Unit-2

(Wireless) Medium Access Control (MAC): Motivation for a specialized MAC (Hidden and
exposed terminals, Near and far terminals), SDMA, FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, Wireless LAN/(IEEE
802.11).

2.0. MAC: The Media Access Control (MAC) data communication protocol sub-layer, also known
as the Medium Access Control, is a sub-layer of the Data Link Layer specified in the seven-layer OSI
model (layer 2). The hardware that implements the MAC is referred to as a Medium Access Controller.
The MAC sub-layer acts as an interface between the Logical Link Control (LLC) sub layer and the
network's physical layer. The MAC layer emulates a full-duplex logical communication channel in a
multi-point network. This channel may provide unicast, multicast or broadcast communication service.

2.1. Motivation for

a specialized MAC
One of the
most commonly used
MAC schemes for
wired networks is
carrier sense multiple
access with collision
detection
(CSMA/CD). In this
scheme, a sender
senses the medium (a
wire or coaxial cable)
to see if it is free. If the medium is busy, the sender waits until it is free. If the medium is free, the
sender starts transmitting data and continues to listen into the medium. If the sender detects a collision
while sending, it stops at once and sends a jamming signal. But this scheme doest work well with
wireless networks. The problems are:
 Signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance
 The sender would apply CS and CD, but the collisions happen at the receiver
 It might be a case that a sender cannot “hear” the collision, i.e., CD does not work
Furthermore, C“ might not work, if for e.g., a terminal is “hidden”

2.1.1. Hidden and Exposed Terminals: Consider the scenario with three mobile phones as shown
below. The transmission range of A reaches B, but not C (the detection range does not reach C either).
The transmission range of C reaches B, but not A. Finally, the transmission range of B reaches A and C,
i.e., A cannot detect C and vice versa.

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 Hidden terminals
 A sends to B, C cannot receive A
 C wants to send to B, C senses a “free” medium (C“ fails) and starts transmitting
 Collision at B occurs, A cannot detect this collision (CD fails) and continues with its
transmission to B
 A is “hidden” from C and vice versa
Exposed terminals
 B sends to A, C wants to send to another terminal (not A or B) outside the range
 C senses the carrier and detects that the carrier is busy.
 C postpones its transmission until it detects the medium as being idle again
 but A is outside radio range of C, waiting is not necessary
 C is “exposed” to B
Hidden terminals cause collisions, where as Exposed terminals causes unnecessary delay.

2.1.2. Near and far terminals

Consider the situation shown below. A and B are both sending with the same transmission power.

 Signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance

 “o, B’s signal drowns out A’s signal making C unable to receive A’s transmission
 If C is an arbiter for sending rights, B drown out A’s signal on the physical layer making C
unable to hear out A.

The near/far effect is a severe problem of wireless networks using CDM. All signals should arrive at the
receiver with more or less the same strength for which Precise power control is to be implemented.

2.2. SDMA: Space Division Multiple Access is used for allocating a separated space to users in
wireless networks. No of application are assigning on base station to a mobile phone user. The mobile
phone may receive several base stations with different quality.
A MAC algorithm can decide which base station is best, taking into account which frequencies
(FDM), time slots (TDM) or code (CDM) are still available. The SDMA algorithm is formed by cells and
sectorized antennas which constitute the infrastructure implementing space division multiplexing (SDM).
SDM has the unique advantage of not requiring any multiplexing equipment. It is usually combined with
other multiplexing techniques to better utilize the individual physical channels.
,

2.3. FDMA: Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) describes schemes to subdivide the frequency
dimension into several non-overlapping frequency bands.

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 Frequency Division Multiple
Access is a method employed to permit
several users to transmit simultaneously on one satellite transponder by assigning a specific frequency
within the channel to each user. Each
conversation gets its own, unique, radio
channel. The channels are relatively narrow,
usually 30 KHz or less and are defined as either
transmit or receive channels. A full duplex
conversation requires a transmit & receive
channel pair. FDM is often used for
simultaneous access to the medium by base
station and mobile station in cellular networks
establishing a duplex channel. A scheme called
frequency division duplexing (FDD) in which
the two directions, mobile station to base station and vice versa are now separated using different
frequencies.
FDM for mUltiple access and DUplex
The two frequencies are also known as uplink, i.e., from mobile station to base station or from
ground control to satellite, and as downlink, i.e., from base station to mobile station or from satellite to
ground control. The basic frequency allocation scheme for GSM is fixed and regulated by national
authorities. All uplinks use the band between 890.2 and 915 MHz, all downlinks use 935.2 to 960 MHz.
According to FDMA, the base station, shown on the right side, allocates a certain frequency for up- and
downlink to establish a duplex channel with a mobile phone. Up- and downlink have a fixed relation. If
the uplink frequency is fu = 890 MHz + n·0.2 MHz, the downlink frequency is fd = fu + 45 MHz,
i.e., fd = 935 MHz + n·0.2 MHz for a certain channel n. The base station selects the channel. Each
channel (uplink and downlink) has a bandwidth of 200 kHz.
This scheme also has disadvantages. While radio stations broadcast 24 hours a day, mobile
communication typically takes place for only a few minutes at a time. Assigning a separate frequency
for each possible communication scenario would be a tremendous waste of (scarce) frequency resources.
Additionally, the fixed assignment of a frequency to a sender makes the scheme very inflexible and limits
the number of senders.

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2.4.TDMA: A more flexible multiplexing scheme for typical
mobile communications is time division multiplexing (TDM).
Compared to FDMA, time division multiple access (TDMA)
offers a much more flexible scheme, which comprises all
technologies that allocate certain time slots for communication.
Now synchronization between sender and receiver has to be
achieved in the time domain. Again this can be done by using a
fixed pattern similar to FDMA techniques, i.e., allocating a certain
time slot for a channel, or by using a dynamic allocation scheme.
Listening to different frequencies at the same time is quite difficult, but listening to many channels
separated in time at the same frequency is simple. Fixed schemes do not need identification, but are not
as flexible considering varying bandwidth requirements.

2.5. Fixed TDM:The simplest algorithm for using TDM is allocating time slots for channels in a
fixed pattern. This results in a fixed bandwidth and is the typical solution for wireless phone systems.
MAC is quite simple, as the only crucial factor is
accessing the reserved time slot at the right moment.
If this synchronization is assured, each mobile
station knows its turn and no interference will
happen. The fixed pattern can be assigned by the
base station, where competition between different
mobile stations that want to access the medium is
solved.

The figure shows how these fixed TDM patterns are

used to implement multiple access and a duplex channel between a base station and mobile station.
Assigning different slots for uplink and downlink using the same frequency is called time division
duplex (TDD). As shown in the figure, the base station uses one out of 12 slots for the downlink, whereas
the mobile station uses one out of 12 different slots for the uplink. Uplink and downlink are separated in
time. Up to 12 different mobile stations can use the same frequency without interference using this
scheme. Each connection is allotted its own up- and downlink pair. This general scheme still wastes a lot
of bandwidth. It is too static, too inflexible for data communication. In this case, connectionless, demand-
oriented TDMA schemes can be used.
2.6. Classical Aloha
In this scheme, TDM is applied without controlling medium access. Here each station can access the
medium at any time as shown below:

This is a random access scheme, without a central arbiter controlling access and without coordination
among the stations. If two or more stations access the medium at the same time, a collision occurs and
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the transmitted data is destroyed. Resolving this problem is left to higher layers (e.g., retransmission of
data). The simple Aloha works fine for a light load and does not require any complicated access
mechanisms.

2.7. Slotted Aloha

The first refinement of the classical Aloha scheme is provided by the introduction of time slots (slotted
Aloha). In this case, all senders have to be synchronized, transmission can only start at the beginning of
a time slot as shown below.

The introduction of slots raises the throughput from 18 per cent to 36 per cent, i.e., slotting doubles the
throughput. Both basic Aloha principles occur in many systems that implement distributed access to a
medium. Aloha systems work perfectly well under a light load, but they cannot give any hard
transmission guarantees, such as maximum delay before accessing the medium or minimum throughput.

2.8. Carrier sense multiple access: One improvement to the basic Aloha is sensing the carrier
before accessing the medium. Sensing the carrier and accessing the medium only if the carrier is idle
decreases the probability of collision. But, as already mentioned in the introduction, hidden terminals
cannot be detected, so, if a hidden terminal transmits at the same time as another sender, a collision might
occur at the receiver. This basic scheme is still used in most wireless LANs. The different versions of
CSMA are:
 1-persistent CSMA: Stations sense the channel and listens if its busy and transmit immediately,
when the channel becomes idle. It’s called 1-persistent CSMA because the host transmits with
a probability of 1 whenever it finds the channel idle.
 Non-persistent CSMA: stations sense the carrier and start sending immediately if the medium
is idle. If the medium is busy, the station pauses a random amount of time before sensing the
medium again and repeating this pattern.
 p-persistent CSMA: systems nodes also sense the medium, but only transmit with a probability
of p, with the station deferring to the next slot with the probability 1-p, i.e., access is slotted
in addition

CSMA with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) is one of the access schemes used in wireless LANs
following the standard IEEE 802.11. Here sensing the carrier is combined with a back-off scheme in case
of a busy medium to achieve some fairness among competing stations.

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2.9. Demand assigned multiple
access: Channel efficiency for Aloha is 18% and for slotted Aloha is 36%. It can be increased to 80%
by implementing reservation mechanisms and combinations with some (fixed) TDM patterns. These
schemes typically have a reservation period followed by a transmission period. During the reservation
period, stations can reserve future slots in the transmission period. While, depending on the scheme,
collisions may occur during the reservation period, the transmission period can then be reservation period,
stations can reserve future slots in the transmission period. While, depending on the scheme, collisions
may occur during the reservation period, the transmission period can then be accessed without collision.

One basic scheme is demand assigned multiple access (DAMA) also called reservation Aloha,
a scheme typical for satellite systems. It increases the amount of users in a pool of satellite channels that
are available for use by any station in a network. It is assumed that not all users will need simultaneous
access to the same communication channels. So that a call can be established, DAMA assigns a pair of
available channels based on requests issued from a user. Once the call is completed, the channels are
returned to the pool for an assignment to another call. Since the resources of the satellite are being used
only in proportion to the occupied channels for the time in which they are being held, it is a perfect
environment for voice traffic and data traffic in batch mode.

It has two modes as shown below.

During a contention phase following the slotted Aloha scheme; all stations can try to reserve future
slots. Collisions during the reservation phase do not destroy data transmission, but only the short
requests for data transmission. If successful, a time slot in the future is reserved, and no other station is
allowed to transmit during this slot. Therefore, the satellite collects all successful requests (the others
are destroyed) and sends back a reservation list indicating access rights for future slots. All ground
stations have to obey this list. To maintain the fixed TDM pattern of reservation and transmission, the
stations have to be synchronized from time to time. DAMA is an explicit reservation scheme. Each
transmission slot has to be reserved explicitly.

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 2.10. PRMA packet reservation multiple access: It is a kind of implicit
reservation scheme where, slots can be reserved implicitly. A certain number of slots form a frame. The
frame is repeated in time i.e., a fixed TDM pattern is applied. A base station, which could be a satellite,
now broadcasts the status of each slot to all mobile stations. All stations receiving this vector will then
know which slot is occupied and which slot is currently free.

The
base station broadcasts the reservation status ‘ACDABA-F’ to all stations, here A to F. This means that
slots one to six and eight are occupied, but slot seven is free in the following transmission. All stations
wishing to transmit can now compete for this free slot in Aloha fashion. The already occupied slots are
not touched. In the example shown, more than one station wants to access this slot, so a

collision occurs. The base station returns the reservation status ‘ACDABA-F’, indicating that the
reservation of slot seven failed (still indicated as free) and that nothing has changed for the other slots.
Again, stations can compete for this slot. Additionally, station D has stopped sending in slot three and
station F in slot eight. This is noticed by the base station after the second frame. Before the third frame
starts, the base station indicates that slots three and eight are now idle. Station F has succeeded in
reserving slot seven as also indicated by the base station.
As soon as a station has succeeded with a reservation, all future slots are implicitly reserved for
this station. This ensures transmission with a guaranteed data rate. The slotted aloha scheme is used for
idle slots only; data transmission is not destroyed by collision.
2.11. Reservation TDMA: In a fixed TDM scheme N mini-slots followed by N·k data-slots
form a frame that is repeated. Each station is allotted its own mini-slot and can use it to reserve up to k
data-slots.

This guarantees each

station a certain
bandwidth and a fixed
delay. Other stations can
now send data in unused
data-slots as shown. Using these free slots can be based on a simple round-robin scheme or can be
uncoordinated using an Aloha scheme. This scheme allows for the combination of, e.g., isochronous
traffic with fixed bitrates and best-effort traffic without any guarantees.

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 2.12. Multiple access with collision avoidance
Multiple access with collision avoidance (MACA) presents a simple scheme that solves the
hidden terminal problem, does not need a base station, and is still a random access Aloha scheme – but
with dynamic reservation. Consider the hidden terminal problem scenario.
A starts sending to B, C does not receive this transmission. C also wants to send something to B
and senses the medium. The medium appears to be free, the carrier sense fails. C also starts sending
causing a collision at B. But A cannot detect this collision at B and continues with its transmission. A
is hidden for C and vice versa.
With MACA, A does not start its transmission at once, but sends a request to send (RTS) first.
B receives the RTS that contains the name of sender and receiver, as well as the length of the future
transmission. This RTS is not heard by C, but triggers an acknowledgement from B, called clear to
send (CTS). The CTS again contains the names of sender (A) and receiver (B) of the user data, and the
length of the future transmission.

This CTS is now heard by C and the medium for future use by A is now reserved for the duration of the
transmission. After receiving a CTS, C is not allowed to send anything for the duration indicated in the
CTS toward B. A collision cannot occur at B during data transmission, and the hidden terminal problem
is solved. Still collisions might occur when A and C transmits a RTS at the same time. B resolves this
contention and acknowledges only one station in the CTS. No transmission is allowed without
appropriate CTS.
Now MACA tries to avoid the exposed terminals in the following way:

With MACA, B has to transmit an RTS first containing the name of the receiver (A) and the sender (B).
C does not react to this message as it is not the receiver, but A acknowledges using a CTS which identifies
B as the sender and A as the receiver of the following data transmission. C does not receive this CTS and
concludes that A is outside the detection range. C can start its transmission assuming it will not cause a
collision at A. The problem with exposed terminals is solved without fixed access patterns or a base station.

2.13. Polling: Polling schemes are used when one station wants to be heard by others. Polling is a
strictly centralized scheme with one master station and several slave stations. The master can poll the
slaves according to many schemes: round robin (only efficient if traffic patterns are similar over all
stations), randomly, according to reservations (the classroom example with polite students) etc. The master
could also establish a list of stations wishing to transmit during a contention phase. After this phase, the
station polls each station on the list.

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Example: Randomly Addressed Polling
  base station signals readiness to all mobile terminals
 terminals ready to send transmit random number without collision using CDMA or FDMA
 the base station chooses one address for polling from list of all random numbers (collision if two
terminals choose the same address)
 the base station acknowledges correct packets and continues polling the next terminal
 this cycle starts again after polling all terminals of the list
Inhibit sense multiple access: This scheme, which is used for the
packet data transmission service Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) in
the AMPS mobile phone system, is also known as digital sense multiple
access (DSMA). Here, the base station only signals a busy medium via
a busy tone (called BUSY/IDLE indicator) on the downlink.
After the busy tone stops, accessing the uplink is not coordinated any
further. The base station acknowledges successful transmissions; a mobile station detects a collision only
via the missing positive acknowledgement. In case of collisions, additional back-off and retransmission
mechanisms are implemented.

2.14. CDMA: Code division multiple access systems apply codes

with certain characteristics to the transmission to separate different users
in code space and to enable access to a shared medium without
interference.

All terminals send on the same frequency probably at the same time and can use the whole
bandwidth of the transmission channel. Each sender has a unique random number, the sender XO‘s
the signal with this random number. The receiver can “tune” into this signal if it knows the pseudo
random number, tuning is done via a correlation function
Disadvantages:
 higher complexity of a receiver (receiver cannot just listen into the medium and start receiving
if there is a signal)
 all signals should have the same strength at a receiver
Advantages:
 all terminals can use the same frequency, no planning needed
 huge code space(eg. 232) compared to frequency space.
 interferences (e.g. white noise) is not coded
 forward error correction and encryption can be easily integrated.
• Sender A wants to transmit the bits 010011.
– sends Ad = 1, key Ak = 010011 (assign: “0”= -1, “1”= +1)
– sending signal As = Ad * Ak = (-1, +1, -1, -1, +1, +1)
• Sender B wants to transmit the bits 110101
– sends Bd = 0, key Bk = 110101 (assign: “0”= -1, “1”= +1)
– sending signal Bs = Bd * Bk = (-1, -1, +1, -1, +1, -1)
• Both signals superimpose in space as
– As + Bs = (-2, 0, 0, -2, +2, 0)
• Receiver wants to receive signal from sender A
– apply key Ak bitwise (inner product)
• Ae = (-2, 0, 0, -2, +2, 0)
• Ak = 2 + 0 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 0 = 6, result greater than 0, therefore, original bit was “1”
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– receiving B
 • Be = (-2, 0, 0, -2, +2, 0)
• Bk = -2 + 0 + 0 - 2 - 2 + 0 = -6, i.e. “0”

The following figure shows a sender A that wants to transmit the bits 101. The key of A is shown as signal and
binary sequence Ak. The binary “0” is assigned a positive signal value, the binary “1” a negative signal value.
After spreading, i.e., XORing Ad and Ak, the resulting signal is As.

The same happens with data from sender B with bits 100. The result is Bs. As and Bs now superimpose
during transmission. The resulting signal is simply the sum As + Bs as shown above. A now tries to
reconstruct the original data from Ad. The receiver applies A’s key, Ak, to the received signal and
feeds the result into an integrator. The integrator adds the products, a comparator then has to decide if
the result is a 0 or a 1 as shown below. As clearly seen, although the original signal form is distorted by
B’s signal, the result is quite clear. The same happens if a receiver wants to receive B’s data.

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Soft handover or soft handoff refers to a feature used by the CDMA and WCDMA standards, where a
cell phone is simultaneously connected to two or more cells (or cell sectors) during a call. If the sectors
are from the same physical cell site (a sectorised site), it is referred to as softer handoff. This technique
is a form of mobile-assisted handover, for IS-95/CDMA2000 CDMA cell phones continuously make
power measurements of a list of neighboring cell sites, and determine whether or not to request or end soft
handover with the cell sectors on the list.

Soft handoff is different from the traditional hard-handoff process. With hard handoff, a definite decision
is made on whether to hand off or not. The handoff is initiated and executed without the user attempting
to have simultaneous traffic channel communications with the two base stations. With soft handoff, a
conditional decision is made on whether to hand off. Depending on the changes in pilot signal strength
from the two or more base stations involved, a hard decision will eventually be made to communicate with
only one. This normally happens after it is evident that the signal from one base station is considerably
stronger than those from the others. In the interim period, the user has simultaneous traffic channel
communication with all candidate base stations. It is desirable to implement soft handoff in power-
controlled CDMA systems because implementing hard handoff is potentially difficult in such systems..
2.15. Spread Aloha multiple access (SAMA)
CDMA senders and receivers are not really simple devices. Communicating with n devices requires
programming of the receiver to be able to decode n different codes. Aloha was a very simple scheme, but
could only provide a relatively low bandwidth due to collisions. SAMA uses spread spectrum with only
one single code (chipping sequence) for spreading for all senders accessing according to aloha.

In SAMA, each sender uses the same spreading code, for ex 110101 as shown below. Sender A and B
access the medium at the same time in their narrowband spectrum, so that the three bits shown causes
collisions. The same data could also be sent with higher power for shorter periods as show.

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The main problem in using this approach is finding good chipping sequences. The maximum throughput
is about 18 per cent, which is very similar to Aloha, but the approach benefits from the advantages of
spread spectrum techniques: robustness against narrowband interference and simple coexistence with other
systems in the same frequency bands.
2.16. Wireless LAN/(IEEE 802.11)
The global goal of WLANs is to replace office cabling, to enable tether less access to the
internet and, to introduce a higher flexibility for ad-hoc communication in, e.g., group meetings.
Advantages
● Flexibility: Within radio coverage, nodes can communicate without further restriction. Radio waves
can penetrate walls, senders and receivers can be placed anywhere (also non-visible, e.g., within
devices, in walls etc.).
● Planning: Only wireless ad-hoc networks allow for communication without previous planning, any
wired network needs wiring plans. As long as devices follow the same standard, they can communicate
● Design: Wireless networks allow for the design of small, independent devices which can for example
be put into a pocket. Cables not only restrict users but also designers of small PDAs, notepads etc.
● Robustness: Wireless networks can survive disasters, e.g., earthquakes or users pulling a plug. If the
wireless devices survive, people can still communicate. Networks requiring a wired infrastructure will
usually break down completely.
● Cost: After providing wireless access to the infrastructure via an access point for the first user,
adding additional users to a wireless network will not increase the cost. This is, important for e.g.,
lecture halls, hotel lobbies or gate areas in airports where the numbers using the network may vary
significantly.
Disadvantages:
● Quality of service: WLANs typically offer lower quality than their wired counterparts. The main
reasons for this are the lower bandwidth due to limitations in radio transmission (e.g., only 1–10 Mbit/s
user data rate instead of 100–1,000 Mbit/s), higher error rates due to interference (e.g., 10–4 instead of
10–12 for fiber optics), and higher delay/delay variation due to extensive error correction and detection
mechanisms.
● Proprietary solutions: Due to slow standardization procedures, many companies have come up with
proprietary solutions offering standardized functionality plus many enhanced features (typically a
higher bit rate using a patented coding technology or special inter-access point protocols).
● Restrictions: All wireless products have to comply with national regulations. Several government
and non-government institutions worldwide regulate the operation and restrict frequencies to minimize
interference.
● Safety and security: Using radio waves for data transmission might interfere with other high-tech
equipment in, e.g., hospitals. Senders and receivers are operated by laymen and, radiation has to be
low.
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● Global operation: WLAN products should sell in all countries so, national and international
frequency regulations have to be considered.
● Low power: Devices communicating via a WLAN are typically also wireless devices running on
battery power. The LAN design should take this into account and implement special power-saving
modes and power management functions.
● License-free operation: LAN operators do not want to apply for a special license to be able to use
the product. The equipment must operate in a license-free band, such as the 2.4 GHz ISM band.
● Robust transmission technology: Compared to their wired counterparts, WLANs operate under
difficult conditions. If they use radio transmission, many other electrical devices can interfere with
them (vacuum cleaners, hairdryers, train engines etc.).
● Simplified spontaneous cooperation: To be useful in practice, WLANs should not require
complicated setup routines but should operate spontaneously after power-up. These LANs would not
be useful for supporting, e.g., ad-hoc meetings.
● Easy to use: In contrast to huge and complex wireless WANs, wireless LANs are made for simple
use. They should not require complex management, but rather work on a plug-and-play basis.
● Protection of investment: A lot of money has already been invested into ,wired LANs. The new
WLANs should protect this investment by being interoperable with the existing networks.
● Safety and security: Wireless LANs should be safe to operate, especially regarding low radiation if
used, e.g., in hospitals. Users cannot keep safety distances to antennas.
● Transparency for applications: Existing applications should continue to run over WLANs, the only
difference being higher delay and lower bandwidth. The fact of wireless access and mobility should be
hidden if it is not relevant, but the network should also support location aware applications, e.g., by
providing location information.
IEEE 802.11
The IEEE standard 802.11 (IEEE, 1999) specifies the most famous family of WLANs in which
many products are available. As the standard’s number indicates, this standard belongs to the group of
802.x LAN standards, e.g., 802.3 Ethernet or 802.5 Token Ring. This means that the standard specifies
the physical and medium access layer adapted to the special requirements of wireless LANs, but offers
the same interface as the others to higher layers to maintain interoperability.
The primary goal of the standard was the specification of a simple and robust WLAN which
offers time-bounded and asynchronous services. The MAC layer should be able to operate with multiple
physical layers, each of which exhibits a different medium sense and transmission characteristic.
Candidates for physical layers were infra red and spread spectrum radio transmission techniques.
Additional features of the WLAN should include the support of power management to save
battery power, the handling of hidden nodes, and the ability to operate worldwide. The 2.4 GHz ISM
band, which is available in most countries around the world, was chosen for the original standard. Data
rates envisaged forth standard were 1 Mbit/s mandatory and 2 Mbit/s optional.
The following sections will introduce the system and protocol architecture of the initial IEEE 802.11
and then discuss each layer, i.e., physical layer and medium access. After that, the complex and very
important management functions of the standard are presented. Finally, this subsection presents the
enhancements of the original standard for higher data rates, 802.11a (up to 54 Mbit/s at 5 GHz) and
802.11b (today the most successful with 11 Mbit/s) together with further developments for security
support, harmonization, or other modulation schemes.
System architecture:

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 Wireless networks can exhibit two different
basic system architectures as shown in infrastructure-
based or ad-hoc. Figure shows the components of an
infrastructure and a wireless part
as specified for IEEE 802.11. Several nodes,
called stations (STAi), are connected to access points
(AP). Stations are terminals with access mechanisms
to the wireless medium and radio contact to the AP.
The stations and the AP which are within the same
radio coverage form a basic service set (BSSi). The
example shows two BSSs – BSS1 and BSS2 – which
are connected via a distribution system.
Figure: Architecture of an infrastructure-
based IEEE 802.11
A distribution system connects several BSSs via the AP to form a single network and thereby
extends the wireless coverage area. This network is now called an extended service set (ESS) and has
its own identifier, the ESSID. The ESSID is the ‘name’ of a network and is used to separate different
networks. Without knowing the ESSID (and assuming no hacking) it should not be possible to
participate in the WLAN. The distribution system connects the wireless networks via the APs with a
portal, which forms the interworking unit to other LANs. The architecture of the distribution system
is not specified further in IEEE 802.11. It could consist of bridged IEEE LANs, wireless links, or any
other networks. However, distribution system services are defined in the standard (although, many
products today cannot interoperate and needs the additional standard IEEE 802.11f to specify an inter
access point protocol. Stations can select an AP and associate with it. The APs support roaming (i.e.,
changing access points), the distribution system handles data transfer between the different APs. APs
provide synchronization within a BSS, support power management, and can control medium access to
support time-bounded service. These and further functions are explained in the following sections.
In addition to infrastructure-based networks, IEEE 802.11 allows the building of ad-hoc
networks between stations, thus forming one or more
independent BSSs (IBSS) as shown in Figure. In this
case, an IBSS comprises a group of stations using the
same radio frequency. Stations STA1, STA2, and
STA3 are in IBSS1, STA4 and STA5 in IBSS2. This
means for example that STA3 can communicate
directly with STA2 but not with STA5. Several IBSSs
can either be formed via the distance between the
IBSSs or by using different carrier frequencies (then
the IBSSs could overlap physically). IEEE 802.11 does
not specify any special nodes that support routing,
forwarding of data or exchange of topology
information as, e.g., HIPERLAN 1 or Bluetooth.
Figure: Architecture of EEE 802.11 ad-
hoc wireless LANs

Protocol architecture:

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Figure: IEEE 802.11 protocol architecture and bridging

Figure: Detailed IEEE 802.11 protocol architecture and management

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 As indicated by the standard number, IEEE 802.11 fits seamlessly into the other 802.x standards
for wired LANs Figure shows the most common scenario: an IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN connected to
a switched IEEE 802.3 Ethernet via a bridge. Applications should not notice any difference apart from
the lower bandwidth and perhaps higher access time from the wireless LAN. The WLAN behaves like
a slow wired LAN. Consequently, the higher layers (application, TCP, IP) look the same for wireless
nodes as for wired nodes. The upper part of the data link control layer, the logical link control (LLC),
covers the differences of the medium access control layers needed for the different media. In many of
today’s networks, no explicit LLC layer is visible. Further details like Ether type or sub-network access
protocol (SNAP) and bridging technology are explained in, e.g., Perlman (1992).
The IEEE 802.11 standard only covers the physical layer PHY and medium access layer MAC
like the other 802.x LANs do. The physical layer is subdivided into the physical layer convergence
protocol (PLCP) and the physical medium dependent sublayer PMD. The basic tasks of the MAC
layer comprise medium access, fragmentation of user data, and encryption. The PLCP sublayer
provides a carrier sense signal, called clear channel assessment (CCA), and provides a common PHY
service access point (SAP) independent of the transmission technology. Finally, the PMD sublayer
handles modulation and encoding/decoding of signals. The PHY layer (comprising PMD and PLCP)
and the MAC layer will be explained in more detail in the following sections.
Apart from the protocol sublayers, the standard specifies management layers and the station
management. The MAC anagement supports the association and re-association of a station to an access
point and roaming between different access points. It also controls authentication mechanisms,
encryption, synchronization of a station with regard to an access point, and power management to save
battery power. MAC management also maintains the MAC management information base (MIB).
The main tasks of the PHY management include channel tuning and PHY MIB maintenance.
Finally, station management interacts with both management layers and is responsible for additional
higher layer functions (e.g., control of bridging
and interaction with the distribution system in the case of an access point).
2.16. Comparison SDMA/TDMA/FDMA/CDMA

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 Assignment Questions

1. (a) What are the benefits of reservation schemas? How are collisions avoided during data transmission?
Why is the probability of collisions lower compared to classical Aloha?
(b) What is CDMA? Explain in detail.
2. (a) Define the problem of Hidden and Exposed terminals. What happens in the case of such terminals if
Aloha, Slotted Aloha, reservation Aloha or MACA is used?
(b) Explain TDMA and its features.

3. (a) What are the disadvantages of reservation schemes? Explain polling and Inhibit sense multiple
access. (b)List the basic features of CDMA systems. Explain soft handover.
4. How starvation can be avoided in all multiple access schemes which you have studied. Explain in
detail.
5. What is multiplexing? Why it is needed? What are the different kinds of multiplexing techniques?
Explain them.
6 (a) How the reservations improve performance of time based multiple access schemes?
(b) What are the different reservation based multiple access schemes?
7. Assume that there are N stations. Stations transmit without sensing the channel. Under what
conditions the performance f this scheme is good. When the performance is poor?. How carrier sensing
helps to improve the situation. When carried sensing helps little. What is the suggested solution then?
8. Explain how priority based multiple access schemes can be implemented.
9. Compare the following four medium access systems.
(i) SDMA (ii) TDMA (iii) FDMA (iv) CDMA
10 (a) Explain SDM and SDMA in detail
(b) Explain TDMA and its features

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