MAC (Medium Access Control) sublayer -the protocols used to determine who goes next on a multiaccess channel belong

to a sublayer of the data link layer The MAC sublayer is especially important in LANs, many of which use a multiaccess channel as the basis for communication. MAC sublayer is the bottom part of the data link layer, so logically we should have studied it before examining all the point-to-point protocols

The traditional way of allocating a single channel, such as a telephone trunk, among multiple competing users is Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). FDM is a simple and efficient allocation mechanism

Dynamic Channel Allocation in LANs and MANs

Station Model. The model consists of N independent stations (e.g., computers, telephones, or personal communicators), each with a program or user that generates frames for transmission. Stations are sometimes called terminals. Single Channel Assumption A single channel is available for all communication. All stations can transmit on it and all can receive from it. Collision Assumption. If two frames are transmitted simultaneously, they overlap in time and the resulting signal is garbled. This event is called a collision. 4a. Continuous Time. Frame transmission can begin at any instant. There is no master clock dividing time into discrete intervals. 4b. Slotted Time. Time is divided into discrete intervals (slots). Frame transmissions always begin at the start of a slot. A slot may contain 0, 1, or more frames, corresponding to an idle slot, a successful transmission, or a collision, respectively. 5a. Carrier Sense. Stations can tell if the channel is in use before trying to use it. If the channel is sensed as busy, no station will attempt to use it until it goes idle. 5b. No Carrier Sense. Stations cannot sense the channel before trying to use it. They just go ahead and transmit. Only later can they determine whether the transmission was successful. The single channel assumption is the heart of the model. The collision assumption is also basic, although in some systems (notably spread spectrum), this assumption is relaxed, with surprising results.

Collision detection is rarely done on wireless networks, for engineering reasons.

ALOHA
In the 1970s, Norman Abramson and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii devised a new and elegant method to solve the channel allocation problem. Their work has been extended by many researchers since then (Abramson, 1985). Although Abramson's work, called the ALOHA system, used ground-based radio broadcasting, the basic idea is applicable to any system in which uncoordinated users are competing for the use of a single shared channel

Pure ALOHA
The basic idea of an ALOHA system is simple: let users transmit whenever they have data to be sent. CONTENTION SYSTEMS. Systems in which multiple users share a common channel in a way that can lead to conflicts

Slotted ALOHA
In 1972, Roberts published a method for doubling the capacity of an ALOHA system (Roberts, 1972). Roberts' method, which has come to be known as slotted ALOHA, in contrast to Abramson's pure ALOHA, a computer is not permitted to send whenever a carriage return is typed. Instead, it is required to wait for the beginning of the next slot.

Carrier Sense Multiple Access Protocols

With slotted ALOHA the best channel utilization that can be achieved is 1/e. This is hardly surprising, since with stations transmitting at will, without paying attention to what the other stations are doing, there are bound to be many collisions. CARRIER SENSE PROTOCOLS Protocols in which stations listen for a carrier (i.e., a transmission) and act accordingly

Persistent and Nonpersistent CSMA

1-persistent CSMA The first carrier sense protocol. The protocol is called 1persistent because the station transmits with a probability of 1 when it finds the channel idle. Nonpersistent CSMA second carrier sense protocol. this protocol, a conscious attempt is made to be less greedy than in the previous one. p-persistent CSMA the last protocol. It applies to slotted channels and works as follows. When a station becomes ready to send, it senses the channel

CSMA with Collision Detection is widely used on LANs in the MAC sublayer

A Bit-Map Protocol first collision-free protocol, the basic bit-map method, each contention period consists of exactly N slots

reservation protocols

a protocols like this in which the desire to transmit is broadcast before the actual transmission

Binary Countdown The bits in each address position from different stations are BOOLEAN ORed together. We will call this protocol binary countdown

limited-contention protocols (Wavelength Division Multiple Access), The protocol supports three traffic classes : (1) constant data rate connection-oriented traffic, such as uncompressed video, 2) variable data rate connection-oriented traffic, such as file transfer, and (3) datagram traffic, such as UDP packets Each station has two transmitters and two receivers, as follows: 1. A fixed-wavelength receiver for listening to its own control channel. 2. A tunable transmitter for sending on other stations' control channels. 3. A fixed-wavelength transmitter for outputting data frames. 4. A tunable receiver for selecting a data transmitter to listen DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)

o
hidden station problem

a large number of frequencies are being used, the system is sometimes called DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)

o
exposed station problem

the problem of a station not being able to detect a potential competitor for the medium because the competitor is too far away

when in fact such a transmission would cause bad reception only in the zone between B and C, where neither of the intended receivers is located. This is called the exposed station problem

An early protocol designed for wireless LANs is MACA (Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) (Karn, 1990) RTS (Request To Send) CTS (Clear to Send)

Ethernet
The most important of the survivors are 802.3 (Ethernet) and 802.11 (wireless LAN). With 802.15 (Bluetooth) and 802.16 (wireless MAN), it is too early to tell. Please consult the 5th edition of this book to find out. Both 802.3 and 802.11 have different physical layers and different MAC sublayers but converge on the same logical link control sublayer (defined in 802.2), so they have the same interface to the network layer.

Ethernet Cabling
The most common kinds of Ethernet cabling.

10Base5 cabling, popularly called thick Ethernet, came first Connections to it are generally made using vampire taps, in which a pin is very carefully forced halfway into the coaxial cable's core. the second cable type was 10Base2, or thin Ethernet, which, in contrast to the garden-hose-like thick Ethernet, bends easily By carefully timing the interval between sending the pulse and receiving the echo, it is possible to localize the origin of the echo. This technique is called time domain reflectometry Transceiver o is clamped securely around the cable so that its tap makes contact with the inner core

Three kinds of Ethernet cabling. (a) 10Base5. (b) 10Base2. (c) 10Base-T.
Multicast o Sending to a group of stations

The address consisting of all 1 bits is reserved for broadcast

binary exponential backoff was chosen to dynamically adapt to the number of stations trying to send

The original fast Ethernet cabling.

Gigabit Ethernet
It was quickly dubbed gigabit Ethernet and was ratified by IEEE in 1998 under the name 802.3z. This identifier suggests that gigabit Ethernet is going to be the end of the line unless somebody quickly invents a new letter after z frame bursting,

Gigabit Ethernet cabling.

allows a sender to transmit a concatenated sequence of multiple frames in a single transmission

LLC (Logical Link Control), o hides the differences between the various kinds of 802 networks by providing a single format and interface to the network layer FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) o uses 79 channels, each 1-MHz wide, starting at the low end of the 2.4-GHz ISM band. The third modulation method, DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum), is also restricted to 1 or 2 Mbps. Each bit is transmitted as 11 chips, using what is called a Barker sequence The first of the high-speed wireless LANs, 802.11a, uses OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) HR-DSSS (High Rate Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum), another spread spectrum technique, which uses 11 million chips/sec to achieve 11 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz band. It is called 802.11b but is not a follow-up to 802.11a DCF (Distributed Coordination Function), does not use any kind of central control (in that respect, similar to Ethernet). The other, called PCF (Point Coordination Function), uses the base station to control all activity in its cell.

When DCF is employed, 802.11 uses a protocol called CSMA/CA (CSMA with Collision Avoidance). In this protocol, both physical channel sensing and virtual channel sensing are used. Two methods of operation are supported by CSMA/CA. SIFS (Short InterFrame Spacing). It is used to allow the parties in a single dialog the chance to go first. PIFS (PCF InterFrame Spacing) elapses, the base station may send a beacon frame or poll frame. DIFS (DCF InterFrame Spacing) elapses, any station may attempt to acquire the channel to send a new frame. EIFS (Extended InterFrame Spacing), is used only by a station that has just received a bad or unknown frame to report the bad frame WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) algorithm.

Services
1. Association. This service is used by mobile stations to connect themselves to base stations. 2. Disassociation. Either the station or the base station may disassociate, thus breaking the relationship. 3. . Reassociation. A station may change its preferred base station using this service. This facility is useful for mobile stations moving from one cell to another. If it is used correctly, no data will be lost as a consequence of the handover. (But 802.11, like Ethernet, is just a best-efforts service.) 4. . Distribution. This service determines how to route frames sent to the base station. If the destination is local to the base station, the frames can be sent out directly over the air. Otherwise, they will have to be forwarded over the wired network. 5. Integration. If a frame needs to be sent through a non-802.11 network with a different addressing scheme or frame format, this service handles the translation from the 802.11 format to the format required by the destination network. The remaining four services are intracell (i.e., relate to actions within a single cell). They are used after association has taken place and are as follows. 1. Authentication. Because wireless communication can easily be sent or received by unauthorized stations, a station must authenticate itself before it is permitted to send data. After a mobile station has been associated by the base station (i.e., accepted into its cell), the base station sends a special challenge frame to it to see if the mobile station knows the secret key (password) that has been assigned to it. It proves its knowledge of the secret key by encrypting the challenge frame and sending it back to the base station. If the result is correct, the mobile is fully enrolled in the cell. In the initial standard, the base station does not have to prove its identity to the mobile station, but work to repair this defect in the standard is underway.

2. Deauthentication. When a previously authenticated station wants to leave the network, it is deauthenticated. After deauthentication, it may no longer use the network. 3. Privacy. For information sent over a wireless LAN to be kept confidential, it must be encrypted. This service manages the encryption and decryption. 4. Data delivery. Finally, data transmission is what it is all about, so 802.11 naturally provides a way to transmit and receive data wireless MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) or a wireless local loop. FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) and TDD (Time Division Duplexing).

Bluetooth
The project was named Bluetooth, after Harald Blaatand (Bluetooth) II (940-981), a Viking king who unified (i.e., conquered) Denmark and Norway, also without cables. The basic unit of a Bluetooth system is a piconet, which consists of a master node and up to seven active slave nodes within a distance of 10 meters. An interconnected collection of piconets is called a scatternet.

The Bluetooth profiles

The 802.15 version of the Bluetooth protocol architecture

The Bluetooth Baseband Layer

The baseband layer is the closest thing Bluetooth has to a MAC sublayer Each frame is transmitted over a logical channel, called a link, between the master and a slave. Two kinds of links exist. The first is the ACL (Asynchronous Connection-Less) link, which is used for packet-switched data available at irregular intervals. The other is the SCO (Synchronous Connection Oriented) link, for real-time data, such as telephone connections.

The Bluetooth L2CAP Layer

The L2CAP layer has three major functions. First, it accepts packets of up to 64 KB from the upper layers and breaks them into frames for transmission. At the far end, the frames are reassembled into packets again. Second, it handles the multiplexing and demultiplexing of multiple packet sources. When a packet has been reassembled, the L2CAP layer determines which upper-layer protocol to hand it to, for example, RFcomm or telephony. Third, L2CAP handles the quality of service requirements, both when links are established and during normal operation.

Data Link Layer Switching

Many organizations have multiple LANs and wish to connect them. LANs can be connected by devices called bridges Most LAN interfaces have a promiscuous mode, in which all frames are given to the computer, not just those addressed to it. Spies and busybodies love this feature.

LOCAL INTERNETWORKING
The algorithm used by the transparent bridges is backward learning The routing procedure for an incoming frame depends on the LAN it arrives on (the source LAN) and the LAN its destination is on (the destination LAN), as follows: 1. If destination and source LANs are the same, discard the frame. 2. If the destination and source LANs are different, forward the frame. 3. If the destination LAN is unknown, use flooding.

The resulting concept is called a VLAN (Virtual LAN) and has even been standardized by the 802 committee. It is now being deployed in many organizations. Let us now take a look at it. So far we have assumed that bridges and switches somehow know what color an incoming frame is. How do they know this? Three methods are in use, as follows: 1. Every port is assigned a VLAN color. 2. Every MAC address is assigned a VLAN color. 3. Every layer 3 protocol or IP address is assigned a VLAN color.

The IEEE 802.1Q Standard

The IEEE 802 committee had this problem thrown into its lap in 1995. After much discussion, it did the unthinkable and changed the Ethernet header. The new format was published in IEEE standard 802.1Q, issued in 1998. The new format contains a VLAN tag; we will examine it shortly. Not surprisingly, changing something as well established as the Ethernet header is not entirely trivial. A few questions that come to mind are: 1. Need we throw out several hundred million existing Ethernet cards? 2. If not, who generates the new fields? 3. What happens to frames that are already the maximum size?

Channel allocation methods and systems for a common channel.