|  | 6.5 | Media Access Control (MAC)
| 6.5.3 | Deterministic MAC protocols

Deterministic MAC protocols use a form of "taking your turn". Some Native American tribes used the custom of passing a "talking stick" during gatherings. Whoever held the talking stick was allowed to speak. When that person finished, he/she passed it to another person. In this analogy, the shared media is the air, the data are the words of the speaker, and the protocol is possession of the talking stick. The stick might even be called a "token."

This situation is similar to a data link protocol called a Token Ring. In a Token Ring network, individual hosts are arranged in a ring. A special data token circulates around the ring. When a host wants to transmit, it seizes the token, transmits the data for a limited time, and then places the token back in the ring, where it can be, passed along, or seized, by another host.

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