LAN Switching first-step

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detect (CSMA/CD)

Have you been in a meeting in which everyone has had something to say? It's difficult to get anything done when everyone is talking at the same time. When this happens, everyone eventually stops talking and lets one person talk. Ethernet works much the same way when using CSMA/CD.

With CSMA/CD, when an Ethernet device attempts to access the network to send data, the network interface on the workstation or server checks to see if the network is quiet. When the network is clear, the network interface knows that transmission can begin. If it does not sense a carrier, the interface waits a random amount of time before retrying. If the network is quiet and two devices try sending data at ...