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Switching Methods

Networking Topics > Layer 2 Switching > Switching Methods

Store-and-Forward switching waits for the entire frame to be received before it is forwarded on to it's destination. This method is the most reliable method because error checking is performed on the packet, however it has the highest latency of all switching methods.

Cut-Through switching doesn't wait for the entire frame to be received and begins forwarding the frame as soon as the destination address has been received. This is the fastest method but is prone to errors, since no error checking (CRC) is carried out on the frame.

Fragment-Free switching is the half way solution between Store-and-Forward and Cut-Through switching methods. Fragment-Free uses the principle that erroneous frames can be detected with the first 64 bytes of data. Having checked for errors the frame is then forwarded.

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