Frames, Packets, and Packet Switching

Two other important building blocks of a network (as important to networking as the cells in your veins are to you) are the protocol packet and the NIC’s frame. The frame is the smallest unit of communication for your network card; the packet is the smallest unit of communication for your network protocol—much like a sentence is the smallest whole unit of communication in a conversation. (Although words themselves are even smaller units, they’re not complete units of communication. For example, just saying “dinner” to someone doesn’t tell him whether you want to invite him to dinner, eat him for dinner, or skip dinner altogether.)

For what it’s worth, packets live in frames. Why? Well, packets are structured ...

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