Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies commonly used in Local Area Network (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN).[1] It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3. Ethernet has since retained a good deal of backward compatibility and has been refined to support higher bit rates, a greater number of nodes, and longer link distances.
Source: Ethernet