UNIT-1

WIRELESS LAN
 MAC LAYER
• Medium Access Control (MAC) has to control
medium access, it can also support for
roaming, authentication and power
conservation.
• Traffic Services:
– MAC layer can support two different kinds of
traffic services as
• Asynchronous Data Service (mandatory)
• Time bounded service (optional)

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 MAC Mechanisms
• Mandatory basic method based on a
version of CSMA/CA.
• An optional method avoiding the hidden
terminal problem.
• A contention free polling method for time
bounded service.

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 DFWMAC-DCF WITH RTS/CTS
EXTENSION
• To avoid the hidden terminal problem IEEE
802.11 standard defines an additional
mechanism using two control packets.
– Request to Send (RTS)
– Clear to Send (CTS)
• Sender can send RTS with Reservation
Parameter after waiting for DIFS.
• Reservation determines the amount of time the
data packet needs the medium.
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 Hidden terminal problem

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• If the receiver ready to receive means it
acknowledges via CTS after waiting for SIFS.
• The sender can send the data after SIFS.
• The receiver waits for SIFS after receiving the
data packet and then acknowledges whether
the transfer was correct.

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 DFWMAC-PCF WITH POLLING
• Above two methods cannot guarantee a
maximum access delay or minimum
transmission bandwidth.
• To provide a time bounded service, the IEEE
802.11 standard specifies a Point Coordination
Function (PCF) on top of the standard DCF
mechanisms.
• PCF requires an access point to control
medium access and poll the single nodes.
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• The point coordinator in the access point splits
the access time into super frame periods.
• A super frame comprises a contention-free
period and a contention period.
• At time to contention free period of the super
frame will start, but another station is still
transmitting the data means the medium is
busy.
• After the medium is idle, the point coordinator
has to wait for PIFS before accessing the
medium.
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• Now the point coordinator sends the data D1
downstream to the first wireless station. This
station can answer at once after SIFS.
• After waiting for SIFS again the point
coordinator can poll the second station by
sending D2.
• After waiting for PIFS the coordinator can
resume polling the stations.
• At last, the point coordinator can issue an end
marker (CFend), indicating that the contention
period may start again.
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• The transmission properties of the whole
wireless network are now determined by the
polling behavior of the access point.
• If only PCF is used and polling is distributed
evenly, the bandwidth is also distributed
evenly among all the nodes.

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 MAC FRAMES

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Frame Control
– It indicates the type of frame. Frame control filed
contains the following sub fields.
Protocol Version (2 bits)
– It indicates the current protocol version.
Type (2 bits)
– It indicates the type of frame such as
• Control frame (=01)
• Management frame (=00)
• Data frame (=10)
• The value 11 is reserved

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 Subtype (4 bits)
– It indicates the subtype of the frame
– Eg- RTS is a control frame with subtype 1011
– CTS is 1100
– Association request is a management frame with subtype 0000.
To DS / From DS (1 bit)
– To DS bit is set to 1 if the frame is sending to DS.
– From DS bit is set to 1 if the frame coming from DS.
More fragments ( 1 bit)
– This field is set to 1 in all data or management frames if more
fragments are to follow.
Retry (1 bit)
– The field is set to 1 if this frame is retransmission of an earlier
frame.

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 Power Management (1 bit)
–It indicates the mode of a station after successful transmission of a
frame.
–If it set to 1, the station goes in to power-save or sleep mode.
–If it set to 0, the station stays active.
More Data (1 bit)
–The field is set to 1 for indicating that the sender has more data to send
than the current frame.
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) (1 bit)
–WEP is 1 if the standard security mechanism is applied.
Order (1 bit)
–If this bit is set to 1, received frames must be processed in strict order.

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Duration / ID (2 bytes)
– It indicates the time in microseconds.
– It is used for setting the NAV for the Virtual Reservation
Mechanism using RTS/CTS and during fragmentation.
Address 1 to 4 (6 bytes)
– The four address fields contain standard IEEE 802 MAC
addresses.
– The meaning of each address depends on the DS bits in the
frame control field.
Data
– The MAC frame may contain arbitrary data (max 2312 byte),
which is transferred transparently from sender to the receivers.
Checksum (CRC) (4 bytes)
– It is used for detection of errors.

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 MAC MANAGEMENT

• Functions
– Integration of wireless station into a BSS
– Formation of an ESS
– Synchronization of stations etc.

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• Synchronization
– Functions to support finding a wireless LAN,
synchronization of internal clocks, generation of
beacon signals.
• Power Management
– Functions to control transmitter activity for power
conservation.
– Eg- sleep, buffering, without missing a frame.
• Roaming
– Functions for joining a network (association),
changing access points, scanning for access points,

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Management Information Base (MIB)
– All parameters representing a the current state of a
wireless station and an access point are stored
within a MIB for internal and external access.
– A MIB can be accessed via standardized protocol
such as the Simple Network Management Protocol
(SNMP).

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