IEEE 802.3-2005 Easter Egg
I recently had the envious task of reviewing IEEE 802.3-2005 Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) access method and physical layer specifications (or better know as the Ethernet specification) in detail. Some would claim reading a 1000 page technical specification is as boring as watching paint dry while others would say it is interesting as watching grass grow. But with IEEE 802.3-2005 you would be wrong! Things actually get humorous in section 45.2.1.12. This section has the definition of the STFU bit. I’ll give you one guess what this bit indicates.
That is right; the STFU bit tells the link partner to be silent, to shut up… I guess in a rather forceful way. They say STFU stands for “silence the far unit” but the term “far unit” is not used anywhere else in the specification. Not a single place. Everywhere else in the specification the “far unit” is called the link partner. Even in the detailed definition of the STFU bit they don’t call the “far unit” the “far unit” they call it the link partner. So why is the STFU bit called STFU rather than STLP? Because engineers do in fact have a sense of humor.
JP Landry
Network Division Manager
