As you guessed, he timer is started after the completion of the station's own transmission.
See IEEE 802.3, Annex 31B, Figure 31B-2: The condition for entering the "PAUSE FUNCTION" state (where the timer is started) is gated by the expression "transmission_in_progress = false AND (DA = reserved_multicast_address or phys_Address)". Thus, the timer is not started until there is no transmission in progress.
-- Rich Seifert Networks and Communications Consulting 21885 Bear Creek Way (408) 395-5700 Los Gatos, CA 95033 (408) 228-0803 FAX
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