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. Because the group could not agree on a single approach, three working groups were formed, 802.3 for Ethernet (called CSMA/CD), 802.4 for token bus, and 802.5 for token ring. An Ethernet network had already been implemented at Xerox Parc to connect Alto computers to a laser printer in 1973. In 1980, Digital, Intel, and Xerox published a “standard” called the DIX standard. In 1982, they published a second version. The first IEEE Standard for the CSMA/CD approach was based on the DIX standard. The original IEEE standard for Ethernet was named "IEEE Standards for Local Area Networks: Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications” and subsequent standards were named similarly, until 2012 when it became simply “Standard for Ethernet”. This was because of sensitivities around using a commercial product as the basis for a standard. ==See also==