Chapter 12: Outline

1. RANDOM ACCESS

2. CONTROLLED ACCESS

3. CHANNELIZATION
 Chapter 12: Objective
❑ The first section discusses random-access protocols. Four
protocols, ALOHA, CSMA, CSMA/CD, and CSMA/CA, are
described. These protocols are mostly used in LANs and WANs.

❑ The second section discusses controlled-access protocols. Three

protocols, reservation, polling, and token-passing.

❑ The third section discusses channelization protocols. Three

protocols, FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA are described.
 Media Access Control(MAC)
■ When stations are connected to a common link(multi
point/broadcast link), multiple access protocol is
required to coordinate access to the link.
■ The problem of controlling the access to the medium
should ensure that at the same time no two devices
can interrupt or monopolize the link.
■ Many protocols have been devised to handle access
to a shared link.
■ These protocols belong to a sub layer in DLL called
media access control(MAC).
Taxonomy of multiple-access protocols
 12-1 RANDOMACCESS

□In random-access or contention no station is superior to

another station and none is assigned control over another.
□ At each instance, a station that has data to send uses
a procedure defined by the protocol to make a decision on
whether or not to send.
□This decision depends on the state of the medium (idle or
busy).
□Each station can transmit when it desires on the condition that
it follows the predefined procedure, testing the state of the
medium.
Random access(Contention Method)
■ Two features that gave this name
1) There is no scheduled time for the station to
transmit. Transmission is random among the
stations.
□ So, the name Random access method
2) No rules specify which station should send next.
Stations compete with one another to access
the medium.
□So, the method is called Contention methods
 Random access
■ As each station has right to access the medium, if
more than one station tries to send, there is an
access conflict and frames will be either modified
or destroyed.
■ To avoid this access conflict, each station follows
the procedures which answers questions
1) When can the station access the medium?
2) What can station do if medium is busy.
3) How can the station determine the success or
failure of the transmission
4) What can station do if there is access conflict
 Random access

■ Methods
1) ALOHA
2) CSMA/CD
3) CSMA/CA
 ALOHA
□ALOHA, the earliest random access method, was
developed at the University of Hawaii in early 1970.
□ It was designed for a radio (wireless) LAN, but it
can be used on any shared medium.
□ It is obvious that there are potential collisions in this
arrangement.
□ The medium is shared between the stations. When a
station sends data, another station may attempt to do
so at the same time.
□The data from the two stations collide and become
garbled.
 Pure ALOHA
■ Original ALOHA protocol is called Pure
ALOHA. Idea is
1) Each station sends a frame whenever it has frame to
send.
2) Since there is only one channel to share, there is
possibility of collision between frames from different
stations.
Frames in a pure ALOHA network
 ALOHA
Eg: There are 4 stations that content with one
another for access to the shared channel.
□ Each station sends two frames, there are totally

8 frames on this medium.

□ Some of these frames collide because multiple

access frames are in the contention for the

shared channel.
□ Only two frames, frame 1.1 from station 1 and

frame 3.2 from station 3 survived.

 ALOHA
■ Even if 1 bit of a frame coexists on the channel with
one bit from another frame, there is a collision and
both will be destroyed.
■ Need to resend the frames that have been destroyed
during transmission.
■ Pure ALOHA protocol relies on Ack. from the
receiver.
■ If station does not receive ack. with in time-out
period, station assumes that frames have been
destroyed and resends it.
 Pure ALOHA
■ A Collision involves two or more stations. If
all these stations resend frames again, frames
collide.
■ PURE ALOHA dictates that when the time out
period passes, each station waits for random
amount of time before resending the frames.
■ Randomness avoid more collisions .
■ This is called Back-off time TB .
 Pure ALOHA
■ Second method to prevent congesting the channel
with retransmitted frames is after maximum number
of retransmission attempts Kmax the stations must give
up and try later.
■ Time out period is equal to maximum possible RT
propagation delay, which is twice the the amount of
time required to send the frame between most widely
separated stations(2*Tp).
■ Back-off time TB is a random value which depends
on value of K.
Procedure for pure ALOHA protocol
 Example 12. 1
The stations on a wireless ALOHA network are a maximum
of 600 km apart.
If we assume that signals propagate at 3 × 108 m/s,
find Tp and T .
B

Solution:
To find T = (600 × 103) / (3 × 108) = 2 ms.
p

for K = 2, the range of R is {0, 1, 2, 3}.

This meansthat TB can be 0, 2, 4, or 6 ms, based
onthe outcome of the random variable R.
 Continued…

■ Common formula is binary exponential back-off.

□ In this method, for each retransmission, a multiplier
in the range 0 to 2K-1 is randomly chosen and
multiplied by Tp (Max. propagation time) or
Tfr(Average time required to send out a frame) to find
TB
□ The range of random numbers increases after
each collision.
□ Usually the value of Kmax chosen is 15
 Vulnerable time
■ Vulnerable time is length of a time, in which
there is a possibility of collision.
■ Assume that stations send fixed frames with
each frame taking Tfr seconds to send .
■ From the fig. the vulnerable time ,during
which a collision may occur in PURE
ALOHA, is 2 times the frame transmission
time.
Pure Aloha Vulnerable time=2* Tfr
Vulnerable time for pure ALOHA protocol
 Example 12.2
A pure ALOHA network transmits 200-bit frames on a
shared channel of 200 kbps. What is the requirement to
make this frame collision-free?

Solution
Average frame transmission time Tfr is 200 bits/200 kbps or
1 ms.
The vulnerable time is 2 × 1 ms = 2 ms.
This means no station should send later than 1 ms
before this station starts transmission and no station should
start sending during the period (1 ms) that this station is
sending.
 Throughput
■ Let G be the average number of frames
generated by the system during one frame
transmission time.
■ It can be proved that, average number of
successful transmission for pure ALOHA is

■ The Maximum through put Smax =0.184 for

G=1/2.
 Throughput

■ In other words, if one-half frame is generated

during one frame transmission time, then
18.4% of these frames reach their destination
successfully.
■ The throughput for pure ALOHA is S =
G × e −2G .
■ The maximum throughput
Smax = 0.184 when G= (1/2).
 Example 12. 3
A pure ALOHA network transmits 200-bit frames on a
shared channel of 200 kbps. What is the throughput if the
system (all stations together) produces
a. 1000 frames per second?
b. 500 frames per second?
c. 250 frames per second?
Solution
The frame transmission time is 200/200 kbps or 1 ms.
a. If the system creates 1000 frames per second, then 1 frame per millisecond.
Therefore G = 1.
Throughput S = G × e−2G = 0.135 (13.5 percent).
This means that the throughput is
1000 0.135 = 135 frames. Only 135 frames out of 1000
will
× probably survive.
 Example 12. 3 (continued)
b. If the system creates 500 frames per second, or 1/2 frames
per millisecond.
Therefore G = 1/2.
Throughput S=G×e−2G =0.184 (18.4
percent). This means that the throughput is
500 × 0.184 = 92 and that only 92 frames out of 500 will
probably survive.
c. If the system creates 250 frames per second, or 1/4
frames per millisecond.
Therefore G = 1/4.
Throughput S = G × e−2G = 0.152 (15.2 percent).
This means that the throughput is 250 × 0.152 Only 38
= 38.
frames out of 250 will probably survive
 Slotted
■ Pure AlohaALOHA
vulnerable time is 2*Tfr,
because
no rule that defines when the station is
allowed to transmit.
■ Station may send before other station has
finished/another station has started.
■ To improve the efficiency of Pure ALOHA, Slotted
ALOHA was invented.
■ In Slotted ALOHA, divide the time into slots of Tfr
Sec and force the station to send only in the
beginning of the time slot.
Frames in a slotted ALOHA network
 Slotted
■ ALOHA
Because station is allowed to send only at the
beginning of the synchronized time slot,
■ if a station misses this moment, it must wait
until the beginning of the next time slot.
■ Still there is possibility of collision if two
stations try to send at the beginning of the
same time slot.
■ Vulnerable time is one-half that of PURE
ALOHA= Tfr.
Vulnerable time for slotted ALOHA protocol
 Throughput
■ The throughput for slotted ALOHA is
S = G × e−G .
■ The maximum throughput
Smax = 0.368 when G = 1.
■ If one frame is generated during one frame
transmission time, then 36.8% of these frames reach
the destination successfully.
■ Because vulnerable time is equal to frame
transmission time., station generates only one frame
in this time.
 Example 12. 4
A slotted ALOHA network transmits 200-bit frames using a
shared channel with a 200-kbps bandwidth. Find the
throughput if the system (all stations together) produces
a. 1000 frames per second.
b. 500 frames per second.
c. 250 frames per second.
Solution
The frame transmission time is 200/200 kbps or 1 ms.
.G =1. So throughput S = G × = 0.368 −G (36.8
e
percent).
This means that the throughput is 1000 × 0.368 = 368
frames. Only 368 out of 1000 frames will probably survive.
 Example 12. 4 (continued)

b) G = 1/2.
In this case S = G × e−G = 0.303 (30.3 percent).
This means that the throughput 500 × 0.303 = 151.5.
Only 151 frames out of 500 will probably survive.
c) G = 1/4.
In this case S = G × e−G = 0.195 (19.5 percent).
This means that the throughput is 250 × 0.195 = 49.
Only 49 frames out of 250 will probably survive.
 CSMA
□To minimize the chance of collision and, therefore,
increase the performance, the CSMA method was
developed.

□The chance of collision can be reduced if a station

senses the medium before trying to use it.
□Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) requires that
each station first listen to the medium (or check the
state of the medium) before sending.

□ In other words, CSMA is based on the principle

“sense before transmit” or “listen before talk.”
Space/time model of a collision in CSMA
 Vulnerable time
■ Vulnerable time for CSMA is the Propagation
time Tp.
■ Tp is the time needed for the signal to
propagate from one end of the medium to
other.
■ When any station sends a frame during this time
,collision will occur.
■ If the first bit of the frame reaches the end of the
medium, every station will already have heard the bit
and will refrain from sending.
Vulnerable time in CSMA
 Persistence Methods

What should station do if channel is busy/idle?

■ Three methods to answer this

1) 1-Persistent method
2) Non persistent method.
3) p-Persistent method
■ When a station finds channel is busy, behavior

of three persistence methods are shown below

Behavior of three persistence methods
Behavior of three persistence methods
1-Persistent : After station finds the line idle, it
sends the frame immediately.(Probability 1)
□ This methods has highest chance of collision

because two or more stations may find the line

idle and send their frames immediately.
Non-Persistent: Station that has frame senses the
line. If line is idle, it sends immediately.
□If not, it waits for random amount of time
and then senses the line again.
 Continued..
P-persistent: This method is used if the channel has time
slot with the slot duration equal to or greater than
maximum propagation time.
□It reduces the chance of collision and improves the efficiency.
□ After station finds channel is idle,
it follows the following steps
1) With probability p, the station sends its frame.
2) With probability q=1-p, the station waits for the beginning of
the next time slot and checks the line again.
3) If the line is busy, it acts as though a collision has occurred
and uses the back off procedure.
Continued..

□The Non-Persistent approach reduces the

chance of collision because it is unlikely that
two or more stations will wait for same amount
of time.
□ This method reduces efficiency of the n/w
because the medium remains idle when there
may be stations with frames to send.
Flow diagram for three persistence methods
 CSMA/CD
•The CSMA method does not specify the procedure
following a collision.

•Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection

(CSMA/CD) augments the algorithm to handle the
collision.

□In this method, a station monitors the medium after it

sends a frame to see if the transmission was
successful. If so, the station is finished. If, however,
there is a collision, the frame is sent again.
Collision of the first bits in CSMA/CD
Collision and abortion in CSMA/CD
 Minimum Frame size
■ CSMA/CD to work, need a restriction on the frame
size.
■ Before sending the last bit of the frame, if sending
station detects a collision, if any, abort the
transmission.
■ Because station once sends entire frame, does not
keep a copy of the frame and monitor the line for
collision detection.
■ There fore frame transmission time Tfr must be at
least two times the maximum propagation time
Tp(2Tp).
 Example 12. 5
A network using CSMA/CD has a bandwidth of 10 Mbps. If
the maximum propagation time (including the delays in the
devices and ignoring the time needed to send a jamming
signal, as we see later) is 25.6 μs, what is the minimum size
of the frame?
Solution
The minimum frame transmission time is
Tfr = 2 × Tp = 51.2 μs.
This means, in the worst case, a station needs to transmit for
a period of 51.2 μs to detect the collision.
□ The minimum size of the frame is 10 Mbps × 51.2 μs =
512 bits or 64 bytes Which is actually the minimum size of
the frame for Standard Ethernet.
Flow diagram for the CSMA/CD
Energy level during transmission, idleness, or collision
 Energy
■ level
Level of energy in a channel can have three
values zero, normal and abnormal.
□ At Zero level, channel is idle.
□ At Normal Level, station has successfully
captured the channel and is sending its frame.
□ At Abnormal level, there is a collision and
level of energy is twice the normal level.
□ The station that has frame to send, needs to
monitor the energy level of the channel.
 Throughput
■ Is greater than PURE ALOHA.
■ Maximum throughput occurs at a different
values of G and is based on Persistence
method and value p in p-persistent approach.
■ For 1-persistent method the maximum through
put is around 50% when G=1.
■ For non persistent method, the maximum
through put can go up to 90% when G is
between 3 and 8.
 CSMA/CA
□ Carrier sense multiple access with collision
avoidance (CSMA/CA) was invented for wireless
networks.
□ Collisions are avoided through the use of
CSMA/CA’s three strategies:
1)Inter frame space,
2)Contention window
3)Acknowledgments
Contention window
 Inter frame
■ Collisions are avoided by deferring the transmission
Space(IFS)
even if channel is idle.
■ Station does not send immediately, it waits for a
period called IFS.
■ Even though channel may be found idle when it is
sensed, a distant station may have already started
transmitting and the signal has not yet reached this
station.
■ IFS time allows signal from the distant station to
reach this station.
 Inter frame
■ Space(IFS)
After IFS time, if channel is found idle, the
station can send, but still need to wait a time
equal to contention time.
■ IFS variable can be used to prioritize the
stations.
In CSMA/CA, the IFS can also be used
to define the priority of a station or a
frame.
 Contention
■ window
Is an amount of time divided into slots.
■ A station that is ready to send chooses a
random number of slots as its wait time.
■ The number of time slots in the window
changes according to binary exponential back
off strategy.
■ Means it is set to one slot first time and then
doubles each time the station can not detect an
idle channel after IFS time.
 Contention
■ window
Station needs to sense the channel after each time
slot.
■ If station finds that channel is busy, it does not restart
the process; stops the timer and restarts it when the
channel is sensed as idle.
■ This gives priority to the station with longest waiting
time.
In CSMA/CA, if the station finds the channel busy, it does
not restart the timer of the contention window;
it stops the timer and restarts it when the channel
becomes idle.
 Acknowledgment

■ With all these precautions, data may get

corrupted during transmission resulting in
destroyed data.
■ Positive ack. and the time-out timer guarantee
that receiver has received the frame.
 Frame exchange Time Line
1. Before sending the frame, the source station senses the
medium by checking the energy level at the carrier
frequency.
a) Channel uses persistent strategy with back off until channel
is idle.
b) After the station is found idle, the station waits for a period
of time called DCF inter frame space(DIFS), then frame
sends a control frame called request to send(RTS).
2. After receiving the RTS & waiting a period time called short
inter frame space(SIFS), the destination station sends the
a control frame, called clear to send(CTS) to the source station.
The control frame indicates that the destination is ready to
receive data.
 Frame exchange Time Line
3. Source station sends data after waiting an amount of
time equal to SIFS.
4. Destination station after waiting an amount of time
called SIFS, sends an acknowledgment to show that
frame has been received.
Acknowledgment is needed in this protocol to
check for the successful transmission of its data at
the destination.
CSMA/CA and NAV
Flow diagram for CSMA/CA
 Network Allocation vector
■ How do other stations defer sending data when one of the
station acquire access i.e How collision avoidance aspect is
accomplished??
■ Feature is NAV
I. When station sends an RTS frame, it includes the duration of
the time that it needs to occupy the channel.
□ The stations that are affected by this transmission creates a
times called Network Allocation Vector(NAV), that shows
how much time is passed and when these stations are allowed
to check the idleness of the medium.
□ Each time a station access the system and sends an RTS frame,
other stations starts their NAV.
□ i.e Each station before sensing the medium to see if it is idle, it
first checks NAV if it has expired.
 Collision during the Handshaking
I. What happens if there is a collision during the time
when RTS or CTS control frames are in
transition(Handshaking period)
□ Two or more stations try to sends RTS frame at the
same time, the control frames may collide.
□ Since there is no mechanism for collision detection,
the sender assumes there has been a collision if
CTS frame is not received from the receiver.
□ The back off strategy is applied and sender tries
again.
 Hidden station Problem
■ Solution is to use hand shake frames.
■ When RTS message is sent from B to A, not C.
■ Because both B & C are with in transmission
range of A, the CTS message, which contains the
duration of data transmission from B to A, reaches
C.
■ Station C knows that there is some hidden station
is using the channel and refrains from
transmitting until the duration is over.