The Evolution of Ethernet: From 3Mbps to 100Gbps and Beyond
Ethernet, invented by Bob Metcalfe and others at Xerox PARC in the mid-1970s, revolutionized local area networks (LANs) by using a combination of standards body politics and a minimalist design. Ethernet's media access control (MAC) procedures, known as CSMA/CD, improved on ALOHAnet's radio network by implementing carrier sense, multiple access, and collision detection. Ethernet's design allowed for efficient data transfer and the ability to connect thousands of computers to a LAN. Over the years, Ethernet assimilated higher bitrate protocols and became the dominant LAN standard, with its performance under load proving to be quite good.