Various embodiments relate to wired local area networks. A method may include detecting, at a node in a wired local area network, at least one event. A physical layer device of the network node is configured to implement a physical level collision avoidance (PLCA) sublayer. The at least one event may include at least one of an amount of data stored in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffer of the node being at least a threshold amount, and a received packet being a precision time protocol (PTP) packet incurring variable delay. The method may further include emulating a collision at the node in response to the at least one detected event.