In a variety of computer networks, binary exponential backoff or truncated binary exponential backoff refers to an algorithm used to space out repeated retransmissions of the same block of data.
Examples are the retransmission of packets in carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) and carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) networks, where this algorithm is part of the channel access method used to send data on these network. In Ethernet networks, the algorithm used to schedule retransmission after a collision is that the retransmission is delayed by an amount of time derived from the slot time and the number of attempts to retransmit.
After i collisions, a random number of slot times between 0 and is chosen. So, for the first collision, each sender might wait 0 or 1 slot times. After the second collision, the senders might wait 0, 1, 2, or 3 slot times, and so forth.
The 'truncated' simply means that after a certain number of increases, the exponentiation stops; i.e. the retransmission timeout reaches a ceiling, and thereafter does not increase any further.
- Original source: From Federal Standard 1037C
See also
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