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From: frank@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Frank G. Fiamingo)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Ethernet question
Message-ID: <2818@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 16 Jul 90 18:57:43 GMT
References: <1990Jul14.063620.4375@iwarp.intel.com> <23877@adm.BRL.MIL>
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In article <1990Jul14.063620.4375@iwarp.intel.com>,
merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) writes:
> In-Reply-To: terry@cssun.tamu.edu (Terry Escamilla)
> 
> In article <23877@adm.BRL.MIL>, terry@cssun (Terry Escamilla) writes:
> | Is it possible for a workstation on an Ethernet to dynamically
> | determine the Internet (or even Ethernet) addresses of the
> | hosts/workstations immediately to its left and right?  
> | I guess this would be like an "intelligent" ping or ARP.
> 
> Ethernet is flat.  (Well, OK, the cable is round. :-) Your broadcasts
> are flooded to every reciever on the cable.  There's no left or right
> in electron space.
> 
> Just another cybernetic hallucination,
> -- 

While it's true that the broadcasts are flooded to all receivers on the cable,
it's not truly "flat".   It takes a definite time for the electron to
traverse any length of the cable.  Conceivably one could measure the time it
takes for a signal to bounce back to the original machine and convert that
to distance.  

	Frank

Frank Fiamingo
frank@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu
(614)292-4843