duplex
termnetworking
Whether a link can carry traffic in both directions at once, or must take turns.
Modern switched links are full duplex and the setting is rarely thought about - until a mismatch, where one end negotiates full and the other assumes half. The result is the most misleading fault in networking: the link is up, small pings succeed, and throughput collapses under load with rising errors, because one side transmits while the other believes a collision occurred. It survives as a diagnostic reflex precisely because it looks like anything except what it is.
Also known as: half duplex, full duplex