Ethernet … It’s Like Conversation
Think of a dozen students sitting around the dorm telling stories …
- Everyone listens while one person tells his/her story
- When the story is finished, there is a pause
- A person with a story to tell starts talking, listening all the while
- If no one else started talking too, the person continues
- If others started talking, he/she stops and waits briefly before trying again
In Ethernet, only the computers actually communicating listen to the transmission … the others simply wait for the break