8

1
Medium Access Control

for Wireless Links
CS 515
Mobile and Wireless Networking
Ibrahim Korpeoglu
Computer Engineering Department
Bilkent University
CS 515 Ibrahim Korpeoglu 2
Outline
What we have see so far? PHY layer functions and parameters
General Wireless System Architecture
Media Access Control
Classes of MAC protocols
Simplex and Duplex Channels
Coordinated MAC Schemes
FDMA
TDMA
Capacity of TDMA systems and which factors affect the capacity.
Spread Spectrum Access Methods
FHMA
Case study: Bluetooth
CDMA
Hybrid Spread Spectrum Schemes.
Random MAC Schemes
CSMA
MACA and MACAW
Case Study: IEEE 802.11 MAC
What we have seen so far?
Physical layer functions
Get stream of bits and transport them to the other end.
Modulation/Demodulation
We have seen that this is not an easy task
Large-scale path loss and Small-scale fading and multipath
effects causes the received power at the receiver to
Fluctuate (hard to decode the symbols (bits))
To decrease (Affects of interfering sources increases)
Received signal power level affect the quality of the signals
(information) that is transported.
Received signal power level defines the Signal-to-Noise (SNR)
ratio
What we have seen so far?
We have seen
That SNR and bandwidth of a channel affects
Datarate bps) of the wireless channel by Shannon limit
The bit error rate (BER) on the channel.
That multipath fading results in a wireless channel error model
that changes states between good (low-error rate) and bad (high
error-rate)
Large-scale path loss defines the range of stations for different
environments (LOS, urban,)
The above factors are important channel characteristics that
affect the design of wireless systems architectures and design of
the protocols and applications for wireless links/networks
In short, we have seen so far some of Fundamental Concepts of
Wireless Communication.
What we will do now?
We will look now to the protocols, algorithms,
schemes that are developed over this wireless
channels.
How can we share a wireless channel:
Results in Wireless Media Access Control Protocols
How we can change base stations: Results in Handoff algorithms
and protocols
How can we seamlessly support mobile applications over wireless
links:
Results in mobility protocols like Mobile IP, Cellular IP, etc.
How can we design efficient transport protocols over wireless
links:
Results in solutions like SNOOP, I-TCP, M-TCP, etc.
How different wireless networks/systems are designed?
Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, GSM, etc.
Wireless System Architecture and
Functions
Physical Radio
Transceiver
Frame Controller
Link Controller
Wireless Subnet
Controller
TCP/IP
Carrier frequency, channel bandwidth, carrier detect,
Captude detect, channel data rate, modulation,
Received signal strength (RSSI), transmit power,
Power control,
Framing and frame synchronization, error control,
CRC, bit scrambling, widening, .
Medium Access Control, MAC level Scheduling,
Link Layer Queueing, Link Layer Reliability ACKs,
NACKs, .
Neighbor Discovery and Registration,
Multicasting, Power Saving Modes, Address
Translation (IP-MAC), Routing, Quality of Services,
Subnet Security
Wireless
Link Layer

(Layers 1 and 2
in ISO/OSI
Network
Reference
Model)
Applications
Medium Access Control
Wireless spectrum (frequency band) is a very precious and
limited resource.
We need to use this resource very efficiently
We also want our wireless system to have high user capacity
A lot of (multiple) users should be able to use the system at the same
time.
For these reasons most of the time, multiple users (or stations,
computers, devices) need to share the wireless channel that is
allocated and used by a system.
The algorithms and protocols that enables this sharing by multiple
users and controls/coordinates the access to the wireless channel
(medium) from different users are called MEDIUM ACCESS, or
MEDIA ACCESS or MULTIPLE ACCESS protocols, techniques,
schemes, etc)
Wireless Media Access Control
Random Schemes (Less-Coordinated)
Examples: MACA, MACAW, Aloha, 802.11 MAC,
More suited for wireless networks that are designed to carry
data: IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs
Coordinated Schemes
Examples: TDMA, FDMA, CDMA
More suited for wireless networks that are designed to carry
voice: GSM, AMPS, IS-95,
Polling based Schemes
Examples: Bluetooth, BlueSky,
Access is coordinated by a central node
Suitable for Systems that wants low-power, aims to carry
voice and data at the same time.

Duplexing
It is sharing the media between two parties.
If the communication between two parties is one way, the it
is called simplex communication.
If the communication between two parties is two- way, then
it is called duplex communication.
Simplex communication is achieved by default by using a
single wireless channel (frequency band) to transmit from
sender to receiver.
Duplex communication achieved by:
Time Division (TDD)
Frequency Division (FDD)
Some other method like a random access method
Duplexing
Usually the two parties that want to
communication in a duplex manner (both
send and receive) are:
A mobile station
A base station
Two famous methods for duplexing in cellular
systems are:
TDD: Time Division Duplex
FDD: Frequency Division Duplex
Duplexing - FDD
A duplex channel consists of two
simplex channel with different
carrier frequencies
Forward band: carries traffic from
base to mobile
Reverse band: carries traffic from
mobile to base

Reverse
Channel
Forward
Channel
frequency
f
c,R
f
c,,F
Frequency separation
Frequency separation should be carefully decided
Frequency separation is constant
B
M
F
R
Base
Station
Mobile
Station
Duplexing - TDD
A single radio channel (carrier
frequency) is shared in time in a
deterministic manner.
The time is slotted with fixed slot
length (sec)
Some slots are used for forward
channel (traffic from base to mobile)
Some slots are used for reverse
channel (traffic from mobile to base)

B M
Base
Station
Mobile
Station
F R R R R
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
.
Reverse
Channel
Forward
Channel
time
T
i
Time separation
T
i+1
channel
Slot number
F F F
Duplexing TDD versus FDD
FDD
FDD is used in radio systems that can allocate individual radio
frequencies for each user.
For example analog systems: AMPS
In FDD channels are allocated by a base station.
A channel for a mobile is allocated dynamically
All channels that a base station will use are allocated usually
statically.
More suitable for wide-area cellular networks: GSM, AMPS all use
FDD
TDD
Can only be used in digital wireless systems (digital modulation).
Requires rigid timing and synchronization
Mostly used in short-range and fixed wireless systems so that
propagation delay between base and mobile do not change much
with respect to location of the mobile.
Such as cordless phones

Multiple Access - Coordinated
We will look now sharing the media by more
than two users.
Three major multiple access schemes
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
Could be used in narrowband or wideband systems
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
Usually used narrowband systems
Code Division Multiple Access
Used in wideband systems.
Narrow- and Wideband Systems
Narrowband System
The channel bandwidth (frequency band allocated for the channel
is small)
More precisely, the channel bandwidth is large compared to the
coherence bandwidth of the channel (remember that coherence bandwidth
is related with reciprocal of the delay spread of multipath channel)
AMPS is a narrowband system (channel bandwidth is 30kHz in one-way)

Wideband Systems
The channel bandwidth is large
More precisely, the channel bandwidth is much larger that the coherence
bandwidth of the multipath channel.
A large number of users can access the same channel (frequency band)
at the same time.
Narrowband Systems
Could be employing one of the following multiple access and
duplexing schems
FDMA/FDD
TDMA/FDD
TDMA/TDD
Wideband systems
Could be employing of the following multiple access and
duplexing schemes
TDMA/FDD
TDMA/TDD
CDMA/FDD
CDMA/TDD

Cellular Systems and MAC
Cellular System Multiple Access
Technique
AMPS FDMA/FDD
GSM TDMA/FDD
USDC (IS-54 and IS-136) TDMA/FDD
PDC TDMA/FDD
CT2 Cordless Phone FDMA/TDD
DECT Cordless Phone FDMA/TDD
US IS-95 CDMA/FDD
W-CDMA CDMA/FDD
CDMA/TDD
cdma2000 CDMA/FDD
CDMA/TDD
Frequency Division Multiple Access
Individual radio
channels are assigned
to individual users
Each user is allocated a
frequency band
(channel)
During this time, no
other user can share the
channel
Base station allocates
channels to the users
B
M M M

f
1,F
f
2,F
f
N,F
f
N,R
f
2,R
f
1,R
Features of FDMA
An FDMA channel carries one phone circuit at a time
If channel allocated to a user is idle, then it is not used
by someone else: waste of resource.
Mobile and base can transmit and receive
simultaneously
Bandwidth of FDMA channels are relatively low.
Symbol time is usually larger (low data rate) than the
delay spread of the multipath channel (implies that inter-
symbol interference is low)
Lower complexity systems that TDMA systems.

Capacity of FDMA Systems

Frequency spectrum allocated for FDMA system
Guard
Band
Guard
Band
channel
c
guard t
B
B B
N
2
=
B
t
: Total spectrum allocation
B
guard
: Guard band allocated at the edge of the spectrum band
B
c
: Bandwidth of a channel
AMPS has 12.MHz simplex spectrum band, 10Khz guard band, 30kHz
channel bandwidth (simplex): Number of channels is 416.
Time Division Multiple Access
The allocated radio spectrum for the system
is divided into time slots
In each slot a user can transmit or receive
A user occupiess a cyclically repeating slots.
A channel is logically defined as a particular time
slot that repeats with some period.
TDMA systems buffer the data, until its turn
(time slot) comes to transmit.
This is called buffer-and-burst method.
Requires digital modulation
TDMA Concept
1 2 3 N 1 2 3 . N
1 2 3 N 1 2 3 . N
Downstream Traffic: Forward Channels: (from base to mobiles)
Upstream Traffic: Reverse Channels: (from mobile to base)
Logical forward channel to a mobile
Base station broadcasts to mobiles on each slot
A mobile transmits to the base station in its allocated slot
Logical reverse channel from a mobile
Upstream and downstream traffic uses of the two different carrier frequencies.
TDMA Frames
Multiple, fixed number of slots are put together into a frame.
A frame repeats.
In TDMA/TDD: half of the slots in the frame is used for forward
channels, the other is used for reverse channels.
In TDMA/FDD: a different carrier frequency is used for a reverse
or forward
Different frames travel in each carrier frequency in different directions
(from mobile to base and vice versa).
Each frame contains the time slots either for reverse channels or
forward channel depending on the direction of the frame.
General Frame and Time Slot
Structure in TDMA Systems
Preamble Information Trail Bits
Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 Slot N
Guard
Bits
Sync
Bits
CRC
Information
One TDMA Frame
One TDMA Slot
A Frame repeats in time
Control
Bits
A TDMA Frame
Preamble contains address and
synchronization info to identify base station
and mobiles to each other
Guard times are used to allow
synchronization of the receivers between
different slots and frames
Different mobiles may have different propagation delays
to a base station because of different distances.
Efficiency of a Frame/TDMA-System
Each frame contains overhead bits and data bits.
Efficiency of frame is defined as the percentage of data
(information) bits to the total frame size in bits.
xR T b
x
b
b
ef f iciency
f T
T
OH
f
=
= = % 100 ) 1 ( q
b
T
: total number of bits in a frame
T
f
: frame duration (seconds)
b
OH
: number of overhead bits
Number of channels in a TDMA cell:
c
guard tot
B
B B
m N
) 2 (
=
m: maximum number of TDMA users supported in a radio channel
TDMA
TDMA Efficiency
GSM: 30% overhead
DECT: 30% overhead
IS-54: 20% overhead.

TDMA is usually combined with FDMA
Neighboring cells be allocated and using different carrier
frequencies (FDMA). Inside a cell TDMA can be used. Cells may
be re-using the same frequency if they are far from each-other.
There may be more than one carrier frequency (radio channel)
allocated and used inside each cell. Each carrier frequency (radio
channel) may be using TDMA to further multiplex more user (i.e.
having TDMA logical channels inside radio channels)
For example: GSM uses multiple radio channels per cell site. Each radio
channel has 200KHz bandwidth and has 8 time slots (8 logical channels).
Hence GSM is using FHMA combined with TDMA.

Contemporary TDMA Systems
GSM
(Europa)
IS-54
(USA)
PDC
(Japan)
DECT
(European
Cordless)
Bit Rate 270.8 Kbps 48.6 Kbps 42 Kbps 1.152 Mbps
Bandwidth 200 KHz 30 KHz 25 KHz 1.728 MHz
Time Slot 0.577 ms 6.7 ms 6.7 ms 0.417 ms
Upstream slots
per frame
8 3 3 12
Duplexing FDD FDD FDD TDD
Efficiency of
Time Slots
73 % 80 % 80 % 67 %
Modulation GMSK t/4 DQPSK t/4 DQPSK GMSK
Adaptive
Equalized
Mandatory Mandatory Optional None
Features of TDMA
Enables the sharing of a single radio channel among N
users
Requires high data-rate per radio channel to support N
users simultaneously.
High data-rate on a radio channel with fixed bandwidth
requires adaptive equalizers to be used in multipath
environments (remember the RSM delay spread o parameter)
Transmission occurs in bursts (not continues)
Enables power saving by going to sleep modes in unrelated slots
Discontinues transmission also enables mobile assisted handoff
Requires synchronization of the receivers.
Need guard bits, sync bits. large overhead per slot.
Allocation of slots to mobile users should not be uniform.
It may depend on the traffic requirement of mobiles.
This brings extra flexibility and efficiency compared to FDMA
systems.
Capacity of TDMA Systems
Capacity can be expressed as
System Capacity (the capacity of the overall system covering
a region)
Depends on:
Range of cells
Whether the system can support macro-cells, micro-cells or pico-
cells.
Cell Capacity
Depends on the radio link performance between a base-sation and
mobiles:
The lowest C/I (carrier-to-interence) ratio the system can operate
for example quality of transmission. This in turn depends on the
speech coding technique, desired speech quality, etc.
Data-rate over the channel which depends modulation efficiency
(bits_per_second/Hz) and channel bandwidth.
The frequency re-use factor
C
System Capacity:
A
G
F
E
D B
G
B
A
A
x
y
z
Frequency reuse factor is 1/7: same frequency is used every 7 cell.
A is one set of frequencies, B is an other, etc.

A mobile in cell x receives carrier signal from base x and interferences from
base stations at cells y and z. The carrier signal strength of all combined signal
strength from interfering base stations is called C/I or S/I ratio.
Cluster: 7 cells constitute a cluster.
Cluster size = 7
C/I affect on capacity
C/I ratio affects the cluster size, hence the
frequency reuse factor.
Frequency_reuse_factor = 1 / cluster_size
Cluster size can be 3, 7, 12, 13,

Cluster size affects the cell capacity
(it affects the maximum number of frequencies that can
be used in a cell)
A low C/I requirement for appropriate quality
enables smaller cluster sizes, hence larger
frequency reuse factor, meaning that larger cell
capacities
Comparing Systems
AMPS Parameters
Channel bandwidth =
30Khz
Required C/I: 18 dB
Frequency re-use factor:
1/7 (cluster size=7)
Required bandwidth per
user = 30kHz.
GSM Parameters
Channel banwidth: 200 KHz
Required bandwidth per
user = 200/8 = 25 Khz.
Required minimum C/I: 9dB
Frequency re-use factor:
1/3 (cluster size=3)
or reuse_fact frequency_
ze cluster_si
1
acity system_cap
acity system_cap
_user quired_per ndwidth_re channel_ba
=
1
stations. base of range the like same are factors other assuming
MPS) capaci ty(A
SM) capaci ty(G
8 . 2
30 / 1
25 / 1
7 / 1
3 / 1
= =
Spread Spectrum Access
SSMA uses signals that have transmission
bandwidth that is several orders of magnitued
larger than minimum required RF bandwidth.
Provides
Immunity to multipath interference
Robust multiple access.
Two techniques
Frequency Hopped Multiple Access (FHMA)
Direct Sequence Multiple Access (DSMA)
Also called Code Division Multiple Access CDMA
Frequency Hopping (FHMA)
Digital muliple access technique
A wideband radio channel is used.
Same wideband spectrum is used
The carrier frequency of users are varied in a pseudo-random
fashion.
Each user is using a narrowband channel (spectrum) at a specific instance
of time.
The random change in frequency make the change of using the same
narrowband channel very low.
The sender receiver change frequency (calling hopping) using the
same pseudo-random sequence, hence they are synchronized.

Rate of hopping versus Symbol rate
If hopping rate is greather: Called Fast Frequency Hopping
One bit transmitted in multiple hops.
If symbol rate is greater: Called Slow Frequency Hopping
Multiple bits are transmitted in a hopping period
GSM and Bluetooth are example systems
Case Study - Bluetooth
Uses Frequency Hopping in cell (piconet) over a 79 MHz wideband
radio channel.
Uses 79 narrowband channels (carrier frequencies) to hop through.
Freq (f) = 2402+k MHz, k = 0,...,78
Channel spacing is 1 MHz (narrowband channel bandwidth)
Wideband spectrum width = 79 MHz.
Hopping Rate = 1600 Hops/Second
Hopping sequence is determined by Bluetooth Hardware address and
Clocks that are syncrozied between sender and receiver

0 1 2 3 77 78 .....
79-Hop System
A hop sequence could be: 7,1,78,67,0, 56,39,.......
79 MHZ
1 MHZ
Case Study: Bluetooth Piconet and FHSS
S
S
S
M
Each node is classified as master or slave.
Master defines a piconet (a cell). Maximum 7 slaves can be connected to
a master. Master coordinates access to the the media.
All traffic has to go over master.
Slaves can not talk to each-other
directly.
Range = 10m
Raw Data-rate: 1 Mbps/piconet

Radio channel used by devices in
a piconet is 79MHz channel, which
Is frequency hopped: hopping
though 789 channels.
Hoprate = 1600 hops/sec
FHSS
Picocell
All slaves and the master hops according to the same hopping sequence.
The hopping sequence is determined by the clock and BT_address of the master.
Case Study: Bluetooth Scatternet and
FHSS
S
S
S
M1
FHSS
Piconet
S
S
S
M2
Piconet
Piconet can be combined
into scatternets.

Red slave acts as a
bridge between two
piconets.
FHSS
Each piconet uses FHSS with different
hopping sequences (masters are different).

This prevents interference between piconets.

Case Study: Bluetooth - Media access in a
piconet
S2
S3
S1
M
FHSS
Piconet
Inside a piconet, access to the
frequency hopped radio channel
is coordinated using time
division multiple access: TDMA/TDD.

Slot duration = 1/1600 sec = 625s
M-S1 S1-M M-S2 S2-M M-S3 S3-M M-S1 S1-M
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ..

In an even slot, master transmits to a
slave.
In an odd slot, the slave that is addressed
in the previous master-to-slave slot transmits.
slot time=625s
Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
In CDMA, the narrowband message signal is multiplied by a very large
bandwidth signal called spreading signal (code) before modulation and
transmission over the air. This is called spreading.
CDMA is also called DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum). DSSS
is a more general term.
Message consists of symbols
Has symbol period and hence, symbol rate
Spreading signal (code) consists of chips
Has Chip period and and hence, chip rate
Spreading signal use a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence (a pseudo-random
sequence)
PN sequence is called a codeword
Each user has its own cordword
Codewords are orthogonal. (low autocorrelation)
Chip rate is oder of magnitude larger than the symbol rate.
The receiver correlator distinguishes the senders signal by examining
the wideband signal with the same time-synchronized spreading code
The sent signal is recovered by despreading process at the receiver.
CDMA Advantages
Low power spectral density.
Signal is spread over a larger frequency band
Other systems suffer less from the transmitter
Interference limited operation
All frequency spectrum is used
Privacy
The codeword is known only between the sender and receiver. Hence other users
can not decode the messages that are in transit
Reduction of multipath affects by using a larger spectrum
Random access possible
Users can start their transmission at any time
Cell capacity is not concerete fixed like in TDMA or FDMA systems.
Has soft capacity
Higher capacity than TDMA and FDMA
No frequency management
No equalizers needed
No guard time needed
Enables soft handoff
CDMA Principle
1
0
1
1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1
Chip period
One bit period (symbol period)
Data
PN-Code
(codeword)
Coded
Signal
Input to the modulator (phase modulation)
Represent bit 1 with +1
Represent bit 0 with -1
Processing Gain
Main parameter of CDMA is the processing gain that is
defined as:

R
B
R
B
G
chip spread
p
= =
G
p
: processing gain
B
spread
: PN code rate
B
chip
: Chip rate
R: Data rate
IS-95 System (Narrowband CDMA) has a gain of 64. Other
systems have gain between 10 and 100.
1.228 Mhz chipping rate
1.25 MHz spread bandwidth

Near Far Problem and Power Control
At a receiver, the signals may come from
various (multiple sources.
The strongest signal usually captures the
modulator. The other signals are considered
as noise
Each source may have different distances
to the base station
In CDMA, we want a base station to
receive CDMA coded signals from
various mobile users at the same time.
Therefore the receiver power at the base
station for all mobile users should be close
to eacother.
This requires power control at the mobiles.
Power Control: Base station monitors
the RSSI values from different mobiles
and then sends power change
commands to the mobiles over a forward
channel. The mobiles then adjust their
transmit power.
B
M
M
M
M
p
r(M)
DSSS Transmitter
+
PN Code
Generator
Chip Clock
Baseband
BPF
Oscillator
f
c
Message s
ss
(t)
m(t)
p(t)
Transmitted
Signal
) 2 cos( ) ( ) (
2
) ( u t + = t f t p t m
T
E
t s
c
s
s
ss
DSSS Receiver
) (t s
ss
) (t p
) (t m
IF Wideband
Filter
PN Code
Generator
Phase Shift Keying
Demodulator
Synchronization
System
Received
Data
Received
DSSS Signal
at IF
) (
1
t s
) 2 cos( ) (
2
) (
1
u t + = t f t m
T
E
t s
c
s
s
Spectra of Received Signal
Frequency
Frequency
Spectral
Density
Spectral
Density
Signal
Interference
Interference
Signal
Output of Wideband filter
Output of Correlator after
dispreading,
Input to Demodulator
CDMA Example (*)
R
A B
Receiver (a base station)
Transmitter (a mobile) Transmitter
Codeword=010011
Codeword=101010
Data=1011 Data=0010
Data transmitted from A and B is multiplexed using CDMA and codewords.
The Receiver de-multiplexes the data using dispreading.
(*) This example is adapted from the CDMA example of Prof. Randy Katz at UC-Berkeley.
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
CDMA Example transmission from two sources
Code Data
0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1
1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 1 1
1 0 1 1 0 0
Transmitted
A+B
Signal

A Data
A
Codeword
B Data
B
Codeword
Code Data
A Signal
B Signal
CDMA Example recovering signal A at the receiver
0 1 0 1
A+B
Signal
received
A
Codeword
at
receiver
Code B) (A - +
Integrator
Output
Comparator
Output
Take the inverse of this to obtain A
CDMA Example recovering signal B at the receiver
1 1 0 1
A+B
Signal
received
B
Codeword
at
receiver
Code B) (A - +
Integrator
Output
Comparator
Output
Take the inverse of this to obtain B
X 0 1 1
Noise
CDMA Example using wrong codeword at the receiver
A+B
Signal
received
Wrong
Codeword
Used at
receiver
Integrator
Output
Comparator
Output
Wrong codeword will not be able to decode the original data!
Hybrid Spread Spectrum Techniques
FDMA/CDMA
Available wideband spectrum is frequency divided into
number narrowband radio channels. CDMA is employed
inside each channel.
DS/FHMA
The signals are spread using spreading codes (direct
sequence signals are obtained), but these signal are not
transmitted over a constant carrier frequency; they are
transmitted over a frequency hopping carrier frequency.
Hybrid Spread Spectrum Techniques
Time Division CDMA (TCDMA)
Each cell is using a different spreading code (CDMA
employed between cells) that is conveyed to the mobiles
in its range.
Inside each cell (inside a CDMA channel), TDMA is
employed to multiplex multiple users.
Time Division Frequency Hopping
At each time slot, the user is hopped to a new frequency
according to a pseudo-random hopping sequence.
Employed in severe co-interference and multi-path
environments.
Bluetooth and GSM are using this technique.

Random Access
Packet Radio Protocols
Multihop radio network that carries packets
Not circuit oriented like GSM, CDMA, etc.
Example Protocols
Pure Aloha
Slotted Aloha
CSMA Protocols
1-persistent CSMA
non-persistent CSMA
p-persistent CSMA
CSMA/CD
Reservation Protocols
Reservation Aloha
PRMA
Others
MACA, MACAW
IEEE 802.11 MAC
Pure Aloha
B
M1
M2
M3
Ignoring the propagation delay between mobiles
and base station:
The time difference between the time
a mobile send the first bit of packet and the
time the base station receives the last bit of
the packet is given by 2T.
T = C/P
T: packet time.
C: channel data rate (bps)
P: packet length (bits)
During this 2T period of time, the packet may collide
with someone elses packet.
Data
Ack/Nack
Algorithm:
A mobile station transmits immediately whenever is has data.
It then waits for ACK or NACK.
If ACK is not received, it waits a random amount of time and retransmits.
Throughput of Aloha
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Normalized
Channel Occupancy
Normalized
Throughput
~0.185
0.5
CSMA: Carrier Sense Multiple
Access
Aloha does not listen to the carrier before
transmission.
CSMA listen to the carrier before
transmission and transmits if channel is idle.
Detection delay and propagation delay are
two important parameters for CSMA
Detection delay: time required to sense the carrier and
decide if it is idle or busy
Propagation delay: distance/speed_of_ligth. The time
required for bit to travel from transmitter to the receiver.

CSMA Variations
1-persistent CSMA:
A station waits until a channel is idle. When it detects that the channel is idle,
it immediately starts transmission
Non-persistent CSMA:
When a station receives a negative acknowledgement, it waits a random
amount of time before retransmission of the packet altough the carrier is idle.
P-persistent CSMA
P-persistent CSMA is applied to slotted channels. When a station detects that
a channel is idle, it starts transmission with probability p in the first available
timeslot.
CSMA/CD
Same with CSMA, however a station also listen to the carrier while
transmitting to see if the transmission collides with someone else
transmission.
Can be used in listen-while-talk capable channels (full duplex)
In single radio channels, the transmission need to be interrupted in order to
sense the channel.
MACA Medium Access with
Collision Avoidance
CSMA protocols sense the carrier, but
sensing the carrier does not always releases
true information about the status of the
wireless channel
There are two problems that are unique to wireless
channels (different than wireline channels), that makes
CSMA useless in some cases. These problems are:
Hidden terminal problem
Exposed terminal problem.
MACA Hidden Terminal Problem
B C A
A is transmitting to B.
C is sensing the carrier and detects that it is idle (It can not hear As
transmission).
C also transmits and collision occurs at B.
A is hidden from C.
As cell Cs cell
Hidden
terminal
MACA Exposed Terminal Problem
B C A
Bs cell
Cs cell
D
B is transmitting to A. C is hearing this transmission.
C now wants to transmit to D. It senses the existence of carrier signal and
defers transmission to D.
However, C can actually start transmitting to D while B is transmitting to A,
Since A is out of range of C and Cs signals can not be heard at A.
C is exposed to Bs transmission.
Exposed
terminal
MACA Solution Concept
Can, I want to
talk to you!
Can, I want to
talk to you!
Ali, lets talk! I
am available.
Ali
Veli
Can
Biltepe
Mountain
MACA Protocol
When a station wants to transmit data
It sends an RTS (Ready-to-Send) packet to the intended
receiver
The RTS packet contains the length of the data that needs to
be transmitted
Any station other than the intended recipient hearing RTS
defers transmission for a time duration equal to the end of the
corresponding CTS reception
The receiver sends back CTS (Clear-to-Send) packet back to
sender if it is available to receive.
The CTS packet contains the length of the data that original
sender wants to transmit
Any station other than the original RTS sender, hearing CTS
defers transmission until the data is sent.
The original sender upon reception of the CTS, starts
transmitting.

MACA Solution for Hidden Terminal
Problem
B C A
As cell Cs cell
CTS(n)
Data(n)
CTS(n)
X
RTS(n) RTS(n)
C defers transmission
for duration of n bytes of
data transmission. Node A
is no longer hidden from C
effectively.
X defers transmission
until expected CTS
reception time by RTS
sender.
Waiting time of node X is much smaller than waiting time of node C.
A is transmitting to B.
MACA Solution for Exposed Terminal
Problem
B C A
Bs cell
Cs cell
D
B is transmitting to A
RTS(n)
CTS(n)
Data(m)
RTS(n)
RTS(m)
CTS(m)
Data(n)
C defers transmission upon hearing Bs RTS until B could get CTS from A.
After that C can start transmission to D. For that it first sends an RTS.
C is not longer exposed to the data transmission of B.
Case Study: IEEE 802.11b MAC
IEEE 802.11b: High Data-rate Wireless LAN
standard.
Operates in 2.4-2483 MHz ISM RF Band.
83 MHz spectrum width
Max data-rate: 11Mbps simplex.
Spectrum Usage: FHSS or DHSS
Modulation Technique: CCK with QPSK
For 11Mbps:
Symbol rate = 1,375 MSps
Number of symbol states = 8
One symbol can encode 3 bits of information.
Range: around 100m.
802.11b
Works in Two Operational Modes
Infrastructure Mode
Ad-Hoc Mode
Access Point
Access
Point
Mobile
Station
Basic Service Set (BSS)
Extended Service Set (ESS)
Wireless Link
Wireless Link
Wireless Link
Infrastructure Mode
All traffic has to go through access points
Access point provides connectivity to the wired backbone
802.11b
Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS)
Ad-Hoc Mode
Mobile Stations can talk directly with each-other. All stations in an IBSS
need to be in the range of each-other.
802.11b MAC Sublayer
Support two different MAC modes depending
on the operational mode of the Wireless LAN
1) DCF: Distributed Coordination Function
Based on CSMA/CA
Carrier Sensing: Physical and Virtual.
2) PCF: Point Coordination Function
Connection oriented
Contention free service
Polling based

802.11b PHY Layer
Can support data rates at: 1,2,5.5,11 Mbps
802.11b Data Rate Specifications
Data rate Code Length Modulation Symbol Rate Bits/Symbol
1 Mbps 11 (Barker
Sequence)
BPSK 1 MSps 1
2 Mbps 11 (Barker
Sequence)
QPSK 1 MSps 2
5.5 Mbps 4 (CCK) QPSK 1.375 MSps 4
11 Mbps 8 (CCK) QPSK 1.375 MSps 8
FHSS
2.4 GHz band is divided into 75 one-MHz
subchannels. The sender and receiver hops
through this 75 channels in a synchronized
manner using a hopping pattern.
Can not support more than 2 Mbps data-rate.
DSSS
Divides the 2.4 GHz band into 14 twenty-two MHz
channels
Adjacent channels can overlap partially.
3 of 14 channels are completely non-overlapping
Data is sent over one 22 MHz channel without
hoppling using DSSS technique (chipping and code
words are used like CDMA)
Each access point uses a different 22 MHz channel if possible.
All mobiles in the coverage of the access point uses the channel
that is used by the access point. 802.11b MAC is used to
coordinate the access to the shared 22 MHz channel.
Original 802.11 systems use 11 bit chipping (code words of length
11).
Later 802.11b systems use 8 bit chipping (code words of length 8
bits). Defines 64 different codewords from a space of 256.

DSSS Channels
2.412
GHz
2.437
GHz
2.462
GHz
Channel 1
22 MHz
Channel 6
22 MHz
Channel 11
22 MHz
2.484
GHz
2.400
GHz
Spectrum Allocated for 802.11b
25
MHz
25
MHz
Channel 1, 6, and 11 are non-overlapping.
Channel Assignment and
Registration.
In multi-access environment, the operator should try to allocate
non-overlapping channels to the physically adjacent channels.
If adjacent access points use overlapping channels, then
interference can be high.
A mobile station periodically tunes to all channels and evaluates
the signal strength received over each channel
Depending on the signal strength received over the channels, a mobile
selects an access point and registers with that provided that the access
points accepts the mobile. This is also called association.
Re-association with a new access point occurs when
the mobile moves away from the current access point.
When the signal conditions changes between the mobile and current
access point.
When there are a lot of users associated with the current access point.
Re-association at the PHY layer.
Access
Point (AP)
A
Associated with
Access Point A
Associated with
Access Point B
Access
Point (AP)
B
Signal from A
Signal from B
Mobile tunes to the channel of AP B when it moves into its range.
An example 3-cell Reuse scheme for
WLAN deployment
1
6
11
1
11
1
6
11
6
11
6
1
An access point is located in the center of each hexagon.
802.11b PHY Layer
PLCP
PMD Sublayer
PHY Layer
PLCP: Physical Layer Convergence Protocol
PMD: Physical Medium Dependent Sublayer
SYNC
(128)
SFD
(16)
Signal
(8)
Service
(8)
Length
(16)
CRC
(16)
MPDU
(Variable Length)
SYNC: Synchronization field
SFD: Start frame deliminer
Signal: Indicated how fast the data will be transmitted
Service: Reserved
Length: MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) length
CRC: used for error detecting on the frame

PLCP Frame Format
MAC
802.11b MAC Sublayer
Supports both infrastructure and ad-hoc
modes of operation.
CRC is added to each MAC frame
Packet fragmentation is supported to chop
large higher layer (IP) packets into small
pieces. Has advantages:
Probability a packet gets corrupted increases with the
packet size.
In case of corruption, only a small fragment needs to be
re-transmitted.
Inter-frame Space (IFS
4 types of Inter-frame spaces:
1. Short IFS (SIFS): period between completion of packet
transmission and start of ACK frame
2. Point Coordination IFS (PIFS): SIFS plus a slot time.
3. Distributed IFS (DIFS): PIFS plus a slot time.
4. Extended IFS (EIFS): longer IFS used by a station that
has received a packet that it could no longer
understand. Needed to prevent collisions.

MAC Protocol
802.11b uses CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense
Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) MAC
protocol.
CSMA/CA is the protocol to implement the
distributed coordination function (DCF) of the
MAC sub-layer.
RTS/CTS is used to avoid collisions.
Use of RTS/CTS can be enabled or disabled depending
on the traffic load (probability of collisions).
CSMA Transmission of MPDU
(Data) without use of RTS/CTS
Data
ACK
Data
Source
Destination
Others
DIFS
SIFS
DIFS
Defer Access
Backoff after
Defer
Contention Window
(Slot Times)
A station backoffs a random number of slot times.
CSMA/CA Transmission of MPDU
(Data) using RTS/CTS
RTS
CTS
Source
Destination
Others
DIFS
SIFS
Defer Access for NAV(RTS)
Backoff after
Defer
SIFS
DATA
SIFS
ACK
DIFS
Defer Access for NAV(CTS)
Defer Access for NAV(Data)
CSMA/CA Collision Avoidance
RTS
CTS
DATA
ACK
Access
Point
Mobile
RTS/CTS is used to reserve channel for
the duration of the packet transmission. This prevents
hidden and exposed terminal
problems
ACK is required to understand if the packet
is correctly received (without any collisions ) at the
receiver.
Ethernet does not require ACK to be sent, since the
transmitter can detect the collision on the channel
(cable) without requiring an explicit feedback from the
receiver.
A wireless transmitter can not detect collision,
because:
1) Transmit power is much larger than the received
power: received signal is regarded as noise (not
collision).
2) There could be a hidden terminal
802.11b Frame Format
FC
(2 bytes)
ID
(2)
Add1
(6)
Add2
(6)
Add3
(6)
SC
(2)
Add4
(6)
Data
(0-2312 bytes)
CRC
(4)
Protocol
(2 bits)
Type
(2)
Subtype
(4)
To DS
(1)
From DS
(1)
More Frag
(1)
Retry
(1)
Pw Mgt
(1)
More Data
(1)
WEP
(1)
Order
(1)
IEEE 802.11b MAC Frame Format
Frame Control Format (2 bytes)
Frame Control (FC): protocol version and
frame type
Duration/ID (ID): power-save poll message
frame type and for NAV calculation
Address Fields: contains up-to 4 MAC
addresses
Sequence Control: fragmentation and
sequence number.
Data: higher layer data that is maximum
2312 bytes.
CRC: 32 bit cyclic redundancy check for
detecting error on the frame.

Protocol Version: version of 802.11 standard
Type: Management. Control, Data frame
Subtype: RTS, CTS, ACK frame
To DS: 1 if frame is sent to Distribution System (DS)
From DS: 1 if frame is received from Distribution System
More fragment: 1 if there are more fragments belonging to the same
frame following the current frame.
Retry: indicates that is fragment is retransmission of previously
transmitted fragment.
Power Management: the type of power management mode that the
station will be after the transmission of the frame.
More Data: indicates that there are more frames buffered at the
sender for this station.
WEP: indicates that frame body is encrypted according to WEP.
Order: indicates that the frame is sent using the strictly-ordered
service class.
Mobility
What happens when a station moves
between access points
Re-association function of the PHY layer associates a
mobile with a new access point.
Some vendor specific, layer-2 (datalink layer) solutions
solves the mobility at layer.
Solutions like Mobile IP needed to provide seamless
mobility to higher layers (transport and application
layers).
DHCP is also a method but not as convenient as Mobile IP.
We will see in the forthcoming classes how
Mobile IP works.

8

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Descrizione originale:

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

8

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

1

Medium Access Control

Potrebbero piacerti anche