The Medium Access Control

Sub Layer

Wired LAN Protocols

Wired LAN Protocols
 IEEE 802.3 - CSMA/CD (Ethernet)

 IEEE 802.4 – Token Bus

 IEEE 802.5 – Token Ring

 Differ in MAC Sub Layer but compatible at Data

Link Layer

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Ethernet – IEEE 802.3
• Ethernet Cabling
• Manchester Encoding
• Ethernet MAC Sublayer Protocol
• Binary Exponential Backoff Algorithm
• Switched Ethernet
• Fast Ethernet
• Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 802.2 - Logical Link Control

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 Ethernet Cabling
NAME CABLE SEGMENTS NODES/SEG

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Ethernet Cabling

10Base5 10Base2 10Base-T

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10 Base-T Cable
 Replaces individual transceivers with intelligent
components called HUBS
 Use of Twisted Pair Cables to connect all cmptrs
 Data is first sent to hubs & then transmitted to
destination.

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10 Base-T Cable
 Advantages
 Maintenance is easy
 Flexibility in design
 Disadvantages
 Cable cannot be more than 100 meters
 Bigger HUBS & connecting cables are expensive

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Repeaters
 Each version of 802.3 has a max segment
length.
 To increase length segments, connect through
repeaters.
 Repeaters are layer one devices.
 Repeater receives, amplifies and re-tx signals in
both directions.
 However
 No two hosts more than 2.5 km apart.
 Max 4 repeaters between two hosts.

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Advantages – IEEE 802.3
 Most widely used, large installation base and

huge experience

 Simple protocol

 Stations installed on the fly

 Delay at low load is practically zero.

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Disadvantages – IEEE 802.3
 Collision detection circuitry in transreceiver is analog.
 Non deterministic - a stn may have to wait for an
arbitrarily long time to send a frame. Thus, inappropriate
for real time traffic.
 At high load presence of collisions becomes a major
problem .
 No facility for assigning priority.

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802.3 MAC Sub Layer Protocol
Bytes 7 1 6 6 2 0-1500 0-46 4

S Destination Source Check-

Preamble O Length Data Pad
Address Address sum
F

 Preamble of 7 bytes each with bit pattern 10101010 –

manchester encoding of this pattern produces 10 MHz
square wave
 1 byte Start of Frame delimiter – for compatibility with
802.4 & 802.5
 6 byte source and destination addresses.
 Length indicates number of bytes in data field.
 Pad field ensures min frame size is 64 bytes (less
Preamble) – More on this later.
 Checksum field – 32 bit CRC
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802.3 MAC Sub Layer Protocol
 Question : Why is the min frame size 64 Bytes?
 To make it easier to distinguish valid frames from
stray bits and pieces of frames appearing on the
cable (due to truncation of current frames by nodes
on detecting collisions)
 To prevent station from completing the transmission
of a short frame before feedback of any possible
collision has chance to reach it.
 Question : What will be the effect of improving
NW speeds on frame length and cable length? –
Think it over!

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Binary Exponential Backoff Algorithm

 Ethernet uses CSMA/CD protocol

 Nodes are required to wait for random time for

retransmission after collision.

 Need to have the randomization interval grow

exponentially as more and more consecutive
collisions take place. Why?

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Binary Exponential Backoff Algorithm
 After collision, time divided into discrete time
slots equal to worst case RTT.
 After first collision, each stn waits 0 or 1 slot
times before trying again.
 After second collision, each stn waits for 0,1,2 or
3 slot times before trying again.
 After i collisions, a random number between 0
and 2i –1 is chosen.

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Binary Exponential Backoff Algorithm
 After 10 collisions, randomization interval frozen
at 1023.
 Nodes give up after 16 collisions.
 The algorithm ensures
 low delay when few nodes collide.
 collision is resolved in a reasonable interval when
many nodes collide.
 Question : Why do you think the randomization
interval is frozen after 10 collisions?

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Switched Ethernet
 Addresses the problem of increased load which would otherwise
saturate plain Ethernet

 Solution is introduction of a switch containing a high speed

backplane and number of cards with one to eight connectors
 Each connector has a 10Base-T connection to a single host
 Card construction – two types
 All ports wired together to form an on-card LAN.
 Each port on the card is buffered.

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Self Study Topics…
 Fast Ethernet – 100 Mbps
 Gigabit Ethernet – 1000 Mbps or 1Gbps

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IEEE 802.2 - Logical Link Layer
 We have seen 802.3 frame formats. There are no fields
for seq number or acks.
 So where is the mechanism for:
 Reliable comn
 Interface of NW Layer with different 802.x protocols
 The solution lies in the LLC which forms upper half of Data Link
Layer.
 Runs on top of the 802 protocols.
 Hides the differences of various 802 networks.
 Provides a single format and interface to the NW layer.
 NW layer passes packet to LLC.
 LLC sublayer adds LLC header containing seq and ack nos.

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IEEE 802.2 - Logical Link Layer
 Resulting structure inserted into a 802.X payload and transmitted.
 Reverse process takes place at reciever.
 LLC provides 3 options
 Unreliable datagram service.
 Ack datagram service.
 Reliable connection oriented service.
 Based on the HDLC protocol.

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The MAC Sub Layer

Wireless LAN Protocols

Wireless Protocols
 IEEE 802.11 – Runs at speed of 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps
 IEEE 802.11a – Wider freq band and runs at a speed of
54 Mbps
 IEEE 802.11b – Same freq band as IEEE 802.11 but
uses different modulation technique. Runs at a speed
of 11 Mbps
 IEEE 802.11g – Another variation
 IEEE 802.15 - Bluetooth
 IEEE 802.16 - WiMAX

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Wireless Protocols - General

 Two modes:
 Basis Service Set
(BSS)
 BSS with base stn.
Base stn is also called
an Access Point (AP)
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Wireless LAN protocols
 CSMA cannot be used directly! Why?

Because the range of a single radio may not cover the

entire system.

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Wireless LAN protocols

The hidden station problem. The exposed station problem.

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The Essence of Problem

 In CSMA, a stn senses for carrier in its vicinity.

 Here, stn should know whether there is activity

in the vicinity of the receiver.

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Solution – MACA Protocol

Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (MACA) protocol.

(a) A sending an Request To Send to B.
(b) B responding with a Clear To Send to A.
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MACA Protocol

What happens when B and C sent a RTS to A at

the same time?
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IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN

We shall cover:
 The 802.11 Protocol Stack

 The 802.11 Physical Layer

 The 802.11 MAC Sublayer Protocol

 The 802.11 Frame Structure

 Services - OTW

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IEEE 802.11 Protocol Stack

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IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer
 Five transmission techniques permitted which
differ in achievable speeds and technology used.
 Infrared – Similar to TV remote control
 FHSS – Frequency hopping Spread Spectrum
 DSSS – Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
 OFDM – Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing.
 HR-DSSS – High Rate DSSS.

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802.11 MAC Sub Layer Protocol
Wireless protocols suffer from ‘The hidden station problem’
and ‘The exposed station problem’.
To overcome this, 802.11 supports two modes of
operation:
DCF – Distributed Coordinated Function.
PCF – Point Coordination Function.

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802.11 MAC Sub Layer Protocol

 DCF – Distributed Coordination Function

 does not use any kind of central control
 PCF – Point Coordination Function
 uses base station to control all activity in the cell

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Distributed Coordination Function
 DCF uses CSMA/CA protocol which has two
modes.
 First mode is simple CSMA with binary backoff
algorithm
 Other mode uses MACA for Wireless (MACAW)
with virtual channel sensing. We shall see an
example.

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Virtual Channel Sensing - CSMA/CA
timer
request to send

clear to send

network allocation vector

C can hear A (RTS) and D can hear B (CTS)

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802.11 MAC Sub Layer Protocol
 wireless environments very noisy!
 probability of frame to be transmitted successfully
inversely proportional to the frame length
 damaged frames have to be retransmitted
 So, what is the solution?

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802.11 MAC Sub Layer Protocol
Solution:
 each long frame fragmented into smaller pieces,
with fragments having their own Checksum
 the fragments are acknowledged using Stop-
and-Wait protocol
 i.e. fragment k+1 is not transmitted till ack for
fragment k is received.
 Once a channel has been acquired using RTS &
CTS, multiple fragments can be sent in a row.
 Sequence of fragments is called a Fragment
Burst.

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802.11 MAC Sub Layer Protocol
 A fragment burst.

 only damaged fragments retransmitted -throughput increased

 NAV keeps the other station quiet only until the next ACK
 How to transmit whole frame without interference? (Point
Coordination Function – Polling/ Beacon Frame)

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802.11 MAC Sub Layer Protocol

Inter Frame Spacing in 802.11 to allow DCF and

PCF to coexist in one cell.

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The 802.11 Frame Structure

Version
Duration – how long frame & its ack will occupy
Type – Data, control or management
Subtype – RTS or CTS
channel. Aids in NAV mechanism
To/From DS - frame is going or coming from intercell distr sys. Address – MAC addresses. Why four?
MF- more fragments to follow
Seq – to number fragments. 12 bits for frame id
Retry- retxn of earlier frame
Pwr - to put rxr to sleep/ wake it and 4 bits for fragment id.
More – tx has addl frames for rx
Data
W – frame encrypted using WEP
O – process sequence of frames in order Checksum

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Any questions please?