Wireless Medium Access Control
Md. Kowsar Hossain (AUVI)
Dept. of CSE
KUET
Collisions
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Collisions
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Why Need wireless MAC ?
Wireless medium is an open, shared, and broadcast
medium
Multiple nodes may access the medium at the same time
A C
B D
Medium Access Control Protocol:
Define rules to force distributed nodes to access wireless
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medium in an orderly and efficiently manner
Medium access control
The main question in connection with MAC
in the wireless is whether it is possible to use
MAC schemes from wired networks.
CSMA/CD as used in the original specification of
IEEE 802.3 networks.
Ethernet(LAN) uses CSMA/CD.
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Ethernet CSMA/CD algorithm
1. Adapter receives datagram from 5. If adapter detects another
network layer, creates frame transmission while transmitting,
aborts and sends a 48-bit jam
signal
2. If adapter senses channel idle
for 96 bit time, starts frame (to make sure all nodes are aware
of collision)
transmission
(gap to allow interface recovery)
6. After aborting (after sending jam
signal), adapter enters
3. If adapter senses channel busy, exponential backoff:
waits until channel idle (plus 96 adapter chooses K at random
bit time), then transmits
(next slide is explained how)
adapter waits K·512 bit times,
4. If adapter transmits entire returns to Step 2
frame without detecting another
transmission, adapter is done
with frame !
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Why does CSMA/CD fail in wireless
networks?
CSMA/CD is not really interested in collisions
at the sender, but rather in those at the
receiver.
The signal should reach the receiver without
collisions. But the sender is the one detecting
collisions.
This is not a problem using a wire, as more or
less the same signal strength can be assumed
all over the wire if the length of the wire stays
within certain often standardized limits.
If a collision occurs somewhere in the wire,
everybody will notice it.
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Why does CSMA/CD fail in wireless
networks?
The situation is different in wireless networks.
The strength of a signal decreases proportionally to
the square of the distance to the sender.
Obstacles attenuate the signal even further.
The sender may now apply carrier sense and detect
an idle medium.
The sender starts sending – but a collision happens at
the receiver due to a second sender.
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Why does CSMA/CD fail in wireless
networks?
The same can happen to the collision
detection.
The sender detects no collision and assumes
that the data has been transmitted without
errors, but a collision might actually have
destroyed the data at the receiver.
Collision detection is very difficult in wireless
scenarios as the transmission power in the
area of the transmitting antenna is several
magnitudes higher than the receiving power.
So, this very common MAC scheme from wired
network fails in a wireless scenario.
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Common protocols
Fixed assignment protocols
Demand assignment protocols
Random assignment protocols
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Fixed assignment protocols
Each node is allocated a predetermined fixed
amount of the channel resources.
Each node uses its allocated resources
exclusively without competing with other
nodes.
Typical protocols that belong in this category
Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
Time division multiple access (TDMA)
Code division multiple access (CDMA)
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Demand assignment protocols
The main objective of demand assignment
protocols is to improve channel utilization by
allocating the capacity of the channel to the
contending nodes. Unlike fixed assignment
schemes, where channel capacity is assigned
to exclusively to the network nodes in a pre-
determined fashion regardless of their current
communication needs, demand assignment
ignores idle nodes and consider only those
nodes that are ready to transmit.
Polling
Reservation
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Random assignment protocols
In fixed-assignment schemes, each node is
assigned a fixed frequency band in FDMA
systems, or a time slot in TDMA systems.
This assignment is static, in the absence of
data to be transmitted the node remains idle,
resulting in the allocated bandwidth to be
wasted.
Random assignment strategies attempt to
address this shortcoming by eliminating
preallocation of bandwidth to the
communicating nodes
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Random assignment protocols
Do not exercise any control to determine which
communicating node can access the medium next.
Furthermore theses strategies do not assign any
predictable or scheduled time for any node to
transmit.
To deal with collisions, the protocol must include a
mechanism to detect collisions and a scheme to
schedule to colliding packets for subsequent
retransmissions.
ALOHA
CMSA
CSMA/CD
CSMA/CA
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Some more scenarios where schemes
known from fixed networks fail
Hidden terminal problem.
Exposed terminal problem.
Near and Far problem.
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Hidden terminal problem
Circle represents a node’s radio range.
A and B are within the radio range of each other.
B and C are within the radio range of each other.
A and C are not within the radio range of each other.
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Hidden Terminal problem
A starts sending to B, C does not receive this transmission.
C also wants to send something to B and senses the medium.
The medium appears to be free, the carrier sense fails. C also
starts sending causing a collision at B.
But A cannot detect this collision at B and continues with its
transmission.
A is hidden for C and vice versa.
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Exposed Terminal problem
Now consider the situation that C sends something to A and B wants
to transmit data to some other mobile phone outside the interference
ranges of A and C.
B senses the carrier and detects that the carrier is busy (C’s signal).
B postpones its transmission until it detects the medium as being idle
again.
But as A is outside the interference range of B, waiting is not
necessary.
So if B transmits will not cause any collision at A. In this situation, B is
exposed to C.
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Near and far problem
A and B are both sending with the same
transmission power. As the signal strength
decreases proportionally with the square of the
distance, B’s signal drowns out A’s signal.
As a result, C cannot receive A’s transmission.
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Multiple access with collision avoidance
(MACA)
Multiple access with collision avoidance
(MACA) presents a simple scheme that
solves the hidden terminal problem and
exposed terminal problem.
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Multiple access with collision avoidance
(MACA)
Uses short signaling packet for collision avoidance.
RTS (Request to Send): A sender requests the right to send
from a receiver with a short RTS packet before it sends a data
packet.
CTS (Clear to Send): the receiver grants the right to send if it
is ready to receive.
RTS and CTS contains source address, destination address,
and length of the future transmission.
No sensing is allowed!!!
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How MACA solves Hidden Terminal
Problem
A does not start its transmission at once, but sends a RTS first.
B receives the RTS. This RTS is not heard by C, but triggers an
acknowledgement from B, called CTS.
This CTS is now heard by C and the medium for future use by A is
now reserved for the duration of the transmission.
After receiving a CTS, C is not allowed to send anything for the
duration indicated in the CTS toward B.
A collision cannot occur at B during data transmission, and the
hidden terminal problem is solved – provided that the
transmission conditions remain the same.
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How MACA solves Hidden Terminal
Problem
Still, collisions can occur during the sending of
an RTS.
Both A and C could send an RTS that collides at
B.
RTS is very small compared to the data
transmission, so the probability of a collision is
much lower.
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How MACA solves Exposed Terminal
Problem
B has to transmit an RTS first.
C does not react to this message as it is not the receiver, but A
acknowledges using a CTS which identifies B as the sender and A as
the receiver of the following data transmission.
C does not receive this CTS and concludes that A is outside the
detection range.
C gives B the time to receive CTS from A.
After that C can start its transmission assuming it will not cause a
collision at A.
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