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Billy ONeal
Asked: 2011-10-01 06:32:00 +0800 CST

Why should I care if a network switch has "buffer memory"?

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I'm looking at purchasing a network switch, and the only spec I'm not sure of is one specifying "buffer memory" per port. What is that used for?

networking switch

1 Answers

  1. It is used to buffer packets in a store-and-forward switch. More buffers are not neccesarily better, and can even make things worse. See the Buffer Bloat phenomenon. Cut-through switches provide much lower latency and do not use buffers.

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