Beacon frame

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Beacon frame is one of the management frames in IEEE 802.11 based

WLANs. It contains all the information about the network. Beacon
frames are transmitted periodically to announce the presence of a
wireless LAN. Beacon frames are transmitted by the access point (AP)
in an infrastructure basic service set (BSS). In IBSS network beacon
generation is distributed among the stations.

Components
Beacon frames consist of an Ethernet header, body and FCS. Some of
802.11 Beacon frame
the fields in the body are listed below.

Timestamp
After receiving the beacon frame all the stations change their local clocks to this time. This helps
with synchronization.

Beacon interval
This is the time interval between beacon transmissions. The time at which a node (AP, station
when in ad hoc or P2P GO mode) must send a beacon is known as Target Beacon Transmission
Time (TBTT). Beacon interval expressed in Time Unit (TU). It is a configurable parameter in the
AP and typically configured as 100 TU.[1]

Capability information
Capability information field spans to 16 bits and contain information about capability of the
device/network. Type of network such as AdHoc or Infrastructure network is signaled in this field.
Apart from this information, it announces the support for polling, as well as the encryption details.

SSID
Supported rates
Frequency-hopping (FH) Parameter Set
Direct-Sequence (DS) Parameter Set
Contention-Free (CF) Parameter Set
IBSS Parameter Set
Traffic indication map (TIM)

Infrastructure network access points send beacons at a defined interval, which is often set to a default 100ms. In
the case of an ad hoc network where there are no access points, a peer station is responsible for sending the
beacon. After an ad hoc station receives a beacon frame from a peer, it waits a random amount of time. After
that random timeout has elapsed, it will send a beacon frame unless another station has already sent one. In this
way, the responsibility of sending beacon frames is rotated amongst all the peers in the ad hoc network, while
ensuring that beacons will always be sent.

Most access points allow the changing of the beacon interval. Increasing the beacon interval will cause the
beacons to be sent less frequently. This reduces load on the network and increases throughput for clients on the
network; however, it has the undesirable effect of delaying association and roaming processes as stations
scanning for access points could potentially miss a beacon while scanning other channels. Alternatively,
decreasing the beacon interval causes beacons to be sent more frequently. This increases load on the network
and decreases throughput for users, but it does result in a quicker association and roaming process. An
additional downside of decreasing the beacon interval is that stations in power save mode will consume more
power as they must more frequently awake to receive beacons.
Inspecting an idle network with packet-monitoring tools such as tcpdump or Wireshark would show that most
traffic on the network consists of beacon frames, with a few non-802-11 packets mixed in, such as DHCP
packets. If users joined the network, responses to each beacon would begin to appear, along with regular traffic
generated by the users.

Beacon frames must be sent with the CSMA/CA algorithm. This means that if a station is currently sending a
frame when the beacon needs to be sent, it must wait. This means that beacons may not be sent as frequently as
the beacon interval would indicate. However, stations are able to compensate for this difference by inspecting
the timestamp in the beacon frame when it is finally sent.

Function
While beacon frames do cause some non-trivial overhead for a network, they are vital for the proper operation
of a network. Radio NICs generally scan all RF channels searching for beacons announcing the presence of a
nearby access point. When a radio receives a beacon frame, it receives information about the capabilities and
configuration of that network, and is also then able to provide a list of available eligible networks, sorted by
signal strength. This allows the device to choose to connect to the optimal network.

Even after associating with a network, the radio NIC will continue to scan for beacons. This has several
benefits. Firstly, by continuing to scan for other networks, the station has options for alternative networks if the
current access point's signal becomes too weak to continue communication. Secondly, as it still receives beacon
frames from the currently associated access point, the device is able to use the timestamps in those beacons to
update its internal clock. Beacons from the currently associated access point also inform stations of imminent
configuration changes, such as data rate changes.

Finally, beacons enable devices to have power saving modes. Access points will hold on to packets destined for
stations that are currently sleeping. In the traffic indication map of a beacon frame, the access point is able to
inform stations that they have frames waiting for delivery.

References
1. "802.11 Beacons Revealed - Article" (http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/print.php/1492071).

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This page was last edited on 10 February 2017, at 18:45.

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