Switch Block Size

Switch Block Size
To understand how large a switch block can be, you must understand the traffic types and the
size and number of workgroups that will be using them. The number of switches that can collapse
from the access layer to the distribution layer depends on the following:
 Traffic patterns
 Routers at the distribution layer
 Number of users connected to the access layer switches
 Distance VLANs must traverse the network
 Spanning tree domain size
If routers at the distribution layer become the bottleneck in the network (which means the
CPU processing is too intensive), the switch block has grown too large. Also, if too many broadcasts
or multicast traffic slow down the switches and routers, your switch blocks have grown
too large.
Having a large number of users does not necessarily indicate that the switch
block is too large; too much traffic going across the network does.