Solaris™ 9 Network Administrator Exam Cram™ 2 (Exam CX-310-044)

Network Access Methods

This section describes the two most commonly used network access methods: carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) and token ring. Also briefly mentioned here is a middle-ground method called token bus.

CSMA/CD

Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection is the most commonly used access method in ethernet networks and is described in the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard. Since ethernet relies on broadcasts, any of the hosts connected to the network can transmit at any time, but the CSMA part listens to the network to see whether anyone else is transmitting. If the network is empty, the host starts sending its data; if it's busy, it waits for a random time before trying again. Having started ...