collision detection

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

collision detection

   <networking> A class of methods for sharing a data
   transmission medium in which {hosts} transmit as soon as they
   have data to send and then check to see whether their
   transmission has suffered a {collision} with another host's.

   If a collision is detected then the data must be resent.  The
   resending algorithm should try to minimise the chance that two
   hosts's data will repeatedly collide.  For example, the
   {CSMA/CD} protocol used on {Ethernet} specifies that they
   should then wait for a random time before re-transmitting.

   See also {backoff}.

   This contrasts with {slotted protocols} and {token passing}.

   (1997-03-18)