ALOHA: ALOHA is a system for coordinating and arbitrating access to a shared

communication Networks channel. It was developed in the 1970s by Norman Abramson

and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii. The original system used for ground based
radio broadcasting, but the system has been implemented in satellite communication
systems.
A shared communication system like ALOHA requires a method of handling collisions that
occur when two or more systems attempt to transmit on the channel at the same time. In
the ALOHA system, a node transmits whenever data is available to send. If another node
transmits at the same time, a collision occurs, and the frames that were transmitted are
lost. However, a node can listen to broadcasts on the medium, even its own, and determine
whether the frames were transmitted.

Aloha means "Hello". Aloha is a multiple access protocol at the datalink layer and
proposes how multiple terminals access the medium without interference or collision. In
1972 Roberts developed a protocol that would increase the capacity of aloha two fold. The
Slotted Aloha protocol involves dividing the time interval into discrete slots and each slot
interval corresponds to the time period of one frame. This method requires synchronization
between the sending nodes to prevent collisions.

There are two different versions/types of ALOHA:

(i) Pure ALOHA

In pure ALOHA, the stations transmit frames whenever they have data to send.
When two or more stations transmit simultaneously, there is collision and the frames are
destroyed.
In pure ALOHA, whenever any station transmits a frame, it expects the acknowledgement
from the receiver.
If acknowledgement is not received within specified time, the station assumes that the
frame (or acknowledgement) has been destroyed.
If the frame is destroyed because of collision the station waits for a random amount of
time and sends it again. This waiting time must be random otherwise same frames will
collide again and again.
Therefore pure ALOHA dictates that when time-out period passes, each station must wait
for a random amount of time before resending its frame. This randomness will help avoid
more collisions.
Figure shows an example of frame collisions in pure ALOHA.

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 In fig there are four stations that .contended with one another for access to shared
channel. All these stations are transmitting frames. Some of these frames collide because
multiple frames are in contention for the shared channel. Only two frames, frame 1.1 and
frame 2.2 survive. All other frames are destroyed.
Whenever two frames try to occupy the channel at the same time, there will be a collision
and both will be damaged. If first bit of a new frame overlaps with just the last bit of a
frame almost finished, both frames will be totally destroyed and both will have to be
retransmitted.
The first version of the protocol (now called "Pure ALOHA", and the one implemented in
ALOHAnet) was quite simple:

If you have data to send, send the data

If, while you are transmitting data, you receive any data from another station, there has
been a message collision. All transmitting stations will need to try resending "later".
Note that the first step implies that Pure ALOHA does not check whether the channel is
busy before transmitting. Since collisions can occur and data may have to be sent again,
ALOHA cannot use 100% of the capacity of the communications channel. How long a
station waits until it transmits, and the likelihood a collision occurs are interrelated, and
both affect how efficiently the channel can be used. This means that the concept of
"transmit later" is a critical aspect: the quality of the backoff scheme chosen significantly
influences the efficiency of the protocol, the ultimate channel capacity, and the
predictability of its behavior.
To assess Pure ALOHA, there is a need to predict its throughput, the rate of (successful)
transmission of frames. First, let's make a few simplifying assumptions:

All frames have the same length.

Stations cannot generate a frame while transmitting or trying to transmit. (That is, if a
station keeps trying to send a frame, it cannot be allowed to generate more frames to
send.)
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 The population of stations attempts to transmit (both new frames and old frames that
collided) according to a Poisson distribution.
Let "T" refer to the time needed to transmit one frame on the channel, and let's define
"frame-time" as a unit of time equal to T. Let "G" refer to the mean used in the Poisson
distribution over transmission-attempt amounts: that is, on average, there
are G transmission-attempts per frame-time.
Consider what needs to happen for a frame to be transmitted successfully. Let "t" refer to
the time at which it is intended to send a frame. It is preferable to use the channel for one
frame-time beginning at t, and all other stations to refrain from transmitting during this
time.
For any frame-time, the probability of there being k transmission-attempts during that

frame-time is:
!
The average amount of transmission-attempts for 2 consecutive frame-times is 2G. Hence,
for any pair of consecutive frame-times, the probability of there being k transmission-
(2) 2
attempts during those two frame-times is:
!
Therefore, the probability (Probpure) of there being zero transmission-attempts between t-
T and t+T (and thus of a successful transmission for us) is: Probpure = e-2G
The throughput can be calculated as the rate of transmission-attempts multiplied by the
probability of success, and it can be concluded that the throughput (Spure) is:
Spure = Ge-2G
Vulnerable time=2*T.
The maximum throughput is 0.5/e frames per frame-time (reached when G = 0.5), which is
approximately 0.184 frames per frame-time. This means that, in Pure ALOHA, only about
18.4% of the time is used for successful transmissions.
Another simple and mathematical way to establish the equation for throughput in Pure
ALOHA (and in Slotted ALOHA) is as follows:
Consider what needs to happen for frames to be transmitted successfully. Let T represents
the frame time.
For simplicity, it is assumed that the contention begins at t=0.
Then if exactly one node sends during interval t=0 to t=T and no node tries between t=T to
t=2T, then the frame will be transmitted successfully.
Similarly during all next time intervals t=2nT to t=(2n+1)T, exactly one node sends and
during t=(2n+1)T to t=(2n+2)T no node tries to send where n=1,2,3, ..., then the frames are
successfully transmitted.
But in pure ALOHA, the nodes begin transmission whenever they want to do so without
checking that what other nodes are doing at that time.
Thus sending frames are independent events, that is, transmission by any particular node
neither affects nor is affected by the time of start of transmission by other nodes.
Let G be the average number of nodes that begin transmission within period T (the frame
time). If a large number of nodes is trying to transmit, then by using Poisson distribution,
the probability that exactly x nodes begin transmission during period T is

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P[X = x] =
!
Therefore, the probability that during any particular period from t=2nT to t=(2n+1)T, (that
is for any particular non-zero integer value of n) exactly one node will begin transmission is
1
P[X = 1] = = Ge-G
1!
And the probability that during any particular period t=(2n+1)T to t=(2n+2)T, no node will
begin transmission is
0
P[X = 0] = = e-G
0!
But for successful transmission of a frame, both the events should occur simultaneously.
That is during period t=2nT to t=(2n+1)T, exactly one node begins transmission and during
t=(2n+1)T to t=(2n+2)T no node begins transmission.
Hence the probability that both the independent events will occur simultaneously is
P=P(0)*P(1)= Ge-G * e-G = Ge-2G
This is the throughput.
Throughput is intended to mean the probability of successful transmission during
minimum possible period. Therefore, the throughput in pure ALOHA,
Spure=Ge-2G
Similarly for slotted ALOHA, a frame will be successfully transmitted, if exactly one node
will begin transmission at the beginning of any particular time slot (equal to frame time T).
But the probability that one node will begin during any particular time slot is
1
P[X = 1] = = Ge-G
1!

This is the throughput in slotted ALOHA. Thus,

S slotted = Ge-G
Disadvantages of Pure ALOHA:
1) Time is wasted
2) Data is lost

(ii) Slotted ALOHA

Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency of pure ALOHA as chances of
collision in pure ALOHA are very high.
In slotted ALOHA, the time of the shared channel is divided into discrete intervals called
slots.
The stations can send a frame only at the beginning of the slot and only one frame is sent
in each slot.

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 In slotted ALOHA, if any station is not able to place the frame onto the channel at the
beginning of the slot i.e. it misses the time slot then the station has to wait until the
beginning of the next time slot.
In slotted ALOHA, there is still a possibility of collision if two stations try to send at the
beginning of the same time slot as shown in fig.
Slotted ALOHA still has an edge over pure ALOHA as chances of collision are reduced to
one-half.
An improvement to the original ALOHA protocol was "Slotted ALOHA", which introduced
discrete timeslots and increased the maximum throughput.[14] A station can start a
transmission only at the beginning of a timeslot, and thus collisions are reduced. In this
case, only transmission-attempts within 1 frame-time and not 2 consecutive frame-times
need to be considered, since collisions can only occur during each timeslot. Thus, the
probability of there being zero transmission-attempts by other stations in a single timeslot
is:
Prob slotted =e -G

the probability of a transmission requiring exactly k attempts is (k-1 collisions and 1

success): Prob slotted k = e -G (1-e-G)k-1
The throughput is: S slotted = Ge-G
The maximum throughput is 1/e frames per frame-time (reached when G = 1), which is
approximately 0.368 frames per frame-time, or 36.8%.
Slotted ALOHA is used in low-data-rate tactical satellite communications networks by
military forces, in subscriber-based satellite communications networks, mobile telephony
call setup, set-top box communications and in the contactless RFIDtechnologies.

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