MAC (Medium Access Control) sublayer

MAC sublayer covers Medium Access techniques and framing

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Types of MAC
Control: Distributed. Centralized. How they coordinate medium access: Round-robin. Scheduled-access. Contention-based.

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MAC Protocols
Contention-based
ALOHA and Slotted ALOHA. CSMA. CSMA/CD.

Round-robin : token-based protocols.

Token bus. Token ring.

Scheduled Access Based:

Centralized or distributed scheduling based MAC Ex. GSM, WIMAX, LTE, WiFi networks.
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The ALOHA Protocols

Developed at University of Hawaii in early 70s. Packet radio networks. Free for all: whenever station has a frame to send, it does so.
Station listens for maximum RTT (Round Trip Time) for an ACK. If no ACK, re-sends frame for a number of times and then gives up. Receivers check FCS (Frame Check Sequence) and destination address to ACK.

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Pure ALOHA
In pure ALOHA, frames are transmitted at completely arbitrary times.

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Collisions
Invalid frames may be caused by channel noise or

Because other station(s) transmitted at the same time: collision. Collision happens even when the last bit of a frame overlaps with the first bit of the next frame.

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Pure ALOHA: Performance

Vulnerable period for the shaded frame.

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ALOHAs Performance (Contd)

S = G e-2G, where S is the throughput (rate of successful transmissions) and G is the mean offered load per frame duration. S = Smax = 1/2e = 0.184 for G=0.5.

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Slotted Aloha
Time divided in uniform slots Need central clock (or other sync mechanism) Frames can only be transmitted at beginning of slot: discrete ALOHA. Frames either miss or overlap totally Vulnerable period is half of pure ALOHA. S = G e-G. S = Smax = 1/e = 0.368 for G = 1. Doubles performance of pure ALOHA.

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ALOHA Protocols: Performance

Throughput versus offered traffic for ALOHA systems.

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ALOHA Protocols: Summary

Simple. poor utilization (network efficiency) Applicable only in the network having very low user density

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CARRIER SENSE MULTIPLE ACCESS (CSMA)

CSMA protocol was developed to overcome the problem found in ALOHA i.e. to minimize the chances of collision, so as to improve the performance.

CSMA protocol is based on the principle of carrier sense. The chances of collision can be reduce to great extent if a station senses the channel before trying to use it.
Although CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot eliminate it completely. The chances of collision still exist because of propagation delay.
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CSMA Protocol
1-Persistent CSMA
Continuous sensing Transmits packet with probability 1 in immediate idle time slot Collision rate is high

Non-Persistent CSMA
Senses carrier at random time Network efficiency is comparatively high Collision rate is also comparatively low

P-Persistent CSMA
Time divided into slots if idle time sensed Transmits packet with probability p Network efficiency is comparatively high Collision rate is low
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CSMA /CD protocol

Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Detection Used in Ethernet LAN Transmitting device transmits packets and continuously detects collision If collision detected, differs transmission for random time
For Random time delay Binary exponential back off algorithm is used.

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Throughput comparison of contention based MAC protocols

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Collision Free Protocols

Reservation protocol
Like token base access

Bit Mapped Protocol using contention period

transmit time is divided in to contention and Frame time In contention period one bit is reserved (0 nothing to transmit, 1 to transmit) Contention period followed by number of frames = No. of 1 in contention period

Binary count down Protocol using contention period

Instead reserving one bit for all users in contention period user devices transmits their binary addresses

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Binary Count down contention protocol

In contention period user nodes transmits their binary address (only those who wants to transmit)

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Limited-Contention Protocol
Contention Protocol are more suitable for low load As load increases contention delay also increases As load increases packet collision probability also increases Collision free protocols are more suitable for heavy load As load increases channel efficiency also improves at the cost of additional overhead Limited-Contention Protocol combines the best properties of contention and collision free protocols
At low load uses contention Protocol due to less delay At high load uses collision free protocol due to good channel efficiency

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Limited-Contention Protocol Cont.

Adaptive Tree walk Protocol
Low load Every body contends Collision Reduces number of stations

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Adaptive Tree walk algorithm

First contention all stations are permitted to contend

If collision then in next slot only stations under node 2 contends If success then in next slot stations under node 3 contends If collision then in next slot stations under node 4 contends If success then in next slot stations under node 5 contends
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IEEE Communications standards*

(widely used & popular)
Standard
IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.4 IEEE 802.5 IEEE 802.11 b/g/n IEEE 802.15.1 IEEE 802.15.4

Also known as
LAN/Eathernet (Metcalfe /Xerox) LAN (developed by General motors) LAN (developed by IBM) WLAN/WiFi PAN/Bluetooth (developed by Ericsson) PAN/ZigBee/WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks)

Medium Access
CSMA/CD Token Bus Token Ring CSMA/CA --

Topology /frequency band

Star topology Bus topology Ring topology ISM bands 2.4 GHz & 5.8 GHz ISM band at 2.4GHz ISM bands** RF & 2.4GHz

--

IEEE 802.16d IEEE 802.16e IEEE 802.16j IEEE 802.16m

IEEE 802.20

BWA/Fixed WiMAX BWA/Mobile WiMAX BWA/Relay WiMAX BWA/Very high data rate
MBWA/Mobile-Fi ( Will support connectivity up to 250 km/h mobile speed)

OFDM OFDMA OFDMA OFDMA

--

2 GHz to 66 GHz (initially 10 GHz to 66 GHz was allocated for LOS but to support NLoS 2 GHz to 11 GHz was allocated later)
Licensed Bands (below 3.5 GHz)

*IEEE provides communication standards for Physical &OPM MAC layer only 21 ** ZigBee operating frequencies 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the USA and Australia, and 2.4 GHz rest of the world

Binary exponential back-off algorithm

Used for randomization The contention slot is decided as 2 power n Where n= 0,1,2,.N For first time collision n=1, station transmits in slot 0 or 1. For second time collision n=2, station transmits in any one slot from 0 to 3. For third time collision n=3, station transmits in any one slot from 0 to 7. And so on.

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