Eli5 what collision domains and broadcast domains are.

Question

I just cant wrap my head around them. Are they like roads for information on a network???

In: 1

Answer 1

broadcast domain is the set of devices that will hear a broadcast sent by another connected device. broadcasts are commonly used to obtain MAC addresses via ARP. routers and VLANs separate different broadcast domains.

collision domains are the set of devices that cannot transmit a signal at the same time without causing a collison. a collision is when two or more different signals are being transmitted on the same segment of wire at the same time. network switches separate different collision domains.

a broadcast domain is a bit like a city with two lane roads connecting everything, a collision domain is a bit like a rural town with one lane roads connecting everything. you can only send traffic in one direction at a time on a collision domain