5-4-3 rule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ethernet IEEE 802.3 standard created the 5-4-3 rule. It was created in the age of 10Base2 and 10BaseT when network switches were expensive such that repeaters were useful. It states that five network segments can be joined using four repeaters and containing three segments that contain user connections. The purpose of the rule is to manage the amount of latency on a Local area network.
This rule does not apply to switched networks, as they store and forward (buffer) data before transmitting it.
