5-4-3

The Ethernet 802.11 standard created the 5–4–3 rule. It was created in the age of 10Base2 and 10BaseT when switches were expensive such that repeaters were useful. It states that five segments can be joined using four repeaters and containing three segments that contain user connections. The purpose of the rule is to manage the amount of latency on a LAN.

This rule does not apply to switched networks, as they store and forward (buffer) data before transmitting it.