Medium Access Control (MAC)

Protocol

Manimala K
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Government College of Enigneering, Salem-11
MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL(MAC)

A channel-access scheme is also based on a
multiple access protocol and control
mechanism, also known as media access
control (MAC). This protocol deals with issues
such as addressing, assigning multiplex
channels to different users, and avoiding
collisions.
Responsibility and objective of MAC
Protocol

Responsibility :Enforce discipline in the access
of a shared channel when multiple nodes
contend to access that channel.

Objective: Maximization of the utilization of the
channel and minimization of average latency of
transmission
 The Hidden Terminal Problem

Wireless stations have transmission ranges and not all stations are
within radio range of each other.

Simple CSMA will not work!

C transmits to B.

If A “senses” the channel, it will not hear C’s transmission and
falsely conclude that A can begin a transmission to B.

Create a very difficult and important arbitration problem that a MAC

protocol needs to resolve.
 The Exposed Station Problem

The inverse problem.

B wants to send to C and listens to the channel.

When B hears A’s transmission, B falsely
assumes that it cannot send to C.

It leads to inefficient spectrum usage as well as
unnecessary transmission delays.
 Classification of
wireless MAC protocols
Channel Partitioning MAC protocols
 Classification of
wireless MAC protocols
Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA)

In an FDMA system, each user has its own
frequency channel. This implies that relatively narrow
filters are needed in each receiver and transmitter.

Most duplex FDMA systems must transmit and
receive simultaneously. (Frequency Division Duplex,
FDD).

It does not achieve a high channel utilization.
Frequency Division Multiple Access
FDMA
 Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)

In TDMA, a set of N users share the same radio channel, but
each user only uses the channel during predetermined slots.

A frame consists of N slots, one for each user. Frames are
repeated continuously.

Time slots are allocated to users in a round robin manner .

Un used time slots go idle, leading to low channel utilization
Time-division multiplexing
TDMA
 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)

Multiple users use the same frequency at the same time.

All the senders send signals simultaneously.

The signals can be distinguished from each other by
frequency spreading code known as the m bit pseudo-
noise(PN) sequence.

Using m bits 2m-1codes obtained

Each user will use only one code
CDMA
 Classification of
wireless MAC protocols
 Random access MAC Schemes
Number of random assignment schemes . A few important.

ALOHA

Slotted ALOHA

CSMA

CSMA/CD

CSMA/CA
 ALOHA

Simplest scheme

True free-for-all. When a node needs to send, it does so.

It listens for an amount of time equal to the maximum round trip
delay plus a fixed increment.

If it hears an acknowledgment, fine; otherwise it resends after
waiting a random amount of time.

After several attempts, it gives up.

Low delay if light load
 Slotted ALOHA

An improvement over pure ALOHA.

Time is divided into equal sized slots in which a packet can be
sent. The size of pocket is restricted.

Send packet only at the beginning of a slot.

Employ beacon signals to mark the beginning of a slot.

Does not work well if the number of stations contending to send
data is high.

In such case CSMA scheme works better.
 Carrier Sense Multiple Access
CSMA

Carrier Sense Multiple Access
 sense carrier
 if idle, send
 wait for ack
 If there isn’t one, assume there was a collision,
retransmit

Vulnerable period: one tprop
 Extension of CSMA

The extension of CSMA are the collision detection CSMA/CD and the collision
avoidance CSMA/CA techniques.

Why CA and CD?
 Difficult to detect collisions in a radio environment – why?
 A transmitting station cannot effectively distinguish incoming weak signals from noise and
the effects of its own transmission; need a full duplex radio to listen and transmit on same
frequency (not true in FDD systems)

Hidden station problem:
 Two mutually far away stations A and C want to send to B.
 At A and C, channel appears idle
 But collision occurs at B
 CSMA/CD

CSMA/CD multi-access control protocol.
1. Each station listens before it transmits.
2. If the channel is busy, it waits until the channel goes idle, and then
it transmits.
3. If the channel is idle it transmits immediately. Continue sensing.
4. If collision is detected, transmit a brief jamming signal, then cease
transmission, wait for a random time, and retransmit.
• collision detection is not by waiting for an ACK
 CSMA/CA

Prevent collision at the moment they are most likely occur, when bus is released after a
packet transmission.

During the time a node is transmitting on the channel, several nodes might be wanting to
transmit and waiting for it to become free.

The moment the transmitting node completes its transmission and would all starts
transmitting at the same time.

To overcome in the collision avoidance scheme, all nodes are forced to wait for a random
time and then sense the medium again before starting their transmission.

If the medium is sensed to be busy, further random amount of time and so on.

Thus the chance of two nodes starting to transmit at the same time would be greatly
reduced
 Classification of
wireless MAC protocols
 Reservation based schemes

Basic form of the reservation scheme is RTS/CTS scheme.

A sender transmits an RTS (Ready to Send) packet to the
receiver before the actual data transmission.

On receiving this the receiver sends CTS (Clear to Send) packet.

The actual data transfer commences only after that.

The other nodes sharing the medium sense the CTS packet,
they refrain from transmitting until the transmission from the
sending node is completes.
 Contention-based protocol

MACA(Multiple Access Collision Avoidance) Protocol

MACA solves the hidden/ exposed terminal problems
 When a node wants to transmit a data packet, it first transmit a RTS (Request To Send) frame.
 The receiver node, on receiving the RTS packet, if it is ready to receive the data packet,
transmits a CTS (Clear to Send) packet.
 Once the sender receives the CTS packet without any error, it starts transmitting the data
packet.
 If a packet transmitted by a node is lost, the node uses the binary exponential back-off (BEB)
algorithm to back off a random interval of time before retrying.

The binary exponential back-off mechanism used in MACA might starves flows
sometimes. The problem is solved by MACAW.
 MACA Protocol


The MACA protocol.
 A sending an RTS to B.
 B responding with a CTS to A
 MACA examples

MACA avoids the problem of hidden terminals

A and C want to
send to B

A sends RTS first

C waits after receiving
CTS from B

MACA avoids the problem of exposed terminals

B wants to send to A, C
to another terminal

now C does not have
to wait for it cannot
receive CTS from A