Limitations of Layer 2 Switching

Limitations of Layer 2 Switching
Layer 2 switches have the same limitations as bridge networks. Remember that bridges are good if
you design the network by the 80/20 rule: users spend 80 percent of their time on their local segment.
Bridged networks break up collision domains, but the network is still one large broadcast
domain. Similarly, layer 2 switches (bridges) cannot break up broadcast domains, which can cause
performance issues and limit the size of your network. Broadcasts and multicasts, along with the
slow convergence of spanning tree, can cause major problems as the network grows. Because of
these problems, layer 2 switches cannot completely replace routers in the internetwork.