The IEEE 802.

11 wireless LAN Architecture

The 802.11 architecture (see [5] and [10]) is comprised of several components and services that interact to
provide station mobility transparent to the higher layers of the network stack. These components are:
- Wireless LAN Station (WSTA) is the most basic component of the wireless network. A station is any
device that contains the functionality of the 802.11 protocol, that being MAC, PHY, and a connection to the
wireless media. Typically the 802.11 functions are implemented in the hardware and software of a network
interface

card

(NIC).

A station could be a laptop PC, handheld device, or an Access Point. Stations may be mobile, portable, or
stationary and all stations support the 802.11 station services of authentication, de-authentication, privacy,
and data delivery.
- Basic Service Set (BSS) is a set of stations that communicate with one another. A BSS does not generally
refer to a particular area, due to the uncertainties of electromagnetic propagation. When all of the stations in
the BSS are mobile stations and there is no connection to a wired network, the BSS is called independent
BSS (IBSS). IBSS is typically short-lived network, with a small number of stations that is created for a
particular purpose. When a BSS includes an access point (AP), the BSS is called infrastructure BSS.
When there is an AP, if one mobile station in the BSS must communicate with another mobile station, the
communication is sent first to the AP and then from the AP to the other mobile station.
- Extended Service Set (ESS) is a set of infrastructure BSSs, where the Aps communicate among themselves
to forward traffic from one BSS to another and to facilitate the movement of mobile stations from one BSS
to another. The Aps perform this communication via an abstract medium called the distribution system (DS).
The ESS and all of its mobile stations appears to be a single MAC-layer network where all stations are
physically stationary. Thus, the ESS hides the mobility of the mobile stations from everything outside the
ESS.
- Distribution System: The (DS) is the mechanism by which one AP communicates with another to exchange
frames for stations in their BSSs, forward frames to follow mobile stations from one BSS to another, and
exchange frames with wired network.

2.3 802.11 Topologies

There are two modes of WLAN topology. One is ad-hoc or IBSS (Independent Basic Service Set) mode and
the other is infrastructure mode.
The Ad-hoc mode is a peer-to-peer mode, in which mobile nodes communicates with each other directly.
Generally, ad-hoc implementations cover a limited area and arent connected to any larger network.
The most basic wireless LAN topology is a set of stations, which have recognized each other and are

connected via the wireless media in a peer-to-peer fashion. This form of network topology is referred to as
an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) or an Ad-hoc network.
In an IBSS, see figure 2.1, the mobile stations communicate directly with each other. Every mobile station
may not be able to communicate with every other station due to the range limitations. There are no relay
functions in an IBSS therefore all stations need to be within range of each other and communicate directly.

BSS

Figure 2.1: Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS).

The infrastructure mode, see figure 2.2, consists of at least one access point (AP) and a number of mobile
nodes connecting to the AP via wireless medium. This is called a cell, or BSS (Basic Service Set). Aps are
connected to the distribution system (DS), which is similar to the backbone, usually Ethernet or wireless. A
number of BSS consist of ESS (Extended Service Set).

Distribution System

Figure 2.2: Infrastructure Mode.

The distribution system (DS) is the means by which an access point communicates with another access point
to exchange frames for stations in their respective BSSs, forward frames to follow mobile stations as they
move from one BSS to another, and exchange frames with a wired network

As IEEE 802.11 describes it, the distribution system is not necessarily a network nor does the standard place
any restrictions on how the distribution system is implemented, only on the services it must provide. Thus
the distribution system may be a wired network like 803.2 or a special purpose box that interconnects the
access points and provides the required distribution services
Extending coverage via an Extended Service Set (ESS) 802.11, see figure 2.3, extends the range of mobility
to an arbitrary range through the Extended Service Set (ESS). An extended service set is a set of
infrastructure BSSs, where the access points communicate among themselves to forward traffic from one
BSS to another to facilitate movement of stations between BSSs.
The access point performs this communication through the distribution system. The distribution system is
the backbone of the wireless LAN and may be constructed of either a wired LAN or wireless network.
Typically the distribution system is a thin layer in each access point that determines the destination for traffic
received from a BSS. The distribution system determines if traffic should be relayed back to a destination in
the same BSS, forwarded on the distribution system to another access point, or sent into the wired network
to a destination not in the extended service set. Communications received by an access point from the
distribution system are transmitted to the BSS to be received by the destination mobile station.
Network equipment outside of the extended service set views the ESS and all of its mobile stations as a
single MAC-layer network where all stations are physically stationary. Thus, the ESS hides the mobility of
the mobile stations from everything outside the ESS. This level of indirection provided by the 802.11
architecture allows existing network protocols that have no concept of mobility to operate correctly with a
wireless LAN where there is mobility.

Figure 2.3: Extended Service Set (ESS).

2.4 The IEEE 802.11 layers Description

As any 802.x protocol, the 802.11 protocol covers the MAC and Physical Layer. The Standard currently
defines a single MAC, which interacts with three PHYs (all of them running at 1 and 2 Mbit/s) as follows:
Frequency
Direct

Hopping Spread Spectrum in the 2.4 GHz Band

Sequence Spread Spectrum in the 2.4 GHz Band, and

Infrared

Figure 2.4: Layers

Descriptions.
Beyond

the

functionality
performed

standard
usually

by

MAC

Layers, the 802.11 MAC performs other functions that are typically related to upper layer protocols, such as
Fragmentation, Packet Retransmissions, and Acknowledges.

2.5 Physical Layer

The general operations of the individual Physical layers, see [18], are very similar. To perform Physical
Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) sub-layer functions, the 802.11 standard specify the use of state
machines. Each state machine performs one of the following functions:
1. Carrier Sense: to determine the state of the medium
2. Transmit: to send individual octets of the data frame
3. Receive: to receive individual octets of the data frame
Currently there are five physical techniques defined in 802.11 (see [5]): Diffused Infrared (IR), Frequency
Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS), Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), High Rate Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum (HR-DSSS) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). While FHSS and
DSSS deliver 1Mbps and 2Mbps data rates in the 2.4GHz band (referred to as 802.11), HR-DSSS extends
the rate to 5.5Mbps and 11Mbps (referred to as 802.11b) in the 2.4GHz band. And OFDM provides up to
54Mbps data rates in the 5GHz band (referred to as 802.11a).
Frequency-hopping Spread Spectrum:
This technique represents one of the possible physical layers of the 802.11 standard. It uses 79 overlapping
frequency channels where each channel has 1 MHz channel space. This allows 26 networks to be located in
the same area, which make the aggregated throughput more reasonable. Although the standard specifies 79
channels, the actual numbers of channels that are used depend on the regulatory authority assignment of
frequency usage in a particular country. There are also different regulatory bodies that restrict the number of
hopping channels that can be used in other locations of the world. The number of hops defined for IEEE
802.11 standard operation in each country, is referred to as a hopping set.
Direct-sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS):
The direct-sequence spread spectrum is a second physical layer supported by 802.11. DSSS is also the only
specified physical layer for the 802.11b standard, which supports data rates of 5.5 and 11Mbps. The 802.11b
standard uses the same 2.4MHz bandwidth and channelization scheme as the 1 Mbps version of the 802.11
standard. They only have a different chipping method. The 802.11 standard uses an 11-bit Barker chip while
the 802.11b uses an 8-bit complimentary code-keying (CCK) algorithm.
Infrared:
The third and last physical layer supported by the standard is infrared. It is based on the 850- to 950- nm
range, which is nearly visible light. It is based on a diffuse IR transmission, which means that you dont
need a clear path between the transmitter and receiver. The transmission range is limited to 10 meters and
restricted to in-building applications.

2.6 MAC Layer

The MAC layer in 802.11 provides the following major services:
1. Accessing the wireless medium.
2. Joining a network.
3. Providing Authentication and privacy.
4. Providing integration between 802.11 and older incompatible equipments.
5. Providing support for power management.
Two major MAC schemes are most popular today: Distributed Coordination Function
(DCF) and Point Coordination Function (PCF).

2.6.1 The Basic Access Method: CSMA/CA

The basic access mechanism, called the Distributed Coordination Function, is basically a Carrier Sense
Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance mechanism (usually known as CSMA/CA). CSMA protocols are
well known in the industry, the most popular being the Ethernet, which is a CSMA/CD protocol (CD
standing for Collision Detection).
A CSMA protocol works as follows: A station desiring to transmit senses the medium. If the medium is busy
(i.e. some other stations are transmitting) then the station defers its transmission to a later time. If the
medium is sensed free then the station is allowed to transmit. These kinds of protocols are very effective
when the medium is not heavily loaded since it allows stations to transmit with minimum delay. But there is
always a chance of stations simultaneously sensing the medium as being free and transmitting at the same
time, causing a collision. These collision situations must be identified so the MAC layer can retransmit the
packet by itself and not by upper layers, which would cause significant delay. In the Ethernet case this
collision is recognized by the transmitting stations, which go into a retransmission phase based on an
exponential random backoff algorithm.
While these Collision Detection mechanisms are a good idea on a wired LAN, they cannot be used on a
Wireless LAN environment for two main reasons:
1. Implementing a Collision Detection Mechanism would require the implementation of a Full Duplex radio
capable of transmitting and receiving at once, an approach that would increase the price significantly.
2. In a Wireless environment we cannot assume that all stations hear each other (which is the basic
assumption of the Collision Detection scheme), and the fact that a station wants to transmit and senses the
medium as free doesnt necessarily mean that the medium is free around the receiver area.
In order to overcome these problems, the 802.11 uses a Collision Avoidance (CA) mechanism together with
a Positive Acknowledge scheme as follows:
A station wanting to transmit senses the medium. If the medium is busy then it defers. If the medium is free
for a specified time (called Distributed Inter Frame Space (DIFS) in the standard), then the station is allowed
to transmit.
The receiving station checks the CRC of the received packet and sends an acknowledgment packet (ACK).
Receipt of the acknowledgment indicates to the transmitter that no collision occurred. If the sender does not
receive the acknowledgment then it retransmits the fragment until it receives acknowledgment or is thrown
away after a given number of retransmissions.

2.6.1.1 Virtual Carrier Sense

In order to reduce the probability of two stations colliding because they cannot hear each other, the standard
defines a Virtual Carrier Sense mechanism:
A station wanting to transmit a packet first transmits a short control packet called RTS (Request To Send),
which includes the source, destination, and the duration of the following transaction (i.e. the packet and the
respective ACK), the destination station responds (if the medium is free) with a response control Packet
called CTS (Clear to Send), which includes the same duration information.
All stations receiving either the RTS and/or the CTS, set their Virtual Carrier Sense indicator (called NAV,
for Network Allocation Vector), for the given duration, and use this information together with the Physical
Carrier Sense when sensing the medium.
This mechanism reduces the probability of a collision on the receiver area by a station that is hidden from
the transmitter to the short duration of the RTS transmission because the station hears the CTS and
reserves the medium as busy until the end of the transaction. The duration information on the RTS also
protects the transmitter area from collisions during the ACK (from stations that are out of range of the
acknowledging station).
It should also be noted that, due to the fact that the RTS and CTS are short frames, the mechanism also
reduces the overhead of collisions; since these are recognized faster than if the whole packet was to be
transmitted. (This is true if the packet is significantly bigger than the RTS, so the standard allows for short
packets to be transmitted without the RTS/CTS transaction. This is controlled per station by a parameter
called RTS Threshold).

2.6.1.2 MAC Level Acknowledgments

As mentioned earlier in this document, the MAC layer performs Collision Detection by expecting the
reception of an acknowledge to any transmitted fragment (Packets that have more than one destination, such
as Multicasts, are not acknowledged.)

2.6.1.3 Fragmentation and Reassembly

Typical LAN protocols use packets several hundred bytes long (the longest Ethernet packet could be up to
1518 bytes long). There are several reasons why it is preferable to use smaller packets in a Wireless LAN
environment:
Due

to the higher Bit Error Rate of a radio link, the probability of a packet getting corrupted increases

with the packet size.

In

case of packet corruption (either due to collision or noise), the smaller the packet, and the less

overhead it causes to retransmit it.

On

a Frequency Hopping system, the medium is interrupted periodically for hopping (in our case every

20 milliseconds), so, the smaller the packet, the smaller the chance that the transmission will be postponed.
However, it doesnt make sense to introduce a new LAN protocol that cannot deal with packets 1518 bytes
long, which are used on Ethernet, so the committee decided to solve the problem by adding a simple
fragmentation/reassembly mechanism at the MAC Layer.
The mechanism is a simple Send-and-Wait algorithm, where the transmitting station is not allowed to
transmit a new fragment until one of the following happens:
1. Receives an ACK for the said fragment.
2. Decides that the fragment was retransmitted too many times and drops the whole frame. It should be
noted that the standard does allow the station to transmit to a different address between retransmissions of a
given fragment. This is particularly useful when an AP has several outstanding packets to different
destinations and one of them does not respond.
IEEE 802.11 defines several standard Inter-Frame Space (IFS) that defer a stations access to the medium
and provides various levels of priority. They are shown in
Figure 2.5.
1. DIFS (Distributed IFS): most general, provides lower priority than PCF based transmission. DIFS Is the
Inter frame space used for a station willing to start a new transmission, which is calculated as PIFS plus one
slot time.
2. SIFS (Short IFS): provides the highest priority level for some frames to access the medium before others,
such as ACK, CTS frame, etc. SIFS is used to separate transmissions belonging to a single dialog (e.g.
Fragment-Ack), and is the minimum Inter Frame Space. There is always at most one single station to
transmit at any given time, therefore giving it priority over all other stations. This value is a fixed value per
PHY and is calculated in such a way that the transmitting station will be able to switch back to receive mode
and be capable of decoding the incoming packet. On the 802.11 FH PHY this value is set to 28
microseconds.
3. PIFS (PCF IFS): Is the interval of time that stations operate under PCF mode. This provides priority over
frames sent by the distributed coordination function. PIFS is used by the Access Point (or Point Coordinator,
as called in this case), to gain access to the medium before any other station. This value is SIFS plus a Slot
Time, i.e. 78 microseconds.
4. EIFS (Extended IFS): goes beyond the time of a DIFS interval for some special cases, such as bad
reception of the frame. This interval provides enough time for the receiving station to send an ACK frame.

Figure 2. 5: IFS length comparison.

The difficulty of physical carrier sensing is that the severe channel fading and the hidden-station problem
will prevent the stations from correctly detecting the medium state. Virtual carrier sensing solves this
problem by sending and receiving RTS (Request to send)/CTS (Clear to send). For example, station A will
send RTS packet to the intended receiver and wait for a CTS packet. The RTS packet will broadcast the
intended duration of the transmission. The CTS will also contain the intended duration to reduce the
possibility of hidden-station problem. Once the CTS packet is received, station A will start to transmit.
However, because the use of RTS/CTS will cause extra overhead, this mechanism is not favorable when data
packets are small. In fact, a RTS/CTS threshold can be defined and packets smaller than the threshold are
transmitted without RTS/CTS overhead, and payloads larger than the threshold will be transmitted using
RTS/CTS.

2.6.2 Frame Type

There are three main types of frames:
Data

Frames: which are used for data transmission

Control

Frames: which are used to control access to the medium (e.g. RTS, CTS, and ACK).

Management

Frames: which are frames that are transmitted the same manner as data frames to exchange

management information, but are not forwarded to upper layers (e.g. beacon frames).
Each frame type is subdivided into different Subtypes, according to their specific function.
The figure below shows the general MAC frame format:
frame
control

duration
/ID

adress
1

address addres
2
3

sequence
control

address
4

frame
Body

crc

Figure 2.6- MAC frame format

This format is used to transmit information between stations. Portions of this frame in the form of several
fields are used in other types of frames. The frame body field can be up to a maximum of 2312 bytes that is
enough to support transportation of an Ethernet frame with maximum length (1500 bytes).
RTS frame format:

Frame control

Duration

Receiver
Address

Transmitter
Address

CRC

Figure 2.7 - RTS frame format

From figure 2.7, the receiver address (RA) in the frame represents the address of the station on the wireless
network that is the intended immediate recipient of the next Data or Management frame. The transmitter
address (TA) is the address of the station transmitting the RTS frame. The duration value is the time, in
microseconds, required to transmit the next Data or Management frame plus one CTS frame, one ACK
frame and three SIFS intervals.
CTS frame format:
Frame control

Duration

Receiver
Address

Transmitter
Address

CRC

Figure 2.8 - CTS frame format

There is a relationship between certain fields in the CTS frame and the RTS frame, since the CTS is a
response to the receipt of a RTS frame. The transmitter address (TA) from the RTS frame is copied to the
receiver address (RA) field in the CTS frame, since this is the address it will respond to.
ACK frame format:
Frame control

Duration

Receiver Address

CRC

Figure 2.9 - ACK frame format

The receiver address (RA) field of the ACK frame is copied from the Adress-2 field of the immediately
previous frame. If the More Fragment bit was set to 0 in the Frame Control field of the previous frame, the
Duration value is set to 0, otherwise the Duration value is obtained from the duration field of the previous
frame, minus the time, in microseconds, required to transmit the ACK frame and its SIFS interval.

2.6.3 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)

DCF is the primary access protocol for wireless medium between stations and access points having
compatible PHs. It is a scheme of Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA). To
determine the medium state, a combination of physical and virtual carrier sense mechanisms are applied. A
station can decide to transmit at any time if the channel is sensed to idle after a period of DIFS (DCF Inter
Frame Space) and the stations NAV (network allocation vector) is zero. NAV operates like a timer, it starts

with a value equal to the Duration field value of the last frame transmission sensed on the medium and
counting down to zero.

Figure 2.10 DCF Medium Access Mechanism

2.6.4 Point Coordination Function (PCF)

The optional priority-based Point Coordination Function provides contention free frame transfer for
processing time-critical information data traffic. In PCF mode, there is a point coordinator residing in the
access point. All stations will obey the point coordinator by setting their NAV value at the beginning of each
contention-free period (CFP).

2.6.5 The 802.11 Mechanism:

The basic 802.11 MAC protocol is the distributed coordination function (DCF) that works as listen-beforetalk scheme. The 802.11 define collision avoidance (CA) to reduce the probability of collision whenever two
stations detect the channel as free at the same time. As solution, a station performs a backoff procedure,
which has to keep sensing the channel for an additional random time after detecting that the channel is being
idle. This duration is called DCF Interframe space DIFS. If the channel remains idle for this additional time,
the station is allowed to transmit. While the short inter frame space (SIFS) is the time between two
consecutive frames in the sequence of request to send (RTS), clear to send (CTS), data and ACK frame. It is
important to note that SIFS is shorter than DIFS.
To support time-bounded services, the IEEE 802.11 standard defines the point coordination function (PCF)
in order to let stations have priority access to the wireless medium, coordinated by a station called point
coordinator (PC). Time is always divided into repeated period called superframe. A contention free period
(CFP) and a contention period (CP) form a superframe.
A superframe starts with a so-called beacon frame. This beacon frame is for management that maintains the
synchronization of the local timers in the stations.
The PC is typically located at the AP, generates a beacon frames at regular beacon frame intervals. By the
beginning of each contention free period (CFP) all stations on the network set the network allocation vector
(NAV) parameter to the value set by the PC. After this the PC is the only station permitted to send, the PC
can grant permission for another station to send by sending it a special frame called a CF_POLL frame. A

station (STA) that is able to respond to CF_POLL is referred to as being CF_POLLABLE. When the PC
polls the CF_POLLABLE station, this CF_POLLABLE STA may transmit only one MPDU, which can be
to any destination (not just to PC) and may piggyback the ACK of the frame received from the PC using
particular data frame subtypes for this transmission. If the data frame is not acknowledged, the
CF_POLLABLE STA does not retransmit the frame unless the PC polls it again, or it decides to retransmit
during CP.
The beacon frame initiates the CFP repetition interval, where the AP transmits the beacon frame when the
medium is determined to be idle for one period PIFS. After the initial beacon frame, the PC waits for at least
one SIFS period and transmits one of the following: a data frame, a CF_POLL frame, a data + CF_POLL, a
CF_END frame. If there is no traffic and no polls to send at the PC, a CF_END frame should be transmitted
immediately after the initial beacon. At the beginning of each CFP repetition interval, all stations in the BSS
update their NAV to the max length of the (CF-MAX-DURATION).
During the CFP, the only time the stations are permitted to transmit is in respond to a poll from the PC or for
transmission of an ACK. (SIFS) after the receipt of a MPDU. If the PC receives a DATA+CF-ACK frame
from a station, the PC can send a DATA+CF-POLL+CF-ACK frame to different stations. If the PC received
no respond for a polled station after waiting for PIFS, it polls the next station, or ends the CFP. The PC
continues polling other station until the CFP expires. A specific control frame called CF-END is transmitted
by the CP as the last frame within the CFP to signal the end of the CFP.
The ability to combine polling and ACK frame with data frames has been designed to improve the
efficiency.

Figure 2.11 PC to station transmission

Figure 2.11 shows the PC to station transmission. If the PC failed to receive an ACK for a transmitted data
frame, the PC waits a PIFS and continues transmitting to the next station in the polling list. Figure 2.12
shows the transmission between two stations.

Figure 2.12 stationto-station transmissions

After a successful receipt of the frame, the station would wait for a SIFS and reply to the PC with a standard
ACK frame. The PC may also choose to transmit a frame to a non CF-POLLABLE station.
PCF has some serious limitations. First, the start of the CF period is not exactly periodic since it can only
begin when the medium is sensed to be idle. As a result, the CFP may be forced to end prematurely not
serving some members on the polling list. Second, all the CF-pollable STAs have the same level of priority.
Third, the CFP repetition rate is not dynamically variable. Therefore there is a trade-off between low latency
applications requiring a fast repetition rate and an efficient use of the medium requiring slower repetition
rate.
Fourth, the PC has to poll all the STAs on its polling list, even if there is no traffic to be sent. Finally, a
Transmission Opportunity (TXOP), for a STA being polled during the CFP, cannot last longer than the
duration needed to transmit a single PDU. The term TXOP here refers to an instance when a given STA is
allowed to initiate a bounded number and/or length of transmissions.
--------------------------------