What Cisco switch feature, also known as port mirroring, monitors network traffic on one or more ports?

What Cisco switch feature, also known as port mirroring, monitors network traffic on one or more ports?

• A. Traffic Sniffer
• B. Port Mirroring
• C. Packet Capture
• D. Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)

Answer: (D)

Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) is the Cisco term for port mirroring. It lets a switch duplicate traffic from one or more source ports (or VLANs) and send that copy to a designated destination port where you attach a traffic analyzer or packet sniffer. This lets you observe live traffic without disrupting it, which is exactly what port mirroring is used for. Cisco also offers variations like local SPAN, remote SPAN (RSPAN), and ERSPAN for monitoring across devices or networks. Why the other terms don’t fit as the Cisco feature name: a traffic sniffer and packet capture describe the activity or the tool used to analyze traffic, not the switch feature name. Port mirroring is the general concept, but on Cisco devices the implementation is specifically called Switched Port Analyzer.

Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) is the Cisco term for port mirroring. It lets a switch duplicate traffic from one or more source ports (or VLANs) and send that copy to a designated destination port where you attach a traffic analyzer or packet sniffer. This lets you observe live traffic without disrupting it, which is exactly what port mirroring is used for. Cisco also offers variations like local SPAN, remote SPAN (RSPAN), and ERSPAN for monitoring across devices or networks.

Why the other terms don’t fit as the Cisco feature name: a traffic sniffer and packet capture describe the activity or the tool used to analyze traffic, not the switch feature name. Port mirroring is the general concept, but on Cisco devices the implementation is specifically called Switched Port Analyzer.