when you have a single cable and you have more than one computer on that network, it can get crazy if all the computer try talk on the same cable at the same time. so rules need to be put in place to put order so all transmissions can be successfuly received. some communications methos available to avoid problems that could occur in this environemtn include:

baseband
broadband
hald-duplex
full-duplex

baseband, generally network communications use baseband technology. this transmission metho uses the media in such a way that the entire capacity of the cable is taken up by a single transmission.

broadband communications the communicators use different frequencies to separate their messages from others by using the same media at the same time. this is like when you have cable television. when you tune on the tv, you only watch one channel at the time, even thot all the channels are being broadcast on the same cable.