The store and forward switching process requires a switch to wait until the entire frame is received before forwarding it to a destination port. The store and forward method increases latency as it buffers the entire frame and runs a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) before forwarding it to destination port. However, it ensures errorfree frame forwarding because its filters all frame errors.

The cut-through switching process does NOT require a switch to verify the FCS in a frame before forwarding it to the destination port. This type of internal switching method is faster than the store and forward process, but may forward error frames.

The fragment-free switching process only waits to receive the first 64 bytes of the frame before forwarding it the destination port. Fragment-free internal switching assumes that if there is no error in the first 64 bytes of the data, the frame is error free. The assumption is based on the fact that if a frame suffers a collision, it occurs within the first 64 bytes of data. Fragment-free forwarding speed lies between that of store and forward and cut-through.

The term frame-forward is not a valid internal switching process for Cisco switches.