MAC sublayer proposal (really: ethernet ctlr on radio)

[15-Jan-1991 1624 <goldstein@carafe.enet.dec.com>]

Funny you should mention your PCLAN cards, Glenn.  I just looked up
that article a couple of nights ago.  Good reading.  But one question
remains.  Do you use the cards in CSMA/CD mode?  How do you get around
the problem of Ethernet's alpha<1 limtation?  At 1 Mbps, that's something
on the order of 20 km or so, right?  Or is it just a 2-way link with
no contention?  (In the latter case, I could see building a simple
DMA serial controller in lieu of an Ethernet controller.)

Does the PCLAN card include the broadband-Ethernet scrambler?  I presume
you'd need it on the air, or do you?  Given the low price of true
Ethernet cards nowadays and the relatiave rarity of the old PCLAN
cards, I wonder which ones can be made to work beyond Ethernet normal
distances.
   fred