What is Full-duplex and Half-duplex?
Switching allows a network to maintain full-duplex Ethernet. Before switching, Ethernet was half-duplex, which means that data could be transmitted in only one direction at a time. In a fully switched network, each node communicates only with the switch, not directly with other nodes. Information can travel from node to switch and from switch to node simultaneously. Traffic flowing in each direction has a lane to itself. This allows nodes to transmit to the switch as the switch transmits to them — it’s a collision-free environment. Transmitting in both directions can effectively be double the apparent speed of the network when two nodes are exchanging information. If the speed of the network is 10 Mbps, then each node can transmit simultaneously at 10 Mbps.
