What Is Ethernet?
Ethernet, commonly, refers to the dominant1 networking technology being used in
Local Area Networks (LANs) for the connection, communication, and inter-working
of personal computers, printers, servers, and other devices. A LAN typically operates
within a geographically confined area (such as an office building or a small cluster of
buildings within a range of few kilometers and is usually owned and managed by a single
enterprise entity).
Ethernet specifically encompasses the following:
?– The physical interface that interconnects a device over a coax/fiber (or some other)
media (???the Ether???).
?– The frames being used as containers for transmitting and receiving the data between
the physical interfaces on devices in the LAN.
?– The underlying protocol employed to communicate between these devices. This includes
building the frames and transmitting as well as receiving them, processing
these frames for errors; it is also addresses all the associated signaling for enabling
communication.
1 Globally, well over 90 percent of LANs are based on Ethernet.
4 Chapter 1
NOTE The associated control/signaling and management functions also normally
employ Ethernet frames.
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