Cisco ENCOR Practice Exam 2025 – All-in-One Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Enterprise Network Core Technologies!

When a switch detects an issue that affects the operational capacity of a port, it typically enters a Broken state. In the context of networking, a Broken state indicates that the switch has recognized a problem that prevents the port from functioning correctly. This could be due to issues such as a cable fault, a link failure, or an exceeded error rate threshold.

While in this Broken state, the port is effectively taken out of the operational loop, meaning that it will not participate in data forwarding. This ensures that it does not negatively impact the overall network performance by allowing faulty connections to remain active. The switch continuously monitors the status—if the issue is resolved, the port can transition back to an operational state.

In contrast, if a port remained in the Forwarding state despite issues, it could lead to further network disruptions. Transitioning to a Disabled state would completely shut the port down, which is not the initial response in many switches. The Listening state is a part of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) process where the port is aware of the network topology but does not forward packets; it does not apply to this situation where operational capacity is affected.