Medium Access Control (MAC)

Multiple Access
 Data link layer divided into two functionality-
oriented sublayers
 RANDOM ACCESS
 In random access or contention methods,
• No station is superior to another station and none is
assigned the 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.
 No scheduled time for a station to transmit
• Transmission is random among the stations
 No rules specify which station should send next
• Stations compete with one another to access the medium
 If more than one station tries to send, access conflict-collision-and
the frames destroyed.
• ALOHA …earliest random access method
 pure ALOHA
 The simplest possible medium access protocol:
Just talk when you feel like it
 Contention system: Multiple users share a common channel that may
lead to conflicts
• Acknowledgement is used for error detection of a frame

• The time-out period..max. possible round-trip propagation delay

 If frame collision occurs, the sender waits a random amount of time

back-off time TB and sends it again
• The waiting time must be random or the same frames will collide

over and over

 Whenever two frames try to occupy the channel at the same time,
there will be a collision
 When the first bit of a new frame overlaps with just the last bit

of a frame almost finished, both frames will be totally

destroyed 4
How to choose random waiting time?
 The back-off time TB is a random value depends on K
(the number of attempted unsuccessful transmissions).
 The formula for TB depends on the implementation.
• One common formula is the binary exponential

back-off.
• For each retransmission, a multiplier in the range 0 to

2K - 1 is randomly chosen and multiplied by Tp

(maximum propagation time) or Tfr (the average time
required to send out a frame) to find TB
 The range of the random numbers increases after each
collision.
 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,
 Tp = (600 × 105 ) / (3 × 108 ) = 2 ms.
 Find the value of TB for different values of
K.
 For K = 1, the range is {0, 1}. The station needs to|
generate a random number with a value of 0 or 1.
• TB is either 0 ms (0 × 2) or 2 ms (1 × 2),
based on the outcome of the random variable
 For K = 2, the range is {0, 1, 2, 3}.
• TB can be 0, 2, 4, or 6 ms, based on the outcome of the
random variable.
 For K = 3, the range is {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}.
• TB can be 0, 2, 4, . . . , 14 ms, based on the
outcome of the random variable.
 Vulnerable time for pure ALOHA
 A packet X is destroyed by another packet either
• Starting up to one packet time before X
• Starting up to immediately before the end of X

 There is no rule that defines when the station can send.

• A station may send soon after another station has started or soon
before another station has finished.

7
Slotted ALOHA
 ALOHA’s problem: Long vulnerability period of a
packet
 Reduce it by introducing time slots – transmissions
may only start at the start of a slot
• Slot synchronization is assumed to be “somehow”

available
 Possibility of collision if two stations try to send at the
beginning of the same time slot.

8
Vulnerable time for slotted ALOHA
Carrier sensing
 (Slotted) ALOHA is simple, but not satisfactory
 The chance of collision can be reduced if a station
senses the medium before trying to use it.
 Be a bit more polite: Listen before talk
• Sense the carrier to check whether it is idle before
transmitting
• Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
• Abstain from transmitting if carrier not idle (some
other sender is currently transmitting)
 Crucial question: How to behave in detail when
carrier is busy?
• In particular: WHEN to retry a transmission?
CSMA and propagation delay
 CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot
eliminate it.
 Possibility of collision still exists because of propagation
delay d
 Suppose two stations become ready to send at time t and
t+ = t 2
• At t, the channel is completely idle

• The stations are separated by a propagation delay d > 

 Second station cannot detect the already started

transmission of first station
• Will sense an idle channel, send, and collide (at each
other, or at a third station)
 Vulnerable time in CSMA
 The vulnerable time for CSMA is the
propagation time Tp .
• This is the time needed for a signal to propagate from one end
of the medium to the other.
• When a station sends a frame, and any other station tries to
send a frame during this time, a collision will result.
• But 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.
1-persistent CSMA
 When carrier is busy, wait until it is idle
 Then, immediately transmit
• “Persistent” waiting
• After the station finds the line idle, it sends its frame
immediately
 Obvious problem: if more than one station wants
to transmit, they are guaranteed to collide!
• Just too impatient…

 But certainly better than pure ALOHA or slotted

ALOHA
 Non-persistent CSMA
 When channel is idle, transmit
 When channel is busy, wait a random time before checking
again whether the channel is idle
• Do not continuously monitor carrier to greedily grab it

once it is idle
• Conscious attempt to be less greedy

 Performance depends a bit on the random distribution used

for the waiting time
• But in general better throughput than persistent CSMA

for higher loads

• At low loads, random waiting is not necessary and

wasteful
15
p-persistent CSMA
 Combines ideas from persistent and non-persistent
CSMA
• Uses a slotted time model

 When channel is idle, send

 When channel is busy, continuously monitor it until it
becomes idle
• But then, do not always transmit immediately

• But flip a coin – transmit with probability p

• With probability 1-p, do not send and wait for the next

slot
• If channel is busy in the next slot, monitor for idleness
• Else, flip a coin again
Behavior of three persistence
methods
 Collision detection – CSMA/CD
 When two packets collide, lots of time is wasted by completing
their transmission
 If it were possible to detect a collision when it happens,

transmission could be aborted and a new attempt made

• Wasted time reduced, no need to wait for (destroyed) packets

to complete
 Depending on physical layer, collisions can be detected!

• Necessary: Sender must be able to listen to the medium when

sending, compare what it sends with what it receives

• If different: declare a collision

! CSMA/CD – Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection

What to do after a collision happens?
 Stations want to transmit their packets, despite detecting a collision
 Have to try again
• Immediately? Would again ensure another collision 

• Coordinate somehow? Difficult, no communication medium available

• Wait a random time!

 Randomization “de-synchronizes” medium access, avoids

collisions
 However: will result in some idle time, occasionally

! Alternation between contention and transmission phases

Not necessarily
slotted time!
Collision and abortion in
CSMA/CD

Minimum Frame Size = 2 × Tp

 A network using CSMA/CD has a bandwidth of 10 Mbps. If
the maximum propagation time is 25.6 μs, what is the
minimum size of the frame?
 Solution
 The 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.
This is actually the minimum size of the frame for Standard
Ethernet.
Wired LANs: Ethernet
 Local area network (LAN) is a computer network
that is designed for a limited geographic area such
as a building or a campus
 Issues
• Cabling
• Physical layer
• MAC sublayer
IEEE standard for LANs
STANDARD ETHERNET
 The original Ethernet created in 1976 at Xerox’s Palo
Alto Research Center (PARC).
 Since then, it has gone through four generations.
 MAC frame
 Destination address (DA). The DA field is 6 bytes and contains the
physical address of the destination station or stations to receive the
packet
 Source address (SA). The SA field is also 6 bytes and contains the
physical address of the sender of the packet.
 Length or type. define the number of bytes in the data field.
• Data. This field carries data encapsulated from the upper-layer protocols.
• It is aminimum of 46 and a maximum of 1500 bytes.

 CRC. The last field contains error detection information, CRC-32

Categories of Standard Ethernet
10Base5

10Base2

10Base-T
Standard Ethernet …cabling
FAST ETHERNET
 Fast Ethernet under the name IEEE 802.3u.
 Backward-compatible with Standard Ethernet,
but it can transmit data 10 times faster at a rate
of 100 Mbps.
 Topology
Fast Ethernet …cabling
GIGABIT ETHERNET
 Operate at 1000 Mbps.
 The IEEE 802.3z standard
 Ten-Gigabit Ethernet
 Ten-Gigabit Ethernet operates only in full duplex
mode
 There is no need for contention; CSMA/CD is not
used in Ten-Gigabit Ethernet.
 The physical layer in Ten-Gigabit Ethernet is
designed for using fiber-optic cable over long
distances.
 Twisted-Pair Cabling Overview
 A typical twisted-pair cable consists of four pairs
of copper wires, for a total of eight wires.
 Each side of the cable is terminated using an
RJ45 connector, which has eight pins.
 When the connector is crimped onto the cable,
these pins make contact with each wire
 Twisted-Pair Cabling Overview
 A typical twisted-pair cable consists of four pairs of copper
wires, for a total of eight wires.
 Each side of the cable is terminated using an RJ45
connector, which has eight pins.
 When the connector is crimped onto the cable, these pins
make contact with each wire
 For communication to occur, transmit pins must connect to
the receive pins of the remote host.
 Twisted-Pair Cabling Overview
 The crossover can be controlled either by the cable, or an
intermediary device, such as a hub or switch.
 There are three common types of twisted-pair cable:
• Straight-through cable
• Crossover cable
• Rollover cable
 Twisted-Pair Cabling Overview
 Straight-Through Cable
 A straight-through cable is used in the following
circumstances:
 From a host to a hub
 From a host to a switch
 From a router to a hub
 From a router to a switch

 Essentially, a straight-through cable is used to connect

any device to a hub or switch, except for another
hub or switch.
 Twisted-Pair Cabling Overview
 Crossover Cable
 A crossover cable is used in the following
circumstances:
• From a host to a host
• From a hub to a hub
• From a switch to a switch
• From a hub to a switch
• From a router to a router
 A hub or a switch will provide the crossover
function..
 Twisted-Pair Cabling Overview
 Rollover Cable
 A rollover cable is used to connect a
workstation or laptop into a Cisco device’s
console or auxiliary port, for management
purposes.
 A rollover cable is often referred to as a console
cable,..