Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Practice Exam

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If a switch does not know a destination MAC address, what action is taken regarding frame forwarding?

  1. The switch will drop the frame

  2. The switch will flood the frame to all ports within the same VLAN

  3. The switch will forward the frame to the gateway

  4. The switch will send an ICMP request to the destination host

The correct answer is: The switch will flood the frame to all ports within the same VLAN

When a switch does not recognize a destination MAC address in its MAC address table, the appropriate action it takes is to flood the frame to all ports that are part of that same VLAN. This process allows the switch to find the destination device by sending the frame out to all connected devices, ensuring that the intended recipient, if it is on the same VLAN, can receive the frame. Flooding is a fundamental operation in Ethernet networks and is crucial for ensuring connectivity when a switch has not yet learned the address of a device. Once the intended recipient responds, the switch can update its MAC address table with the new information, allowing future frames to be directed to the correct port without needing to flood the VLAN again. This behavior exemplifies how switches manage traffic and learn about their network topology over time.

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