Capterra Glossary
Media Access Control
Also known as medium access control or MAC, media access control is an IEEE protocol that defines the methods one can use to gain access to the physical layer of a local area network (LAN). Media access control is responsible for data packet transmission between the network interface card and another remotely shared channel.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Media Access Control
The MAC protocol prevents collisions—when two or more terminals send data at the same time, leading to a breakdown in communications. A collision can be very costly and inconvenient for businesses that rely on seamless transmission of data. Medium access control allows SMBs to operate without any disruptions to their information transmission processes.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy