Looking for information and links

It's not so much to do with CDMA-CD per se (which is just another way of describing the MAC method of Ethernet), more down to the fact that hubs exist at layer 1 (i.e. the physical layer) and switches exist at layer 2 (data link).

Basically it comes down to the fact that because a switch is aware of layer 2, it is able to learn MAC addresses and then create a separate collision domain for individual connections. Full-duplex communication then becomes possible because of this point-to-point connection.

A hub cannot do this - it's basically just a repeater and therefore it cannot isolate individual connections.

That's my take on the situation anyway. Someone else will probably be along soon with their view and hopefully some links for you to read up on.

In other words, full-duplex means you can transmit and receive at the same time, which would generate a collision using a hub (shared medium -> single collision domain -> your outgoing traffic would collide with your incoming traffic, which is transmitted by some other host). Switches resolve the problem because your outgoing traffic is NOT on the same collision domain as your incoming traffic, as they are originated on different switch port (and every switch port is on a different collision domain). That's the trick...

HTH, Yrs. \\/\\/.

Thanks both for the replies