Data Link Control and

Multiple Access

Samson A.
[email protected]
School of Electrical & Computer Engineering,
Hawassa Institute of Technology
Data link layer sub-layers

• Logical Link Control: It deals with protocols, flow-

control, and error control
– Deals with procedures for node-to-node communication
• Media Access Control: It deals with actual control of
media or how to share the link.

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Media Access Control (MAC) Sublayer

• When nodes or stations are connected and use a common

link, called a multipoint or broadcast link, we need a
multiple-access protocol to coordinate access to the link.
• The problem of controlling the access to the medium is
similar to the rules of speaking in an assembly. The
procedures guarantee that the right to speak is upheld and
ensure that two people do not speak at the same time, do
not interrupt each other, do not monopolize the discussion.

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Multiple Access Protocols
• Many protocols have been devised to handle access to a shared
link. All of these protocols belong to a sub layer in the data-
link layer called media access control (MAC).
• They are categorized into three groups

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1. Random Access Protocol:
– ALOHA, CSMA, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA,
» These protocols are mostly used in LANs and WANs
2. Controlled - access protocols:
– Reservation, Polling, and Token-passing
» Some of these protocols are used in LANs
3. Channelization protocols:
– FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA
» These protocols are used in cellular telephony

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Random Access

• In Random Access: no station is superior to another

station and none is assigned the control over another.
– It is also called contention method, meaning stations compete
with one another to access the medium.
• Thus, if two or more stations attempts to send data  Collision
• In this method:
– There is no scheduled time for a station to transmit i.e.,
transmission is random among the stations
– No rules specify which station should send
• In other words, each station can transmit when it desires.
– If a station has data to send it follows a procedure like testing the
state of the medium before sending.
– Where the state of the medium being either busy or idle.
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• In a random-access method, if more than one station tries
to send, there is an access conflict—collision—and the
frames will be either destroyed or modified.
• To avoid access conflict or to resolve it when it happens,
each station follows a procedure that answers the
following questions:
• When can the station access the medium?
• What can the station do if the medium is busy?
• How can the station determine the success or failure of the
transmission?
• What can the station do if there is an access conflict?

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• The random-access methods have evolved from ALOHA
• ALOHA - which uses a very simple procedure called
multiple access (MA).
• The random-access was improved with the addition of a
procedure that forces the station to sense the medium
before transmitting.
• This was called Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
• CSMA later evolved into two parallel methods:
• CSMA/CD:- which tells the station what to do when a collision
is detected, and
• CSMA/CA:- which tries to avoid the collision.
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ALOHA

• ALOHA, is the earliest random access method.

• The medium is shared between the stations.
• When a station sends data, another station may
attempt to do so at the same time.
• The data from the two stations collide and become
garbled.
• Two ALOHA Protocols
• Pure ALOHA
• Slotted ALOHA

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Pure ALOHA
• The original ALOHA protocol is called pure ALOHA.
• The idea is that each station sends a frame whenever it has a
frame to send  multiple access
• However, since there is only one channel to share, there is the
possibility of collision between frames from different stations.

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Frame collisions in pure ALOHA

– The figure shows that each station sends two frames to

the shared medium.
– Some of these frames collide, because multiple frames are
in contention for the shared channel.
– Only two frames survive: one frame from station 1 and one
frame from station 3.
• Even if one bit of a frame coexists with one bit from another
frame, there is a collision and both will be destroyed.
• We need to resend the frames that have been destroyed
during transmission
– This is done through acknowledgement from the receiver
• In Pure ALOHA: A station may send soon after another
station has started or just before another station has finished.
– Vulnerable time = 2 x Frame Transmission time (Tfr)
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Slotted ALOHA

• Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency

of pure ALOHA.
• In slotted ALOHA we divide the time into slots of T and
force the station to send only at the beginning of the time
slot.
• Station is allowed to send only at the beginning of the
synchronized time slot.
• If a station misses this moment, it must wait until the
beginning of the next time slot.

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Frame collisions in slotted ALOHA

• There is still the possibility of collision if two stations try to

send at the beginning of the same time slot.
• However, the vulnerable time is reduced
• Which is equal to Tfr

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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)

• CSMA method was developed to minimize the chance of

collision and, hence to increase the performance.
• The chance of collision can be reduced if a station senses the
medium before trying to use it.
• Each station first listen to the medium before sending.
• CSMA is based on the principle “sense before transmit” or
“listen before talk.”
CSMA: listen before transmit:
• If channel sensed idle: transmit entire frame
• If channel sensed busy, defer transmission

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• CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it
cannot eliminate it because of propagation delay
– When a station sends a frame, it takes a very short time for
the first bit to reach every station and for every station to
sense it.
– In other words, a station may sense the medium and find it
idle, only because the first bit sent by another station has
not yet been received
• The vulnerable time for CSMA is the propagation time Tp
(see above figure)

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Persistence Methods

• What should a station do if the channel is busy?

• What should a station do if the channel is idle?
• Three methods have been devised to answer these questions
in CSMA:
1. the 1-persistent method
2. the non persistent method, and
3. the p-persistent method

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1-Persistent

• In this method, after the station finds the line idle, it

sends its frame immediately (with probability 1)
• This method has the highest chance of collision
because two or more stations may find the line idle
and send their frames immediately.
• Ethernet uses this method.

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Non-persistent

• In this method, a station that has a frame to send senses

the line.
• If the line is idle, it sends immediately.
• If the line is not idle, it waits a random amount of time
and then senses the line again.
• This approach reduces the chance of collision because it
is unlikely that two or more stations will wait the same
amount of time and retry to send simultaneously.
• However, this method reduces the efficiency of the
network because the medium remains idle when there
may be stations with frames to send.

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p-Persistent

• This method is used if the channel has time slots with a

slot duration equal to or greater than the maximum
propagation time.
• The p-persistent approach combines the advantages of
the other two strategies.
• It reduces the chance of collision and improves
efficiency.

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CSMA/CD

• The CSMA method does not specify the procedure

following a collision.
• CSMA with collision detection (CSMA/CD) enhances the
algorithm to handle the collision.
• In this method, after sending a frame, a station monitors
the medium to see if the transmission was successful.
• If there is a collision, the frame is sent again.

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•In ALOHA (MA): we first transmit the entire frame and then wait for an
acknowledgment.
•In CSMA method: the station sense the media. If the line idle, transmit
the frame.
•In CSMA/CD: transmission and collision detection are continuous
processes.

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CSMA/CA

• CSMA with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) was invented for

wireless networks.
– Because, much of the sent energy is lost in transmission.
i.e. the received signal has very little energy.
• Thus, a collision may add a small percent of additional
energy, unable to detect collisions effectively
 Hence, collisions needs to be avoided in wireless networks.
• Collisions are avoided through the use of CSMA/CA’s three
strategies:
1. Inter frame space
2. Contention window
3. Acknowledgment

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Inter frame Space (IFS)

• First, collisions are avoided by deferring transmission even

if the channel is found idle. When an idle channel is found,
the station does not send immediately. It waits for a period
of time called the inter frame space or IFS.
• Even though the channel may appear idle when it is sensed,
a distant station may have already started transmitting. The
distant station’s signal has not yet reached this station.

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Contention Window

• The contention window is an amount of time divided

into slots. A station that is ready to send chooses a
random number of slots as its wait time.
• The number of slots in the window changes according
to the binary exponential back off strategy. This
means that it is set to one slot the first time and then
doubles each time the station cannot detect an idle
channel after the IFS time.

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,,,,,……..

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Acknowledgment

• With all these precautions, there still may be a collision

resulting in destroyed data. In addition, the data may be
corrupted during the transmission.
• The positive acknowledgment and the time-out timer
can help guarantee that the receiver has received the
frame.

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Controlled Access
• In this method, stations consult one another to find
which station has the right to send.
• A station cannot send unless it has been authorized by
other stations.
• There are three controlled-access methods
1. Reservation
2. Polling
3. Token-passing

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Reservation
• In the reservation method, a station needs to make a
reservation before sending data.
• In each time interval, a reservation frame precedes the
data frames. If there are N stations in the system, there are
exactly N reservation mini slots in the reservation frame.
• When a station needs to send a data frame, it makes a reservation
in its own mini slot.

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Polling
• Polling works with topologies in which one device is
designated as a primary station and the other devices are
secondary stations.
• All data exchanges must be made through the primary
device.
• The primary device controls the link; the secondary
devices follow its instructions.
• It is up to the primary device to determine which device is
allowed to use the channel at a given time.
• This method uses poll and select functions to prevent
collisions. However, the drawback is if the primary
station fails, the system goes down.
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Token Passing

• In the token-passing method, the stations in a network are

organized in a logical ring.
• In other words, for each station, there is a predecessor and a
successor.
• The current station is the one that is accessing the channel
now.
• The right to this access has been passed from the
predecessor to the current station.
• The right will be passed to the successor when the current
station has no more data to send.

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• But how is the right to access the channel passed from
one station to another?
• In this method, a special packet called a token circulates
through the ring.
• The possession of the token gives the station the right to
access the channel and send its data.
• When a station has some data to send, it waits until it
receives the token from its predecessor. It then holds the
token and sends its data. When the station has no more
data to send, it releases the token, passing it to the next
logical station in the ring.
• The station cannot send data until it receives the token
again in the next round.
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Logical Ring

• In a token-passing network, stations do not have

to be physically connected in a ring;
the ring can be a logical one
• Examples include:
• Physical ring
• Bus ring
• Star ring

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Channelization

Channelization (or channel partition): is a multiple-access

method in which the available bandwidth of a link is shared in
time, frequency, or through code.
The three channelization protocols are:
1. Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
2. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and
3. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

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FDMA

• In frequency-division multiple access (FDMA), the

available bandwidth is divided into frequency bands.
• Each station is allocated a band to send its data.
• In other words, each band is reserved for a specific
station, and it belongs to the station all the time.
• Each station also uses a band pass filter to confine the
transmitter frequencies.
• To prevent station interferences, the allocated bands are
separated from one another by small guard bands.

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FDMA vs FDM

• We need to emphasize that although FDMA and

frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) conceptually
seem similar, there are differences between them.
• FDM is a physical layer technique that combines the
loads from low bandwidth channels and transmits them
by using a high-bandwidth channel.
• The channels that are combined are low-pass.
• The multiplexer modulates the signals, combines them, and
creates a band pass signal.

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• FDMA, on the other hand, is an access method in the
data-link layer.
• The data link layer in each station tells its physical layer to
make a band pass signal from the data passed to it.
• The signal must be created in the allocated band.
• There is no physical multiplexer at the physical layer.
• The signals created at each station are automatically band
pass-filtered.
• They are mixed when they are sent to the common channel.

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TDMA

• In time-division multiple access (TDMA), the stations

share the bandwidth of the channel in time.
• Each station is allocated a time slot during which it can
send data.
• Each station transmits its data in its assigned time slot.

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TDMA vs TDM

• We also need to emphasize that although TDMA and time-

division multiplexing (TDM) conceptually seem the same,
there are differences between them.
• TDM is a physical layer technique that combines the data from
slower channels and transmits them by using a faster channel.
• The process uses a physical multiplexer that interleaves data
units from each channel.
• TDMA, on the other hand, is an access method in the data-link
layer.
• The data-link layer in each station tells its physical layer to use
the allocated time slot.
• There is no physical multiplexer at the physical layer

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CDMA

• Code-division multiple access (CDMA)

• Differs from FDMA in that only one channel occupies the
entire bandwidth of the link.
• And differs from TDMA in that all stations can send data
simultaneously; there is no timesharing.
• CDMA simply means communication with different
codes

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