Ethernet Network

Shared medium

In a modern Ethernet, the stations do not all share one channel through a shared cable or a simple repeater hub; instead, each station communicates with a switch, which in turn forwards that traffic to the destination station. In this topology, collisions are only possible if the station and switch attempt to communicate with each other at the same time, and collisions are limited to this link. Furthermore, the 10BASE-T standard introduced a full duplex mode of operation, which became familiar with Fast Ethernet and the de facto standard with Gigabit Ethernet. In full duplex, a switch and a station can send and receive simultaneously, and therefore modern Ethernet networks are completely collision-free.