Medium Access Control Sublayer

Chapter 4

Slides courtesy: Sweta & Chebrolu

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 Problem

What we have learned:

• transfer data reliably between two nodes through a
point-to-point link.
Next:
• How to make multiple nodes talk?

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 Network Topologies

Bus Star
e.g., Ethernet (old-fashioned) e.g., Ethernet Hubs

Ring
e.g., Token Ring

Note: Shared wire or

medium is broadcast.
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 Type of Transmission
• Unicast
• Frame is intended for one node only
• Broadcast
• Frame is intended for everyone
• Multicast
• Frame is intended for a subset

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The Medium Access Control (MAC)
Sublayer

• Two or more simultaneous

transmission by nodes lead to Application
collisions (interference). Transport
• Responsible for deciding who sends Network
next on a multi-access link Link
− An important part of the link layer, Physical
especially for LANs
MAC is in here!

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 Human Analogy
• Speed dating party: couples want to talk with each
other
• Assumption: everyone talks loudly, so everyone
can hear everyone else in the room
• If two speakers talk at the same time, none can
understand what was said.
• How to facilitate meaningful conversations without
interferences?

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 Types of MAC Protocols
• Channel Partitioning Protocols
• Random Access Protocols
• Taking Turn Protocols

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 Channel Partitioning Protocols
• Key idea: divide resources into smaller “pieces”, and
allocate each piece to each node for exclusive use.
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
• Uses Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), which
divides time into N time slots
• Disadvantages: sender limited to C/N (C: channel
capacity) even when other senders are idle,
channel access delay
• Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
• Uses Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), which
divides spectrum into N frequency bands
• Disadvantages: sender limited to C/N, sender-
receiver channel coordination
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 Random Access Protocols
• Key Idea: If channel is idle, start transmitting. If collision
happens, backoff and try again.
• No a priori coordination among nodes
• Sender transmits at full rate. If two or more transmit at
the same time -> collision.
• Specify
• How to detect collisions?
• How to recover from collisions?
• Disadvantages: High load leads to too many collisions
and wastage of resources.

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 Taking Turns Protocols
• Key idea: Quickly poll to see who wants to talk, give time
slots to only speakers.
• Comparisons:
• Channel partitioning protocols: efficient and fair at
high load, inefficient at low load
• Random access protocols: efficient at low load,
inefficient at high load
• Taking turns protocols: make the best of both worlds!
• Two types:
• Centralized: polling
• Decentralized: token passing

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 Taking Turns Protocols: Polling
• Key idea: A central coordinator polls nodes in a round
robin fashion.
• Disadvantages:
• Polling overhead (single user will get rate < C)
• Single point of failure (coordinator)

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Taking Turns Protocols: Token Passing
• Key idea: Control token passed from one node to the
next in a certain order
• Disadvantages:
• Token overhead
• Single point of failure (token)

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 Usages

• TDMA with FDM: GSM, WiMAX

• Random Access: Ethernet, WiFi
• Polling: Bluetooth
• Token Passing: Token Ring

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 Outline

• Multiple Access Protocols

• Ethernet
• Wireless LANs
• Data Link Layer Switching

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 Multiple Access Protocols

• ALOHA »
• CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) »
• Collision-free protocols »

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 ALOHA
• 1970s: wireless computer network developed at
University of Hawaii to interconnect Hawaiian islands.
• Inspiration to many standards: Ethernet, WiFi, Cellular
• Two versions of ALOHA:
• Pure ALOHA
• Slotted ALOHA

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 Pure ALOHA
In pure ALOHA, users transmit frames whenever they
have data; users retry after a random time for collisions
• Sender can check whether collisions happen
through collision signals
• Efficient and low-delay under low load
User

E Collision
Collision Time

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 Review - 1
• Many nodes sharing a link -> Need Medium Access
Control (MAC)
• Three broad classes of MAC protocols:
• Channel Partitioning: divide resource into small
”pieces” (time slots, frequency); allocate piece to
node for exclusive use
• Random Access: allow full access to resource but
provide means to recover from collisions
• Taking turns: taking turns to use the resource, but
nodes with more need get longer turns
• Pure ALOHA: transmit frames whenever have data

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 Efficiency of Pure ALOHA (1)
• What is the efficiency of pure ALOHA?
• What is the probability that a transmitted frame does
not suffer collision?
• Assumptions:
• Frames are of equal length
• Probability of k transmission attempts (old
retransmissions and new) per frame time (amount of
time needed to transmit a frame) is Poisson with
mean G per frame time.
𝐺 𝑘 𝑒 −𝐺
• Pr[𝑘] =
𝑘!

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 Efficiency of Pure ALOHA (2)
• Throughput (average # successful frame transmissions
per frame time):
• 𝑆 = 𝐺𝑃0
• 𝐺: load (average # transmission attempts per frame
time)
• 𝑃0 : probability of a transmission succeeding
Probability of k transmission
attempts during 2 frame times long is
(2𝐺)𝑘 𝑒 −2𝐺
Pr[𝑘] =
𝑘!
𝑃0 : Probability of no additional
transmissions during two frame times
long:
𝑒 −2𝐺
𝑆 = 𝐺𝑒 −2𝐺
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 Efficiency of Pure ALOHA (3)
• Maximum Throughput
• G = 0.5
• S = 1/2e = 0.184 (18%)

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 Slotted ALOHA (1)
• Time divided into discrete intervals (slots)
• Slot interval corresponds to frame time
• Nodes can transmit frames only at beginning of slots.
• Nodes are time synchronized

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 Slotted ALOHA (2)

• Throughput:
• S = 𝐺𝑃0
= G*Pr(no transmissions in a frame time) = 𝐺𝑒 −𝐺

𝑡0 𝑡0 + 𝑡 𝑡0 + 2𝑡 𝑡0 + 3𝑡

Vulnerable

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 Efficiency of Slotted ALOHA (3)
• Maximum Throughput
• G=1
• S = 1/e = 0.368 (37%)

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 Example
• Suppose that a radio system uses a 9600 bps
channels for sending call setup request messages to a
base station. Suppose that frames are 120 bits long.
What is the maximum throughput possible with pure
ALOHA and with slotted ALOHA?
• The system transmits frames at a rate of 80
frames/sec
• The maximum throughput for pure ALOHA is 15
frames/sec
• The maximum throughput for slotted ALOHA is 30
frames/sec

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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
• What we have learned:
• Simple random access protocols including Pure
ALOHA and Slotted ALOHA
• Maximum efficiency of ALOHA is poor
• Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
• Another class of random access protocols
• More efficient
• Persistent and non-persistent

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 Problems with ALOHA

• What causes collisions?

• Pure ALOHA: Transmission without care or concern
for channel state
• Slotted ALOHA: Multiple arrivals in previous slot
causes collision in current slot

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 CSMA (1)

CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) improves on

ALOHA by sensing the channel!
• “Listen before talk” -> Carrier Sense

If a node has a frame to send, listen to channel first

• If busy, don’t send frame
• If idle, send frame
Variations on what to do if the channel is busy:
• 1-persistent (greedy) sends as soon as idle
• Non-persistent waits a random time then tries again
• p-persistent sends with probability p when idle
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 1-Persistent CSMA
• Employed by Ethernet
• If a node has a frame to send, listen to channel:
• If channel busy, wait till it becomes idle, then
transmit
• If channel idle, transmit
• If collision, wait a random amount of time and start
over

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 Non-Persistent CSMA
• Used in 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Sensor technology)
• If a node has a frame to send, listen to channel:
• If channel busy, do not sense anymore. Wait a
random amount of time and try again
• If channel idle, transmit
• If collision, wait a random amount of time and start
over

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 P-Persistent CSMA
• Employed by 802.11 (WiFi)
• Assumes a slotted system
• If a node has a frame to send, listen to channel on slot
boundaries:
• If channel idle, transmit with probability p (defer to
next slot with probability q=1-p). Repeat till frame
sent or channel busy due to another transmission
• If channel busy, wait till idle. Repeat above.
• If collision, wait a random amount of time and try
again.
• Good tradeoff between non-persistent and 1-persistent

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 Efficiency of CSMA

CSMA outperforms ALOHA, and being less persistent is

better under high load

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 Review - 2
Two simple random access protocols
• Pure ALOHA & Slotted ALOHA
• Maximum efficiency of both is poor

CSMA family of protocols improve upon ALOHA

• Persistent and non-persistent tradeoffs

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CSMA with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)
• Problem with persistent and non-persistent CSMA:
• If two stations sense the channel to be idle and begin
transmitting simultaneously, their signals will collide.
• CSMA/CD improvement is to quickly detect the collision
and abruptly stop transmission.
• Listen before talk
• Simultaneous talk, stop talking -> save time and
bandwidth
• Basis of classic Ethernet (1 persistent CSMA/CD)

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Collision Detection (1)

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 Collision Detection (2)
• Collision detection done by hardware
• Propagation delay affects efficiency
• Longer the propagation delay, higher chances of
collision
• Worst case delay of detecting collision?
• One RTT
• On detecting collision, all senders responsible for the
collision send a jamming signal, so that other nodes
know there is a collision and abort the transmission.

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 CSMA/CD
If a node has a frame to send, listen to channel:
• If channel idle, transmit and listen while transmitting
• If channel busy, wait until channel idle
• If no collision detected, done
• If collision detected, stop transmission, send jamming
signal, wait random time and retry.

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 Binary Exponential Backoff (1)
• How long to wait after collision and before retry?
• After collision, time is divided into discrete time slots
whose length is equal to the worst-case delay of
detecting collisions (i.e., one RTT)
• After the n-th collision, wait K time slots
• If n = 1, choose K from {0,1}
• If n = 2, choose K from {0,1,2,3}
• …..
• If n = 10, choose K from {0,1,2,…., 1023}
• If n = m<16, choose K from {0,1,…,2𝑖 -1}, i=
min(m,10)
• If n = 16, report failure, further recovery is up to
higher layers
 Binary Exponential Backoff (2)

Why exponential backoff?

• Adapts to current load
Why discrete time slots of length equal to the worst-case
delay of detecting collisions?
• Ensure that if a node chose a lower value of K than any
other node, it can transmit without collision

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 Collision-Free Protocols
• We have learned so far:
• ALOHA, CSMA
• Both are random access protocols
• Collisions will happen in both protocols
• What we will learn next:
• Collision-Free protocols or taking turn protocols
− Bitmap
− Token ring
• Avoid collisions entirely
• Most are not currently used

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 Bitmap

The basic bit-map protocol:

• Each sender is assigned with a bit slot
• Senders send 1 bit in the designated slot if they
have data
• Senders send in turn; everyone knows who has data
• Then, transmit in numerical order

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 Token Ring
Token sent round ring defines the sending order
• Station with token may send a frame before passing
• To stop the frame circulating infinitely, either source
or destination removes it from the ring.
• Idea can be used without ring too, e.g., token bus
Token
Station

Direction of
transmission

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 Ethernet

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 Background
• Very successful and widely used technology
• Kept up with speed race: 10Mbps to 100Gbps
• IEEE 802.3 working group
• Many standards (different speeds, different physical
media)

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 Classic Ethernet
• 1970s: Metcalfe conceived the idea
• Up to early 1990s:
• Use bus topology based on co-axial cable
• 10Mbps
− Thick Ethernet (10Base5)
− Thin Ethernet (10Base2)
• Medium Access Control: 1-persistent CSMA/CD

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 Problems with Bus Topology
• Co-axial cables were expensive
• Break/Fault in co-axial cable affects all nodes
• Adding/removing nodes disrupts the entire network
• Cabling issues lead to star topology

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 Star Topology
• Connect via hub or switch
• 10BaseT, 100BaseT (Fast Ethernet), 1000BaseT
(Gigabit Ethernet)
• Based on twisted pair cables
• Low cost, reliable, easy
management/troubleshooting

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 Hub
• Operates at the physical layer
• Bits from one link sent out on all other links at the same
rate after boosting up the energy
• No frame buffering
• No MAC protocol at hub

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 Interconnection with Hubs
• Can increase coverage range
• Cannot connect 10BaseT with 100BaseT

Hub

Hub Hub

One big collision domain

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 Layer-2 Switch
• Also called Ethernet Bridge
• Most used configuration
• Transfers frames from one input to an output link
• Runs MAC protocol on each interface
• Buffer frames
• Break up collision domains
• Can switch speeds

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 Interconnection with Switches
• Can increase coverage range
• Can separate collision domains
• Can connect 10BaseT with 100BaseT

Switch

Hub Hub

Two separate collision domains

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 Modes of Operation for Switch
• Two modes
• Shared Mode (Half duplex)
− Employs MAC protocol
• Full duplex mode
− Separate wires for transmission and reception
− No need for MAC
− Works only on point-to-point links

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 Ethernet Services

• Connectionless: No handshaking between sender and

receiver
• Unreliable: Does not provide any means for recovering
lost frames
• If application needs reliability, it needs to employ
TCP

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 Ethernet Frame Structure (1)

• Preamble:
• Each of the first 7 bytes contains bit pattern
10101010 for synchronization
• Last byte containing bit pattern 10101011 is the start
frame delimiter
• Destination & Source address: 6 bytes MAC address
• Type: specify which higher layer protocol the frame is
intended

Bytes

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 Ethernet Frame Structure (2)

• Data: IP payload
• Up to 1500 bytes, as buffering large frame in RAM is
expensive
• Pad: fill out the frame such that (Data+Pad) is not
shorter than 46 bytes
• Minimum frame length aims to help distinguish valid
frames from garbage.
• Checksum: error detection

Bytes

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 Ethernet Address

• Unique address belonging to the adaptor

• Each manufacturer allocated different prefix
• e.g., Intel: C4-85-08
• Unicast: first bit is 1
• Multicast: first bit is 0
• Broadcast: all bits are 1

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 Review - 3
CSMA/CD
• Adds another feature “CD” to improve
performance
• Binary exponential backoff algorithm determines
how long to wait after detecting collisions
Collision-free/taking turn protocols avoids collisions
entirely.
Ethernet underwent significant evolution over the years
• Speed increased from 10Mbps to 100Gbps
• Variety of media (coaxial cable, twisted pair, fiber
optics)
• Switching circumvented need for MAC
• Only constant: frame format
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 Wireless LANs

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 Wireless LANs

• Wireless LANs are increasingly popular

• Main wireless LAN standard is 802.11 (WiFi)
• Wireless is quite different from wired communication.
• Nodes can’t detect collisions
− Radios are nearly always half-duplex, and received signal
may be tiny, making it difficult and expensive for detection
− Making CSMA/CD useless
• Nodes may have different coverage regions
− Leads to hidden and exposed terminals
− Cannot be resolved by CSMA/CD

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Wireless LANs – Hidden terminals

Hidden terminals are senders that cannot sense each

other but nonetheless collide at intended receiver
• Want to prevent; loss of efficiency
• A and C are hidden terminals when sending to B

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Wireless LANs – Exposed terminals

Exposed terminals are senders who can sense each

other but still transmit safely (to different receivers)
• Desirably concurrency; improves performance
• B → A and C → D are exposed terminals

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 Wireless LANs – MACA (1)

MACA (Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) protocol

tackles above problems by using short signaling frames for
collision avoidance
• RTS (request to send): before a sender sends a data
frame, it first requests the right to send from the receiver
by sending the RTS to the receiver
• CTS (clear to send): if the receiver is ready to receive, it
grants the right to send by sending the CTS to the
sender
Variants of MACA method can be found in IEEE 802.11

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 Wireless LANs – MACA (2)

MACA avoids the problem of hidden terminals

• A and C wants to send data to B
• A sends RTS to B first;
• B relies to A with CTS
• C hears the CTS, so it waits

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 Wireless LANs – MACA (3)
MACA avoids the problem of exposed terminals
• B wants to send data to A; C wants to send data to
another node
• B sends RTS to A first;
• C hears the RTS, so it waits for CTS
• A sends CTS to B;
• After waiting for a certain period time without hearing
CTS (as C is out of the transmission range of A), C
starts transmitting

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802.11 Architecture/Protocol Stack (1)
802.11 networks can be used in two modes
• Infrastructure mode: Wireless clients associate to a
wired AP (Access Point)
• Ad-hoc mode: Wireless clients directly talk to each
other without AP

To Network
Access
Point

Clien
t

Infrastructure mode Ad-hoc mode

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802.11 Architecture/Protocol Stack (2)
LLC hides the differences between different 802
variants
MAC is used across different physical layers

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 802.11 physical layer

• Different 802.11 variants differ in the technology

used and speeds achievable.
• NICs are compatible with multiple physical layers
− E.g., 802.11 a/b/g

Name Technique Max. Bit Rate

802.11b Spread spectrum, 2.4 GHz 11 Mbps
802.11g OFDM, 2.4 GHz 54 Mbps
802.11a OFDM, 5 GHz 54 Mbps
802.11n OFDM with MIMO, 2.4/5 GHz 600 Mbps

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 802.11 - MAC
Two medium access schemes:
• Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
• Stations contend for transmission opportunities in a
distributed way
• CSMA/CA + ACK (mandatory)
• RTS/CTS (optional, often not used)
• Point Coordination Function (PCF)
• AP sends poll frames to trigger transmissions in a
centralized way
• Not used in practice

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 802.11 MAC – CSMA/CA+ACK
• Compared with CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA
− Inserts backoff slots before transmitting data when sense
idle to avoid collisions
− Doesn’t wait for a collision (frame is sent in its entirety)
• ACKs are used for wireless errors (lack of ACK
indicates an error)
» If error, backoff and retry

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 802.11 MAC – RTS/CTS
• Virtual channel sensing with the NAV and optional RTS/CTS avoids
hidden terminals
• With virtual sensing, each station keeps a logical record of
when the channel is in use by tracking the NAV(Network
Allocation Vector)
• All stations hear the data frame defer during the acknowledge
period based on NAV of the frame

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 802.11 MAC – Interframe Spacing
• Different interframe intervals add quality of service
− Short intervals give preferred access, e.g., control, VoIP
• MAC has other mechanisms too, e.g., power save

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Data Link Layer Switching

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 Motivation
What we have learned so far:
• Two-node network (point-to-point link, building block)
• Network of multiple nodes (multi-point link)
Next: How to join multiple LANs into a larger network?
• Solution: Switching

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 Bridge/Switch
• Old name for switch, developed when classic Ethernet
was in use
• Main function: transfer data from an input to one or
more outputs
• Provides Star topology, and thus more scalable
• Runs appropriate data link protocols on each link

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 Switching
Which port to forward incoming frames?
• Table in bridge lists each possible destination and which
output port it belongs on

e.g.,
Table at B1:
• D belongs to port 4
Table at B2:
• D belongs to port 1
• E&F belongs to port 2

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 Backward Learning
• How to build the table when bridges are first plugged in?
• Backward learning
− Initially, every incoming frame for an unknown destination is
output on all the ports, except the one it arrived on
(flooding).
− Associates source address on frame with input port
− Frame with destination address sent to learned port
− Unlearned destinations are sent to all other ports

• How to handle dynamic topologies

• Unused address times out after a certain time (a few
minutes) and is discarded

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 Frame Forwarding Procedure
• For an incoming frame:
• If the port for the destination address is the same as
the source port, discard the frame
• If the port of the destination address and the source
port are different, forward the frame on to the
destination port
• If the destination port is unknown, use flooding and
send the frame on all ports except the source port

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
Repeaters, Hubs, Bridges, Switches,
Routers, & Gateways
Devices are named according to the layer they process
• A bridge or LAN switch operates in the Link layer

CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011
 Review - 4
Wireless differ from wired communication
• Nodes cannot detect collisions -> collision
avoidance + ACK
• Hidden and exposed terminals -> MACA
802.11 (WiFi)
• CSMA/CA + ACK
− Start with a random backoff when channel is idle
− Loss of ACK indicates an error
• RTS/CTS avoids hidden terminals
Data link switching
• Connect multiple LANs
• Frame forward procedure
CN5E by Tanenbaum & Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall and D. Wetherall, 2011