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Cool article. Though it only talks about ancient Ethernet variants. Issues like packet collision don't happen on most networks because we use switches instead o
by andrewvc 14y ago
Cool article. Though it only talks about ancient Ethernet variants. Issues like packet collision don't happen on most networks because we use switches instead of vampire taps and hubs.
Can someone more knowledgeable explain the parts that are still correct?
- X-Istence 14y agoAll of them. Just because Station A and Station B are switched means that we could now say that the Switch is Station C. So lets say Station A starts transmitting at the same time as Station C (our switch is sending a packet from Station B to Station A) we can still get a collision. We no longer get a collision between the nodes on the switch because of the fact that the switch will buffer packets as necessary before sending them on to their intended target, which reduces the amount of collisions that can/do occur...
- mikeash 14y agoI thought this stuff was full-duplex now, with each direction using different wires. So there's only ever one device that can transmit on a given set of wires, thus no chance for collisions. Is that not the case?
- smithian 14y agoYou are correct. There is very little half-duplex around these days except in some carrier ethernet situations.
- mprovost 14y agoYes that is true for gigabit. Gigabit ethernet is ethernet in name only. It doesn't resemble the original standard in most meaningful ways. But the name is a brand at this point so whatever the new standard is, it's always called ethernet even if it's completely different electrically. Or even optically in the case of fibre, which is something that was never originally anticipated that it would run over.
- yuhong 14y agoBackward compatiblity too.