Ethernet … It’s Like Conversation
v Think of a dozen students sitting around the dorm
telling stories …
o Everyone listens while one person tells his/her story
o When the story is finished, there is a pause
o 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
v In Ethernet, only the computers actually
communicating listen to the transmission … the
others simply wait for the break