CHAPTER 5

LAN Access Technologies

When people talk about LANs, they usually mean Ethernet. There is no doubt that Ethernet is one of the most common protocols for this type of networking. The majority of PC networks, and many industrial systems, use Ethernet as their low-level carrier. Other systems, such as token ring are used in many places, but are not as popular and ever present as Ethernet, especially in new installations.

This chapter discusses current networking technologies of interest to embedded systems, such as Ethernet and IEEE 802. It also includes descriptions of current hardware interface devices and controllers and how they work.

Ethernet and IEEE 802

Many people confuse the terms Ethernet and IEEE 802. The two are very similar, ...

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