Ethernet

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(n.) Developed at Xerox PARC in 1976, this coaxial cable local area network (LAN) standard (IEEE 802.3) was specified by Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, and Xerox and is widely implemented throughout the industry. Packets of data are transmitted over 50-ohm coaxial cable with multiple shielding using the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) algorithm until they arrive at the destination without colliding with other packets. The first contention slot following transmission is reserved for an acknowledge packet. A node on Ethernet is either transmitting or receiving data at any point in time. The bandwidth of 10BASE-T is about 10 megabits per second (Mbps), and 100BASE-T is capable of moving data at 100 Mbps. A gigabit (Gb) Ethernet standard has been introduced, which allows much faster data rates. The typical disk-Ethernet-disk transfer rate with TCP/IP is 30 kilobytes per second (KBps). Version 2 specifies that the collision detection of the transceiver must be activated during the interpacket gap. In addition, it requires that when transmission finishes, the differential transmit lines are driven to zero volts. Version 2 also specifies certain network management functions, such as reporting collisions, retries, and deferrals.

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