Robert M. Metcalfe, David R. Boggs
1976 · Communications of the ACM
Ethernet is a branching broadcast communication system for carrying digital data packets among locally distributed computing stations. The packet transport mechanism provided by Ethernet has been used to build systems which can be viewed as either local computer networks or loosely coupled multiprocessors. An Ethernet's shared communication facility, its Ether, is a passive broadcast medium with no central control. Coordination of access to the Ether for packet broadcasts is distributed among the contending transmitting stations using controlled statistical arbitration. Switching of packets to their destinations on the Ether is distributed among the receiving stations using packet address recognition. Design principles and implementation are described based on experience with an operating Ethernet of 100 nodes along a kilometer of coaxial cable. A model for estimating performance under heavy loads and a packet protocol for error controlled communication are included for completeness.
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In Metcalfe and Boggs (1976) https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/360248.360253 they say the max frame size of 3 Mbit/s PARC Ethernet was about 4000 bits, big enough for one Xerox Alto disk sector. The 1500 byte frame size was introduced with 10 Mbit/s DIX Ethernet. PARC Ethernet had 8 bit terminal addresses whereas DIX Ethernet introduced 48 bit MAC addresses.
I read the ethernet paper(https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/360248.360253) in college - one of the few instances where the paper did a better job of explaining the concept that the textbook.
They used the date of creation of the 10 Mb/s DIX paper (published in ACM in 1981) for the anniversary, but there was an earlier 1976 ACM paper: * https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1920/CompNet/files/p395-me... * https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/360248.360253 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet#History
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