IEEE 802.3 is a collection of IEEE standards defining the Physical Layer and Data Link Layer's Media Access Control (MAC) sublayer of wired Ethernet. This is generally a LAN technology with some WAN applications. Physical connections are made between nodes and/or infrastructure devices (hubs, switches, routers) by various types of copper or fiber cable.

802.3 is a technology that supports the IEEE 802.1 network architecture.

The maximum packet size is 1518 bytes, although to allow the Q-tag for Virtual LAN and priority data in 802.3ac it is extended to 1522 bytes. If the upper layer protocol submits a protocol data unitbytes, 802.3 will pad the data field to achieve the minimum 64 bytes. The minimum Frame size will then always be of 64 bytes. (PDU) less than 64

Although it is not technically correct, the terms packet and frame are often used interchangeably. The ISO/IEC 8802-3 and ANSI/IEEE 802.3 standards refer to MAC sub-layer frames consisting of the destination address, the source address, length/type, data payload, and frame check sequenceStart Frame Delimiter (SFD) are (usually) together considered a header to the MAC frame. This header and the MAC frame constitute a packet. (FCS) fields. The preamble and

Ethernet Communication Standards

Ethernet Standard Date Description
Experimental
Ethernet		 1972 2.94 Mbit/s (367 kB/s) over coaxial cable (coax) cable bus
Ethernet II
(DIX v2.0)		 1982 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over thick coax. Frames have a Type field. This frame format is used on all forms of Ethernet by protocols in the Internet protocol suite.
IEEE 802.3 1983 10BASE5 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over thick coax. Same as Ethernet II (above) except Type field is replaced by Length, and an 802.2 LLC header follows the 802.3 header
802.3a 1985 10BASE2 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over thin Coax (a.k.a. thinnet or cheapernet)
802.3b 1985 10BROAD36
802.3c 1985 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) repeater specs
802.3d 1987 FOIRL (Fiber-Optic Inter-Repeater Link)
802.3e 1987 1BASE5 or StarLAN
802.3i 1990 10BASE-T 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over twisted pair
802.3j 1993 10BASE-F 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over Fiber-Optic
802.3u 1995 100BASE-TX, 100BASE-T4, 100BASE-FX Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbit/s (12.5 MB/s) w/autonegotiation
802.3x 1997 Full Duplex and flow control; also incorporates DIX framing, so there's no longer a DIX/802.3 split
802.3y 1998 100BASE-T2 100 Mbit/s (12.5 MB/s) over low quality twisted pair
802.3z 1998 1000BASE-X Gbit/s Ethernet over Fiber-Optic at 1 Gbit/s (125 MB/s)
802.3-1998 1998 A revision of base standard incorporating the above amendments and errata
802.3ab 1999 1000BASE-T Gbit/s Ethernet over twisted pair at 1 Gbit/s (125 MB/s)
802.3ac 1998 Max frame size extended to 1522 bytes (to allow "Q-tag") The Q-tag includes 802.1Q VLAN information and 802.1p priority information.
802.3ad 2000 Link aggregation for parallel links, since moved to IEEE 802.1AX
802.3-2002 2002 A revision of base standard incorporating the three prior amendments and errata
802.3ae 2003 10 Gbit/s (1,250 MB/s) Ethernet over fiber; 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LR, 10GBASE-ER, 10GBASE-SW, 10GBASE-LW, 10GBASE-EW
802.3af 2003 Power over Ethernet (12.95 W)
802.3ah 2004 Ethernet in the First Mile
802.3ak 2004 10GBASE-CX4 10 Gbit/s (1,250 MB/s) Ethernet over twin-axial cable
802.3-2005 2005 A revision of base standard incorporating the four prior amendments and errata.
802.3an 2006 10GBASE-T 10 Gbit/s (1,250 MB/s) Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair (UTP)
802.3ap 2007 Backplane Ethernet (1 and 10 Gbit/s (125 and 1,250 MB/s) over printed circuit boards)
802.3aq 2006 10GBASE-LRM 10 Gbit/s (1,250 MB/s) Ethernet over multimode fiber
P802.3ar Cancelled Congestion management (withdrawn)
802.3as 2006 Frame expansion
802.3at 2009 Power over Ethernet enhancements (25.5 W)
802.3au 2006 Isolation requirements for Power Over Ethernet (802.3-2005/Cor 1)
802.3av 2009 10 Gbit/s EPON
802.3aw 2007 Fixed an equation in the publication of 10GBASE-T (released as 802.3-2005/Cor 2)
802.3-2008 2008 A revision of base standard incorporating the 802.3an/ap/aq/as amendments, two corrigenda and errata. Link aggregation was moved to 802.1AX.
P802.3az ~ Sep 2010 Energy Efficient Ethernet
802.3ba 2010 40 Gbit/s and 100 Gbit/s Ethernet. 40 Gbit/s over 1m backplane, 10m Cu cable assembly (4x25 Gbit or 10x10 Gbit lanes) and 100 m of MMF and 100 Gbit/s up to 10 m of Cu cable assembly, 100 m of MMFSMF respectively or 40 km of
802.3bb 2009 Increase Pause Reaction Delay timings which are insufficient for 10G/sec (released as 802.3-2008/Cor 1)
802.3bc 2009 Move and update Ethernet related TLVs (type, length, values), previously specified in Annex F of IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP) to 802.3.
P802.3bd ~July 2010 Priority-based Flow Control. A amendment by the IEEE 802.1 Data Center Bridging Task Group (802.1Qbb) to develop an amendment to IEEE Std 802.3 to add a MAC Control Frame to support IEEE 802.1Qbb Priority-based Flow Control.
P802.3be ~ Feb 2011 Creates an IEEE 802.3.1 MIB definitions for Ethernet that consolidates the Ethernet related MIBs present in Annex 30A&B, various IETF RFCs, and 802.1AB annex F into one master document with a machine readable extract.
P802.3bf ~ Jun 2011 Provide an accurate indication of the transmission and reception initiation times of certain packets as required to support IEEE P802.1AS.
P802.3bg ~ Sep 2011 Provide a 40 Gbit/s PMD which is optically compatible with existing carrier SMF 40Gb/s client interfaces (OTU3/STM-256/OC-768/40G POS).