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IEEE 802.3

collection of standards for wired Ethernet

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ570951
Source-derived summary

IEEE 802.3 is a working group and a collection of standards defining the physical layer and data link layer's media access control (MAC) of wired Ethernet. The standards are produced by the working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). This set of standards generally applies to local area networks (LANs) and metropolitan area networks. It also has some applications to access networks and wide area network (WAN) applications. The international standard IEEE/ISO/IEC 8802-3-2021 was adopted from 802.3-2018.

Physical connections are made between network nodes and, usually, various network infrastructure devices (hubs, switches, routers) by various types of copper cables or optical fiber.

802.3 standards support the IEEE 802.1 network architecture.

802.3 also defines a LAN medium access control method using carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD).

Communication standards

The IEEE 802 Local and Metropolitan Area Networks Committee was formed in 1980 to create a single standard for the lower layers of a local or metropolitan area network. At the time, there were three approaches to local area networking: IBM’s token ring, the DEC-Intel-Xerox Ethernet, and the token bus.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “IEEE 802.3” is collection of standards for wired Ethernet. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through IEEE, standards and wired, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2021, 2018, 1980—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, IEEE, standards and wired is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “collection of standards for wired Ethernet” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q570951. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2021, 2018 and 1980.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “IEEE 802.3”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow IEEE 802.3 primary sources, IEEE 802.3 archive and IEEE research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from IEEE 802.3” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.