All ME devices that touch or are connected by cables form one network. Cables: 
ME Glass Cable (Fluix) (from 
Quartz Fiber + fluix), covered, smart, dense.
Normal cables and devices carry 8 channels, dense cables 32.
Crafting Tableshapeless
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1 × ME Dense Covered CableRequired materials
Terminals, drives, buses etc. each need one channel. Without an 
ME Controller at most 8 devices work.
The controller gives 32 channels per face and may be a structure up to 7×7×7 – connected, and no controller block may have neighbours on both sides along two axes (columns, rows and 2-wide slabs work; the middle of a 3×3 plane does not). Otherwise it turns red. 
Smart cables show the usage, the 
Network Tool shows all stats.
Crafting Table3 × 3
1 × ME Controller
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1 × Network ToolChannel paths like the original: channels go through dense cables first, then normal cables, then devices – even if a normal cable would be shorter. Build your network like a tree: dense away from the controller, normal cables as branches, devices in groups of 8.
The 
ME Level Emitter needs no channel. Every cable and device buffers 25 AE; each channel costs 1/128 AE/t per block it passes.
Crafting Tableshapeless
1 × ME Dense Covered CableRequired materials
Crafting Tableshapeless
1 × ME Level Emitter