Retrospective on "measured capacity of an ethernet: myths and reality"

Abstract

The original Ethernet design used CSMA/CD on a broadcast cable. Even after it became commercially popular, many people expressed concerns that Ethernet could not efficiently use the full channel bandwidth. In our 1988 paper, "Measured Capacity of an Ethernet: Myths and Reality," we reported on experiments we ran showing that, even under relatively heavy loads, Ethernet typically still performed well. We describe the context in which we ran those experiments, and some subsequent research conducted by others.