LAN
Many topologies
- Bus - only one machine can transmit at one time. Arbitration necessary. IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) runs at 100 Mbps
- Ring - each bit propagates independent of the packet to which it belongs. Arbitrate simultaneous accesses to ring.
Static, Dynamic allocation of channel.
- Static. E.g., round-robin, machine only broadcasts during its alloc. Time
- Dynamic. Bus arbitration unit decides who goes first or next. Decentralized method - no central controlling entity each machine decides whether to transmit (more on this later)
Point to point. Miniature WAN.
Introduction/Network hardware