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Introduction
IEEE Std 802.3 was first published in 1985. Since the initial publication, many projects have added
functionality or provided maintenance updates to the specifications and text included in the standard. Each
IEEE 802.3 project/amendment is identified with a suffix (e.g., IEEE Std 802.3ba™-2010).
The half-duplex Media Access Control (MAC) protocol specified in IEEE Std 802.3-1985 is Carrier Sense
Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD). This MAC protocol was key to the experimental
Ethernet developed at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, which had a 2.94 Mb/s data rate. Ethernet at
10 Mb/s was jointly released as a public specification by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Intel, and
Xerox in 1980. Ethernet at 10 Mb/s was approved as an IEEE standard by the IEEE Standards Board in 1983
and subsequently published in 1985 as IEEE Std 802.3-1985. Since 1985, new media options, new speeds of
operation, and new capabilities have been added to IEEE Std 802.3. A full duplex MAC protocol was added
in 1997.
Some of the major additions to IEEE Std 802.3 are identified in the marketplace with their project number.
This is most common for projects adding higher speeds of operation or new protocols. For example,
IEEE Std 802.3u™ added 100 Mb/s operation (also called Fast Ethernet), IEEE Std 802.3z™ added 1000 Mb/
s
operation (also called Gigabit Ethernet), IEEE Std 802.3ae
™
added 10 Gb/s operation (also called
10 Gigabit Ethernet), IEEE Std 802.3ah™ specified access network Ethernet (also called Ethernet in the
First Mile), and IEEE Std 802.3ba added 40 Gb/s operation (also called 40 Gigabit Ethernet) and 100 Gb/s
operation (also called 100 Gigabit Ethernet). These major additions are all now included in and are
superseded by IEEE Std 802.3-2015 and are not maintained as separate documents.
At the date of IEEE Std 802.3br-2016 publication, IEEE Std 802.3 is composed of the following documents:
IEEE Std 802.3-2015
Section One—Includes Clause 1 through Clause 20 and Annex A through Annex H and Annex 4A.
Section One includes the specifications for 10 Mb/s operation and the MAC, frame formats, and
service interfaces used for all speeds of operation.
Section Two—Includes Clause 21 through Clause 33 and Annex 22A through Annex 33E. Section
Two includes management attributes for multiple protocols and speed of operation as well as
specifications for providing power over twisted-pair cabling for multiple operational speeds. It also
includes general information on 100 Mb/s operation as well as most of the 100 Mb/s Physical Layer
specifications.
Section Three—Includes Clause 34 through Clause 43 and Annex 36A through Annex 43C. Section
Three includes general information on 1000 Mb/s operation as well as most of the 1000 Mb/s Physical
Layer specifications.
Section Four—Includes Clause 44 through Clause 55 and Annex 44A through Annex 55B. Section
Four includes general information on 10 Gb/s operation as well as most of the 10 Gb/s Physical Layer
specifications.
Section Five—Includes Clause 56 through Clause 77 and Annex 57A through Annex 76A. Clause 56
through Clause 67 and Clause 75 through Clause 77, as well as associated annexes, specify subscriber
access and other Physical Layers and sublayers for operation from 512 kb/s to 10 Gb/s, and defines
This introduction is not part of IEEE Std 802.3br™-2016, IEEE Standard for Ethernet—Amendment 5: Specification
and Management Parameters for Interspersing Express Traffic.
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