The Media Access Control reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Media Access Control

Media Access Control (MAC) is the lower sublayer of the OSI data link layer, the interface between a node's Logical Link Control and the network's physical layer. The MAC differs for various physical media.

The MAC sublayer is primarily concerned with breaking data up into data frames, transmitting the frames sequentially, processing the acknowledgment frames sent back by the receiver, handling address recognition, and controlling access to the medium.

See also: MAC address, Ethernet, token ring

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing and is used with permission under the GFDL.

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