Why will a switch never learn a broadcast address?
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A. B. C. D. E.C
The correct answer is option C. A broadcast address will never be the source address of a frame.
When a switch receives a frame, it examines the source MAC address and adds it to its MAC address table. However, the switch does not add the broadcast MAC address (FFFF.FFFF.FFFF) to its MAC address table, because the broadcast address will never be the source address of a frame.
A broadcast frame is a frame that is sent to all devices on a network. Broadcast frames are sent to the broadcast MAC address (FFFF.FFFF.FFFF) and are used for various purposes such as ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) requests and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) requests.
Broadcast frames are indeed sent to switches, and they are forwarded out of all switch ports, except for the port on which they were received. Switches do not use network layer addressing, and they do not examine the contents of the frame beyond the MAC address.
Option B is incorrect because broadcast addresses do not use an incorrect format for the switching table. The switching table is based on the MAC address of the devices on the network, and the broadcast address is simply a reserved MAC address that is used for sending frames to all devices.
Option D is incorrect because broadcast frames use both network layer and MAC layer addressing. The network layer protocol (such as ARP or DHCP) uses the broadcast address to send a message to all devices on the network, and the MAC layer uses the broadcast address to actually send the frame.
Option E is incorrect because switches do forward broadcast frames, as mentioned above.