A guideline for designing a shared Ethernet network (not switched Ethernet) for an optimal flow of traffic. The 5-4-3 represents the creation of a single collision domain, and the numbers are maximums: (5-) no more than five segments between any two nodes that communicate with each other, (-4-) no more than four repeaters in those five segments, and (-3) no more than three of the five segments can have active devices (clients or servers).