What does the IEEE 802 Ethernet standard cover?

IEEE 802 is the sponsor organization for many of today’s popular networking standards, but the standards efforts are carried out in working groups. The Ethernet effort in IEEE 802 is primarily in IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) working group, but there are numerous efforts that span both IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.1 (Bridging) working groups. Within these working groups are subcommittees that perform the standards development. Most efforts are contained within the working group, but there are a few that span into both.