UNIT-1

WIRELESS LAN
Prepared by
M.Prabhakaran, AP/ECE
 MAC LAYER
• Medium Access Control (MAC) has to control medium
access, it can also support for roaming, authentication and
power conservation.
• Traffic Services:
– MAC layer can support two different kinds of traffic services as
• Asynchronous Data Service (mandatory)
• Time bounded service (optional)

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 MAC Mechanisms
• Mandatory basic method based on a version of
CSMA/CA.
• An optional method avoiding the hidden terminal
problem.
• A contention free polling method for time bounded
service.

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 DFWMAC-DCF WITH
RTS/CTS EXTENSION
• To avoid the hidden terminal problem IEEE 802.11 standard
defines an additional mechanism using two control packets.
– Request to Send (RTS)
– Clear to Send (CTS)
• Sender can send RTS with Reservation Parameter after
waiting for DIFS.
• Reservation determines the amount of time the data packet
needs the medium.

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Hidden terminal problem

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• If the receiver ready to receive means it acknowledges via
CTS after waiting for SIFS.
• The sender can send the data after SIFS.
• The receiver waits for SIFS after receiving the data packet
and then acknowledges whether the transfer was correct.

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 DFWMAC-PCF WITH
POLLING
• Above two methods cannot guarantee a maximum access
delay or minimum transmission bandwidth.
• To provide a time bounded service, the IEEE 802.11 standard
specifies a Point Coordination Function (PCF) on top of the
standard DCF mechanisms.
• PCF requires an access point to control medium access and
poll the single nodes.

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• The point coordinator in the access point splits the access
time into super frame periods.
• A super frame comprises a contention-free period and a
contention period.
• At time to contention free period of the super frame will
start, but another station is still transmitting the data
means the medium is busy.
• After the medium is idle, the point coordinator has to wait
for PIFS before accessing the medium.

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• Now the point coordinator sends the data D1 downstream to
the first wireless station. This station can answer at once
after SIFS.
• After waiting for SIFS again the point coordinator can poll
the second station by sending D2.
• After waiting for PIFS the coordinator can resume polling
the stations.
• At last, the point coordinator can issue an end marker
(CFend), indicating that the contention period may start
again.

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• The transmission properties of the whole wireless network
are now determined by the polling behavior of the access
point.
• If only PCF is used and polling is distributed evenly, the
bandwidth is also distributed evenly among all the nodes.

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 MAC FRAMES

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Frame Control
– It indicates the type of frame. Frame control filed contains the
following sub fields.
Protocol Version (2 bits)
– It indicates the current protocol version.
Type (2 bits)
– It indicates the type of frame such as
• Control frame (=01)
• Management frame (=00)
• Data frame (=10)
• The value 11 is reserved

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 Subtype (4 bits)
– It indicates the subtype of the frame
– Eg- RTS is a control frame with subtype 1011
– CTS is 1100
– Association request is a management frame with subtype 0000.
To DS / From DS (1 bit)
– To DS bit is set to 1 if the frame is sending to DS.
– From DS bit is set to 1 if the frame coming from DS.
More fragments ( 1 bit)
– This field is set to 1 in all data or management frames if more
fragments are to follow.
Retry (1 bit)
– The field is set to 1 if this frame is retransmission of an earlier frame.

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 Power Management (1 bit)
– It indicates the mode of a station after successful transmission of a
frame.
– If it set to 1, the station goes in to power-save or sleep mode.
– If it set to 0, the station stays active.
More Data (1 bit)
– The field is set to 1 for indicating that the sender has more data to send
than the current frame.
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) (1 bit)
– WEP is 1 if the standard security mechanism is applied.
Order (1 bit)
– If this bit is set to 1, received frames must be processed in strict order.

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Duration / ID (2 bytes)
– It indicates the time in microseconds.
– It is used for setting the NAV for the Virtual Reservation Mechanism
using RTS/CTS and during fragmentation.
Address 1 to 4 (6 bytes)
– The four address fields contain standard IEEE 802 MAC addresses.
– The meaning of each address depends on the DS bits in the frame
control field.
Data
– The MAC frame may contain arbitrary data (max 2312 byte), which is
transferred transparently from sender to the receivers.
Checksum (CRC) (4 bytes)
– It is used for detection of errors.

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 MAC MANAGEMENT

• Functions
– Integration of wireless station into a BSS
– Formation of an ESS
– Synchronization of stations etc.

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• Synchronization
– Functions to support finding a wireless LAN, synchronization of
internal clocks, generation of beacon signals.
• Power Management
– Functions to control transmitter activity for power conservation.
– Eg- sleep, buffering, without missing a frame.
• Roaming
– Functions for joining a network (association), changing access
points, scanning for access points,

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Management Information Base (MIB)
– All parameters representing a the current state of a wireless
station and an access point are stored within a MIB for internal
and external access.
– A MIB can be accessed via standardized protocol such as the
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

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