CSMA/CD

Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection, is a set of rules determining how network devices respond when two devices attempt to use a data channel simultaneously. Standard Ethernet networks use CSMA/CD to physically monitor the traffic on the line, if no transmission is taking place at the time, the station can transmit. If two stations attempt to transmit simultaneously, this causes a collision, which is detected by all stations. After the stations that collided they attempt to transmit information again later on.