inter-frame gap
termnetworking
The mandatory idle time between Ethernet frames, 96 bit times, that gives every receiver a beat to reset before the next frame arrives.
IEEE 802.3 requires transmitters to leave at least 96 bit times of silence between frames: 9.6 microseconds at 10 Mb/s, 0.96 at 100 Mb/s, 96 nanoseconds at gigabit, always the same 12 byte times regardless of speed. The gap exists so receiving hardware can finish processing one frame, resynchronize, and arm for the next. It is also why line-rate arithmetic never matches the naive frame size: every frame on the wire really costs its length plus 8 bytes of preamble plus 12 bytes of gap, which is how a 64-byte minimum frame becomes the famous 84 bytes, and 10 Gb/s becomes 14.88 million packets per second.
Also known as: interframe spacing, interpacket gap, IFG