5 Feb
2004
5 Feb
'04
3:43 p.m.
Warren Kumari wrote:
Ok, I know that this is getting away from the original thread, but I've always wondered this...
Why is the MTU on Ethernet 1500 bytes? I have looked through various docs (eg IEEE Std 802.x) and can find where maxUntaggedFrameSize is listed as 1518 octets, but there is no mention of why this was chosen. I know where the minimum frame size comes from (CSMA/CD and propagation times, etc), but the maximum frame size number sounds fairly arbitrary.
Because that was a conveniently large amount of very pricey memory availble at the time? Because that was the amount that could be blatted down a 500 meter hose and get the "CD" part to work at some common clock rate?