Media Access

Control
Multiple access
links

There is ‘collision if more than one node sends at the same ime
only one node can send successfully at a time.
 When a "collision" occurs, the signals will get distorted and the frame will be
lose the link bandwidth is wasted during collision

 Question: How to coordinate the access of multiple sending and receiving

nodes to the shared link ?

 Solution: We need a protocol to determine how nodes share channel

Medium Access control (MAC) protocol

 The main task of a MAC protocol is to minimize collisions in order to

utilize the bandwidth by:

Determining when a node can use the link

(medium) What a node should do when the link is

busy

What the node should do when it is involved in

Channel partitioning MAC protocols:
 Share channel efficiently and fairly at high load
 Inefficient at low load: delay in channel access, 1/N bandwidth
allocated even if only 1 active node!

“Taking turns” protocols

 Eliminates empty slots without causing collisions

 Vulnerable to failures (e.g., failed node or lost token)

Random access MAC protocols

 Efficient at low load: single node can fully utilize channel
 High load: collision overhead
⚫Multiple Access
Protocols
Evolution of Contention Protocols
Developed in the 1970s for a packet
Aloha radio network

Improvement: Start transmission only at

Slotted
fixed times (slots)
Aloha
CSMA = Carrier Sense Multiple Access
Improvement: Start transmission only if no
CSMA transmission is ongoing

CD = Collision Detection

Improvement: Stop ongoing transmission if

CSMA/CD a collision is detected (e.g. Ethernet)
ALOHA
Pure ALOHA
 Developed by Abramson in the 1970s for a packet radio network
by Hawaii University.
 Whenever a station has a data, it transmits immediately. Senderfinds
out whether transmission was successful or experienced a
collision by listening to the broadcast from the destination station.
Sender retransmits after some random time if there is a collision.

Slotted ALOHA
 Improvement: Time is slotted and a packet can only be transmitted
at the beginning of one slot. Thus, it can reduce the collision
duration.
ALOHA
 Mountainous islands – land network difficult to install
 Fully decentralized protocol

 The node waits for an ACK for time-out equals to the

maximum
round-trip propagation delay = 2* tprop
⚫Frame in pure
Transmission ALOHA

⚫ If the frame is collided (no ACK was received) the stations

wait for a random time and retransmit the frame again.
 Throughput
Analysis

Frame which collides Frame which collides

with start of red f ram e with en d of red f ram e

Fram e

t0 t 0 +F

Vulnerable
Period of red frame
A frame (red frame) will be in a collision if and
only if ano t begins
transmissionT im
h er in the vulnerable period of the
e

frame
 Vulnerable period has the length of 2 frame times
Vulnerable time- example
A pure ALOHA network transmits 200-bit frames on a shared channel
of 200 kbps. What is the requirement to make this frame collision-free?

Solution
Average frame transmission time Tfr is 200 bits/200 kbps or 1 ms. The
vulnerable time is 2 × 1 ms = 2 ms. This means no station should send
later than 1 ms before this station starts transmission and no station
should start sending during the one 1-ms period that this station is
sending.
Throughput
Analysis

⚫For small G: S ≈ G, there is nearly no collision , S is

small
because the load is small
⚫For large G: G >> S, there are many backlogged users, S
is small because there are many collisions
Slotted
ALOHA

⚫ time divided into discrete intervals (1 interval = 1 frame)

⚫ the sending station waits until the beginning of the next
discrete interval
Throughput for slotted
ALOHA

S=Ge-G
⚫Pure and Slotted ALOHA
Throughput

0.4 0.368

0.3
S SlottedAloha
0.2
0.184

0.1 Aloha

G
8
0. 0
⚫ Simple improvement but big impact
 CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple
Access
 Collisions hurt the efficiency of ALOHA
protocol At best, channel is useful 37% of the
time
 CSMA gives improved throughput compared
to Aloha protocols.
 CSMA: listen before transmit
If channel sensed idle: transmit entire
frame If channel sensed busy, defer
transmission
 Human analogy: don’t interrupt others!
⚫Collisions can still occur: propagation delay means two nodes
may not hear each other’s transmission

⚫ Collision: entire packet

⚫ transmission time wasted
 Kinds of
CSMA
Non-persistent
CSMA

CSMA
1-persistent
CSMA
Persistent CSMA
p-persistent
CSMA
 Nonpersistent vs.
persistent

 reduces chance of collisions increases the chance for collisions

1-persistan
 reduces the efficiency
p-persistent
increase the chance for collisions
Improves efficiency