading to interference and corrupted signals. In networks with hubs, collisions can occur across all ports since hubs replicate waveforms without processing.

Switches, in contrast, process signals by receiving, storing, and resending frames through the appropriate port. When multiple computers send data to a single recipient at the same time, a switch will manage the frames to prevent collisions, sending them sequentially to the destination. This functionality ensures that signals from different sources do not interfere with each other, maintaining data integrity and network efficiency.

Ethernet CSMA-CD is a protocol to deal with network collisions.