Ccna routing and Switching Complete Study Guide

S1

S2

Because each port off a switch is a single collision domain, we gain more bandwidth for 

users, which is a great start. But switches don’t break up broadcast domains by default, 

so this is still only one broadcast domain, which is not so good. This can work in a really 

small network, but to expand it at all, we would need to break up the network into smaller 

broadcast domains or our users won’t get enough bandwidth! And you’re probably wonder-

ing about that device in the lower-right corner, right? Well, that’s a wireless access point, 

which is sometimes referred as an AP (which stands for access point). It’s a wireless device 

that allows hosts to connect wirelessly using the IEEE 802.11 specification and I added it 

to the figure to demonstrate how these devices can be used to extend a collision domain. 

But still, understand that APs don’t actually segment the network, they only extend them, 

meaning our LAN just got a lot bigger, with an unknown amount of hosts that are all still 

part of one measly broadcast domain! This clearly demonstrates why it’s so important to 

understand exactly what a broadcast domain is, and now is a great time to talk about them 

in detail.