Data Communication &

Computer Networks
Course Instructor:
Mr. Aizaz Raziq
Medium access techniques
❑ Multiple-Access Protocol
❖ 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.
Medium access techniques
1 RANDOM ACCESS

In random access methods, no station is superior to

another station and none is assigned the control over
another. No station permits, or does not permit,
another station to send. At each instance, a station
that has data to send uses a procedure
defined by the protocol to make a decision
on whether or not to send.
Topics discussed in this section:
ALOHA
Carrier Sense Multiple Access
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection Carrier Sense
Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
 Random Access
❑ Random Access
❖ In a Random access method, each station has the right to the
medium without being controlled by any other station.
❖ 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, each station follows a procedure.
❖ 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 ?
 ALOHA network – Multiple Access

• The earliest random-access method, was developed at the Univ. of

Hawaii in the early 1970s.
• Base station is central controller
• Base station acts as a hop
• Designed for radio LAN
 ALOHA
❑ Pure ALOHA Random Access
❖ Each station sends a frame whenever it has a frames to send.
❖ However, there is only one channel to share and there is the possibility of
collision between frames from different stations.
❖ Station waits for ACK
❖ If not received it waits for random amount of time called back off time and
resends

Frames in a pure ALOHA network

 Slotted ALOHA
❑ Slotted ALOHA
❖We divide the time into slots of Tfr s and force the station to send
only at the beginning of the time slot.

Frames in a slotted ALOHA network

 Slotted ALOHA
❖ Slotted ALOHA vulnerable time = Tfr

Vulnerable time for slotted ALOHA protocol

 Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
❑ To minimize the chance of collision and, therefore,
increase the performance, the CSMA method was
developed.
❑ CSMA is based on the principle “sense before transmit” or
“listen before talk.”
❑ CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot
eliminate it.
❖The possibility of collision still exists because of
propagation delay; a station may sense the medium and find
it idle, only because the first bit sent by another station has
not yet been received.
 Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)

a. 1-persistent
Sender
continuously
sense

b. Non persistent
Not continuously
sense
c. p-persistent
Wait for slot

Flow diagram for three persistence methods

 CSMA with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)

❑ CSMA/CD adds a procedure to handle the collision.

❖A station monitors the medium after it sends a frame to see if
the transmission was successful.
● If so, the station is finished.
● If there is a collision, the frame is sent again.
● Quickly terminating damaged frames saves time and bandwidth
● There is no Acknowledge system otherwise it will create more
collision. It checks for successful and unsuccessful
transmissions through collision signals.
CSMA with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)

Flow diagram for the CSMA/CD

CSMA with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)

Energy level during transmission, idleness, or collision

 CSMA with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)
❑ CSMA/CA was invented for the wireless networks to avoid
collisions.
❖Collisions are avoided through the use of CSMA/CA’s three
strategies:
● The interframe space (IFS), the contention window, and
acknowledgments.

Timing in CSMA/CA
Note

In CSMA/CA, if the station finds the channel

busy, it does not restart the timer of the
contention window;
it stops the timer and restarts it when the
channel becomes idle.
 CSMA with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)

Flow diagram for CSMA/CA

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2 CONTROLLED ACCESS

In controlled access, the 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. We discuss three popular controlled-access
methods.
Topics discussed in this section:
Reservation
Polling
Token Passing
 Reservation
❑ A station need to make a reservation before sending data
❖In each interval, a reservation frame precedes the data frames sent in that
interval.
❖If there are N stations in the system, there are exactly N reservation minislots
in the reservation frame. Each minislot belongs to a station.
❖When a station needs to send a data frame, it makes a reservation in its own
minislot.
❖The stations that have made reservations can send their data frames after the
reservation frame.

Reservation access method

 Polling
❑ Polling works with topologies in which one device is
designed as a Primary Station and the other devices are
Secondary Station.
❖ The primary device controls the link;
❖ The secondary devices follow its instruction.
❑ Poll function : If the primary wants to receive data, it
asks the secondaries if they have anything to send.
❑ Select function : If the primary wants to send data, it
tells the secondary to get ready to receive.
 Polling

Select and poll functions in polling access method

 Token-passing network
❑ A station is authorized to send data when it
receives a special frame called a token
 Token-passing network

Logical ring and physical topology in token-passing access method

3 CHANNELIZATION

Channelization is a multiple-access method in which

the available bandwidth of a link is shared in time,
frequency, or through code, between different
stations. In this section, we discuss three
channelization protocols.

Topics discussed in this section:

Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
 FDMA

❑ The available bandwidth is shared by all stations/PCs

❑ The FDMA is a data link layer protocol that uses

FDMA at the physical layer

In FDMA, the available bandwidth of

the common channel is divided into
bands that are separated by guard
bands.
 FDMA

Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA)

 TDMA

❑ The entire bandwidth is just one channel.

❑ Stations share the capacity of the channel in time

In TDMA, the bandwidth is just one channel

that is timeshared between different
stations.
TDMA

Time-division multiple access (TDMA)

 CDMA
❑ CDMA differs from FDMA because only
one channel occupies the entire bandwidth of
the link.
❑ It differs from TDMA because all stations can
send data simultaneously; there is no time
sharing.
❑ Works like Asynchronous method.

In CDMA, one channel carries all

transmissions simultaneously.
Q/A