HIDDEN AND

EXPOSED STATION
PROBLEMS IN WLAN

Submitted By,
Alan G Thomas
Roll No:04
CS6B
The main difference between Wired LAN and
Wireless LAN is that we cannot assume a fully
connected topology between Wireless LAN nodes.
This gives rise to the Hidden and Exposed Station
Problem.

Hidden Station Problem

The Hidden Station Problem is a resultant of

when two or more stations that are out of range
of one another transmits simultaneously to a
common recipient station. This problem occurs
when a station is visible from one station, but is
hidden from other stations that communicates
with the common station.

Exposed Station Problem

The Exposed Station Problem arises when a

transmitting station is prevented from sending
frames due to interference with another
transmitting station. This happens when a station
is not visible to all other stations.
Illustration of Hidden and Exposed Station
Problem

Consider the above depiction of 3 nodes A,B,C

Hidden Terminal Problem:

From the depiction, it is clear that transmission

range of A reaches B, but not C and transmission
range of C reaches B, but not A. Also, transmission
range of B reaches both A as well as C. Now, let’s
assume node A starts to send something to B , C
doesn’t receive this transmission. Now, C also
wants to send data to B and senses the carrier. It
senses it to be free as C cannot reach A, it also
starts sending to B. This simultaneous transmission
results in collision and ultimately loss of data send
by both A and C.

Solution:
One solution to avoid this is to have the channel
sensing range much greater than the receiving
range. Another solution is to use the Multiple
Access with Collision Avoidance (MACA).

Exposed Terminal Problem:

Let’s assume that node B is currently sending data

to node A and node C that is free currently needs
to send data to another node D outside the range
of both A and B. Node C senses the carrier to find
that it is currently being used by B to send data
and hence waits until the carrier becomes idle.
Such a wait is not needed as Node A is not
accessible by Node C, thereby wasting time.

Solution:

The exposed terminal problem is solved by the

MAC (medium access control) layer protocol IEEE
802.11 RTS/CTS, with the condition that the
stations are synchronized and frame sizes and data
speed are the same. RTS stands for Request to
Send and CTS stands for Clear to Send.