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Ethernet/802.3

Ethernet (also known as IEEE 802.3 and ISO 88023) is the dominant LAN technology at present. Ethernet defines a Medium Access Control (MAC) technology for operation over various types of cabling in a bus architecture.
 
Until recently, the predominant form of Ethernet used so-called thin wire coaxial[1] cabling. A typical installation might have looked like:
Thinwire Ethernet components
Whilst this is no longer the most common hardware used for Ethernet/802.3, it exemplifies the shared medium idea that it is based on. Note the use of "T-connectors" on each computer, and the "Terminators" at each end of the network.
 
[1] Historically also called "cheapernet" or "10Base2"
Lecture 13: Multiaccess Networks Copyright © 2002 P.Scott, La Trobe University Bendigo.

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