What is the name of the standard for Ethernet?

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What is the name of the standard for Ethernet? The Ethernet standard is IEEE 802.3.

IEEE 802.3 is a family of standards maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It specifies important physical-layer and data-link-layer details for wired Ethernet, including signaling, media, speeds, framing, and the Media Access Control (MAC) behavior used by network devices.

Ethernet began at Xerox PARC, where an early network connected Alto computers and peripherals in the 1970s. Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel, and Xerox later published the DIX Ethernet specification. The first IEEE 802.3 standard was based on that work and was approved in 1983 before publication in 1985.

The wrong options refer to different IEEE networking subjects: 802.5 is associated with Token Ring, 802.11 with wireless LANs such as Wi‑Fi, and 802.1 with LAN architecture and related standards. IEEE 802.3 is not one single speed; its amendments cover technologies ranging from early coaxial Ethernet to modern copper, fiber, automotive, and high-speed links.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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