The operational status of the MAC sublayer for a particular interface. The value enabled(1) signifies that the MAC sublayer for said interface is operational for both transmitting and receiving frames -- that is, that the value of both the receive and transmit layer management state variables (receiveEnabled and transmitEnabled in [9]) for said interface are true. The value disabled(2) signifies that the MAC sublayer for said interface is not operational for either transmitting or receiving frames. In particular, the value of an instance of this object is disabled(2) whenever the value of the corresponding instance of the dot3Enabled object is false(2).

Each alteration of an instance of this object to the value enabled(1) is analogous to an invocation of the enableMACSublayer action defined in [9] and has the effect of starting normal transmit and receive operations (from the ``idle'' state) on the associated interface. In particular, such an alteration has the effect of resetting the PLS for said interface and of setting the receive and transmit layer management state variables (receiveEnabled and transmitEnabled in [9]) to be true.

Each alteration of an instance of this object to the value disabled(2) is analogous to an invocation of the disableMACSublayer action defined in [9] and has the effect of terminating transmit and receive operations on the associated interface. In particular, such an alteration has the effect of setting the receive and transmit layer management state variables (receiveEnabled and transmitEnabled in [9]) to be false. Any transmissions/receptions in progress are completed before operation is terminated.