Basics 3 min read
Capture effect
The capture effect is a scenario illustrating the potential lack of fairness in the exponential backoff algorithm. The unswitched Ethernet…
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Basics 5 min read
Exponential Backoff Algorithm
Whenever there is a collision the exponential backoff algorithm – operating at the MAC layer – is used to determine…
Basics 2 min read
Ethernet delay budget
The total here is 220 bits; in a full accounting it would be 232. Some of the numbers shown are…
Basics 3 min read
The Slot Time and Collisions
The diameter of an Ethernet is the maximum distance between any pair of stations. The actual total length of cable…
Basics 2 min read
The LAN Layer
The LAN layer, at its upper end, supplies to the network layer a mechanism for addressing a packet and sending…
Basics 2 min read
Ethernet Address Internal Structure
The second-to-lowest-order bit of a physical Ethernet address indicates whether that address is believed to be globally unique or if…
Basics 2 min read
Ethernet Multicast
Another category of Ethernet addresses is multicast, used to transmit to a set of stations; streaming video to multiple simultaneous…
Basics 2 min read
Ethernet Packet Format
Here is the format of a typical Ethernet packet (DIX specification); it is still used for newer, faster Ethernets: The…
Basics 5 min read
10-Mbps Classic Ethernet
Originally, Ethernet consisted of a long piece of cable (possibly spliced by repeaters). When a station transmitted, the data went…
Basics 5 min read
IETF and OSI
The Internet protocols discussed above are defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF (under the aegis of the…
Basics 3 min read
Some Useful Utilities
There exists a great variety of useful programs for probing and diagnosing networks. Here we list a few of the…
