UNIT II

MEDIUM ACCESS

IEEE 802 Standards

The 802 Project defines 12-plus subcommittee standards groups. Some are as follows:

802. Internetworking/LA Defines routing, bridging, and internetwork

1 N Protocols communications
802. Logical Link Allows Network layer protocols to link to Physical
2 Control (LLC) layer and MAC sublayer protocols
802.
Ethernet The Ethernet standard; defines CSMA/CD
3
802.
Token Ring Defines logical ring topology, media, and interfaces
5
802. High-speed
Defines 100 Mbps technologies
12 networks

The Data Link layer is divided into two sublayer by the 802 standards:

1. Logical Link Control (LLC) and

2. Media Access Control (MAC) sublayers.

The LLC sublayer is defined in 802.1 and 802.2. The MAC sublayer is defined in the 802.1, 802.3,
802.5 and 802.12.

Figure Ethernet's Logical Relationship to the ISO Reference Model

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1. Logical Link Control (LLC) [MAC – Client]

Conceptually, the LLC sublayer sits on top of the MAC sublayer. It's defined by the 802.2 standard
to be topology independent.

The LLC functions include:

1. Managing frames to upper and lower layers

2. Error Control
3. Flow control

The LLC works with the transport layer by providing connection-oriented and connectionless
services. It manages and creates the communication link.

The LLC sublayer transfers data in two ways:

● Connectionless services: Messages are not acknowledged by the receiving device, which
speeds up the processing. Although it sounds unreliable, this type of transfer is commonly
used at this level because the upper OSI layers implement their own error-checking and
control.
● Connection-oriented services: Because each message is acknowledged, this service is
much slower than connectionless services, but it's much more reliable.

Flow Control

Another communications control defined on the LLC sublayer is . The Transport layer
of the OSI model actually manages the mechanisms used to control the flow of data between two
hosts. The Data Link layer defines the data values used in the flow control signaling between two
transmitting hosts.

There are two types of flow control implemented in data communications - software and
hardware:

● Software flow control, common to networking, involves a process called XON/XOFF; which
roughly stands for transmission on/transmission off.
● Hardware flow control, also called RTS/CTS (ready to send/clear to send), uses two wires
in a cable, one for RTS and one for CTS. When either is turned off, the flow is interrupted.

Error Detection

Error detection is the process of detecting whether errors occurred during the transmission of the
bits across the wire. The Data Link layer uses a calculated value called the CRC (Cyclic
Redundancy Check) that's placed into the Data Link trailer that's added to the message frame
before it's sent to the Physical layer. The receiving computer recalculates the CRC and compares
it to the one sent with the data. If the two values are equal, it's assumed that the data arrived
without errors. Otherwise, the message frame may need to be retransmitted under control of an
upper layer. Although the Data Link layer implements error detection, it does not include a

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function to perform error recovery. This is left for the upper layers to deal with, primarily on the
Transport layer.

2. MAC

The MAC sublayer carries the physical address of each device on the network. This address is
more commonly called a device's MAC address. The MAC address is a 48-bit address that's
encoded on each network device by its manufacturer. It's the MAC address that the Physical layer
uses to move data between nodes of the network.

The MAC layer controls the node's access to the network media and is specific to the individual
protocol. All IEEE 802.3 MACs must meet the same basic set of logical requirements, regardless
of whether they include one or more of the defined optional protocol extensions. The only
requirement for basic communication (communication that does not require optional protocol
extensions) between two network nodes is that both MACs must support the same transmission
rate.

The 802.3 physical layers are specific to the transmission data rate, the signal encoding, and the
type of media interconnecting the two nodes. Gigabit Ethernet, for example, is defined to operate
over either twisted-pair or optical fiber cable, but each specific type of cable or signal-encoding
procedure requires a different physical layer implementation.

The MAC sub layer has two primary responsibilities:

o Data encapsulation, including frame assembly before transmission, and frame

parsing/error detection during and after reception
o Media access control, including initiation of frame transmission and recovery from
transmission failure.

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Access Methods

The 4 major methods

1. Carrier Sense Multiple Access Methods

a. with collision detection (CSMA/CD)
b. with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)
2. Token passing - that allows only a single opportunity to send data
3. A Demand Priority method

● Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection. (CSMA/CD)

1. Computer senses that the cable is free.
2. Data is sent.
3. If data is on the cable, no other computer can transmit until the cable is free again.
4. If a collision occurs, the computers wait a random period of time and retransmit.
o Known as a contention method because computers compete for the opportunity to
send data. (Database apps cause more traffic than other apps)
o This can be a slow method
o More computers cause the network traffic to increase and performance to degrade.
o The ability to “listen” extends to a 2,500 meter cable length => segments can’t
sense signals beyond that distance.

● Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)

o in CSMA/CA, the computer actually broadcasts a warning packet before it begins

transmitting on the wire. This packet eliminates almost all collisions on the
network because each computer on the network does not attempt to broadcast
when another computer sends the warning packet.
o All other computers wait until the data is sent.
o The major drawback of trying to avoid network collisions is that the network traffic
is high due to the broadcasting of the intent to send a message.

● Token Passing

o Special packet is passed from computer to computer.

o A computer that wants to transmit must wait for a free token.
o Computer takes control of the token and transmits data. Only this computer is
allowed to transmit; others must wait for control of the token.
o Receiving computer strips the data from the token and sends an acknowledgment.
o Original sending computer receives the acknowledgment and sends the token on.
o the token comes from the Nearest Active Upstream Neighbor and when the
computer is finished, it goes to the Nearest Active Downstream Neighbor
o uses “beaconing” to detect faults => this method is fault tolerant
o NO contention => equal access to all computers on the network
o NO collisions

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 ● Demand Priority
■ 100 Mbps standard called 100VG-AnyLAN. “Hub- based”.

• Repeaters manage network access by performing cyclical searches for requests to

send from all nodes on the network. The repeater or HUB is responsible for noting
all addresses, links and end nodes and verifying if they are all functioning. An “end
node” can be a computer, bridge, router or switch.
• Certain types of data are given priority if data reaches the repeater simultaneously.
If two have the same priority, BOTH are serviced by alternating between the two.

Packet mode methods

The following are examples of packet mode channel access methods:

A.
● Aloha

• Mechanism
• random, distributed (no central arbiter), time-multiplex

● Slotted Aloha
o Slotted Aloha additionally uses time-slots, sending must always start at
slot boundaries

o Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (MACA)

■ MACA (Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) uses short signaling

packets for collision avoidance
■ RTS (request to send): a sender request the right to send from a receiver
with a short RTS packet before it sends a data packet
■ CTS (clear to send): the receiver grants the right to send as soon as it is
ready to receive
■ Signaling packets contain
■ sender address
■ receiver address
■ packet size

o Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance for Wireless (MACAW)

o Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA)
● Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) is a probabilistic Media Access
Control (MAC) protocol in which a node verifies the absence of other traffic
before transmitting on a shared transmission medium, such as an electrical bus,
or a band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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 ● "Carrier Sense" describes the fact that a transmitter uses feedback from a
receiver that detects a carrier wave before trying to send. That is, it tries to
detect the presence of an encoded signal from another station before
attempting to transmit. If a carrier is sensed, the station waits for the
transmission in progress to finish before initiating its own transmission.
● "Multiple Accesses" describes the fact that multiple stations send and
receive on the medium. Transmissions by one node are generally received by all
other stations using the medium.
o Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) - suitable for wired
networks

1. Computer senses that the cable is free.

2. Data is sent.
3. If data is on the cable, no other computer can transmit until the cable is
free again.
4. If a collision occurs, the computers wait a random period of time and
retransmit.
● Known as a contention method because computers compete for the
opportunity to send data. (Database apps cause more traffic than other
apps)
● This can be a slow method
● More computers cause the network traffic to increase and performance to
degrade.
● The ability to “listen” extends to a 2,500 meter cable length => segments
can’t sense signals beyond that distance.
o Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) - suitable for
wireless networks
o in CSMA/CA, the computer actually broadcasts a warning packet before it
begins transmitting on the wire. This packet eliminates almost all collisions
on the network because each computer on the network does not attempt to
broadcast when another computer sends the warning packet.
o All other computers wait until the data is sent.
o The major drawback of trying to avoid network collisions is that the
network traffic is high due to the broadcasting of the intent to send a
message.
■ Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
■ Point Coordination Function (PCF)
o Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance and Resolution using Priorities
(CSMA/CARP)
o Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Bitwise Arbitration (CSMA/BA) Based on constructive
interference (CAN-bus)

B. :
● Special packet is passed from computer to computer.
● A computer that wants to transmit must wait for a free token.
● Computer takes control of the token and transmits data. Only this computer is
allowed to transmit; others must wait for control of the token.
● Receiving computer strips the data from the token and sends an acknowledgment.

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 ● Original sending computer receives the acknowledgment and sends the token on.
● the token comes from the Nearest Active Upstream Neighbor and when the
computer is finished, it goes to the Nearest Active Downstream Neighbor
● uses “beaconing” to detect faults => this method is fault tolerant
● NO contention => equal access to all computers on the network
● NO collisions

a. Token ring
b. Token bus
C.

• If one terminal can be heard by all others, this “central” terminal (a.k.a. base
station) can poll all other terminals according to a certain scheme
• now all schemes known from fixed networks can be used (typical mainframe -
terminal scenario)
• Example: Randomly Addressed Polling
• base station signals readiness to all mobile terminals
• terminals ready to send can now transmit a random number without collision with
the help of CDMA or FDMA (the random number can be seen as dynamic address)
• the base station now chooses one address for polling from the 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

D.

• Dynamic Time Division Multiple Access (Dynamic TDMA)

• Packet reservation multiple access (PRMA)
• Reservation ALOHA (R-ALOHA)

Duplexing methods

Where these methods are used for dividing forward and reverse communication channels, they
are known as duplexing methods, such as:

● Time division duplex (TDD)

Time-Division Duplex (TDD) is the application of time-division multiplexing to separate

outward and return signals. It emulates full duplex communication over a half duplex
communication link. Time division duplex has a strong advantage in the case where the
asymmetry of the uplink and downlink data speed is variable

● Frequency division duplex (FDD)

Frequency-division duplexing (FDD) means that the transmitter and receiver operate at
different carrier frequencies. The term is frequently used in ham radio operation, where an

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 operator is attempting to contact a repeater station. The station must be able to send and
receive a transmission at the same time, and does so by slightly altering the frequency at
which it sends and receives. This mode of operation is referred to as or
.

2.2 CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access)

Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) is a probabilistic Media Access Control (MAC) protocol in
which a node verifies the absence of other traffic before transmitting on a shared transmission
medium, such as an electrical bus, or a band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

"Carrier Sense" describes the fact that a transmitter uses feedback from a receiver that detects a
carrier wave before trying to send. That is, it tries to detect the presence of an encoded signal
from another station before attempting to transmit. If a carrier is sensed, the station waits for the
transmission in progress to finish before initiating its own transmission.

"Multiple Access" describes the fact that multiple stations send and receive on the medium.
Transmissions by one node are generally received by all other stations using the medium.

Types of CSMA

● 1-persistent CSMA

When the sender (station) is ready to transmit data, it checks if the physical medium is busy. If so,
it senses the medium continually until it becomes idle, and then it transmits a piece of data (a
frame). In case of a collision, the sender waits for a random period of time and attempts to
transmit again.

● p-persistent CSMA

When the sender is ready to send data, it checks continually if the medium is busy. If the medium
becomes idle, the sender transmits a frame with a probability p. If the station chooses not to
transmit (the probability of this event is 1-p), the sender waits until the next available time slot and
transmits again with the same probability p. This process repeats until the frame is sent or some
other sender stops transmitting. In the latter case the sender monitors the channel, and when idle,
transmits with a probability p, and so on.

● o-persistent CSMA

Each station is assigned a transmission order by a supervisor station. When medium goes idle,
stations wait for their time slot in accordance with their assigned transmission order. The station
assigned to transmit first transmits immediately. The station assigned to transmit second waits
one time slot (but by that time the first station has already started transmitting). Stations monitor
the medium for transmissions from other stations and update their assigned order with each
detected transmission (i.e. they move one position closer to the front of the queue).

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CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection)

CSMA/CD, in computer networking, is a network access method in which

● a carrier sensing scheme is used.

● a transmitting data station that detects another signal while transmitting a frame, stops
transmitting that frame, transmits a jam signal, and then waits for a random time interval
(known as "backoff delay" and determined using the truncated binary exponential backoff
algorithm) before trying to send that frame again.

CSMA/CD is a modification of pure Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA). CSMA/CD is used to
improve CSMA performance by terminating transmission as soon as a collision is detected, and
reducing the probability of a second collision on retry.

A jam signal is sent which will cause all transmitters to back off by random intervals, reducing the
probability of a collision when the first retry is attempted.

CSMA/CD is a layer 2 access method, not a protocol of the OSI model.

Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance

Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) is a modification of pure
CSMA. Collision avoidance is used to improve the performance of CSMA by attempting to be less
"greedy" on the channel. If the channel is sensed busy before transmission then the transmission
is deferred for a "random" interval. This reduces the probability of collisions on the channel.

2.3 The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet

● The Ethernet is a multiple-access network.

● It means that a set of nodes send and receive frames over a shared link.
● The “carrier sense” in CSMA/CD means that all the nodes can distinguish between an idle
and a busy link, and “collision detect” means that a node listens as it transmits and can
therefore detect when a frame it is transmitting has interfered (collided) with a frame
transmitted by another node.
Three data rates are currently defined for operation over optical fiber and twisted-pair cables:
10 Mbps—10Base-T Ethernet
100 Mbps—Fast Ethernet
1000 Mbps—Gigabit Ethernet

Ethernet has survived as the major LAN technology (it is currently used for approximately 85
percent of the world's LAN-connected PCs and workstations) because its protocol has the
following characteristics:
● It is easy to understand, implement, manage, and maintain
● It allows low-cost network implementations
● It provides extensive topological flexibility for network installation
● It guarantees successful interconnection and operation of standards-compliant products,
regardless of manufacturer

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Various standards are discussed below:
Types of medium and convention used to represent them

2.3.1 Physical Properties

● An Ethernet segment is implemented on a coaxial cable of up to 500 m.
● Hosts connect to an Ethernet segment by tapping into it; taps must be at least 2.5 m apart.
● A —a small device directly attached to the tap—detects when the line is idle and
drives the signal when the host is transmitting. It also receives incoming signals. The
transceiver is connected to an Ethernet adaptor, which is plugged into the host.

● Multiple Ethernet segments can be joined together by .

● A repeater is a device that forwards digital signals, much like an amplifier forwards analog
signals.
● Any signal placed on the Ethernet by a host is broadcast over the entire network; that is,
the signal is propagated in both directions, and repeaters forward the signal on all
outgoing segments.

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 ● Terminators attached to the end of each segment absorb the signal and keep it from
bouncing back and interfering with trailing signals.
● The Ethernet uses the Manchester encoding scheme.
● An Ethernet can be constructed from a thinner cable known as 10Base2; the original cable
is called 10Base5 (the two cables are commonly called and , respectively).
The “10” in 10Base2 means that the network operates at 10 Mbps, “Base” refers to the
fact that the cable is used in a system, and the “2” means that a given segment
can be no longer than 200 m (a segment of the original 10Base5 cable can be up to 500 m
long). A 10BaseT (Twisted pair) segment is usually limited to under 100 m in length.
● With 10Base2, a T-joint is spliced into the cable. In effect, 10Base2 is used to daisy-chain
a set of hosts together. With 10BaseT, the common configuration is to have several
point-to-point segments coming out of a multiway repeater, sometimes called a .
Multiple 100-Mbps Ethernet segments can also be connected by a hub, but the same is
not true of 1000-Mbps segments.

Advantage:
o A linear sequence of segments connected by repeaters, or multiple segments connected
in a star configuration by a hub, data transmitted by any one host on that Ethernet reaches
all the other hosts.
Disadvantage:

o Collision domain occurs due to access to the same link.

2.3.2 Access Protocol

o This algorithm is commonly called the Ethernet’s (MAC).
o It is typically implemented in hardware on the network adaptor.

Frame Format:

The Ethernet is a bit-oriented framing protocol.

1. The 64-bit preamble allows the receiver to synchronize with the signal; it is a sequence of
alternating 0s and 1s.
2. Both the source and destination hosts are identified with a 48-bit address.
3. The packet type field serves as the demultiplexing key; that is, it identifies to which of
possibly many higher-level protocols this frame should be delivered.
4. Each frame contains up to 1500 bytes of data. Minimally, a frame must contain at least 46
bytes of data, even if this means the host has to pad the frame before transmitting it.
5. Finally, each frame includes a 32-bit CRC.

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Note that from the host’s perspective, an Ethernet frame has a 14-byte header: two 6-byte
addresses and a 2-byte type field. The sending adaptor attaches the preamble, CRC, and
postamble before transmitting, and the receiving adaptor removes them.

Addresses:

o Each host on an Ethernet has a unique Ethernet address. The address belongs to the
adaptor and burned into ROM.
o Ethernet addresses are typically printed in a form humans can read as a sequence of six
numbers separated by colons. Each number corresponds to 1 byte of the 6-byte address
and is given by a pair of hexadecimal digits, one for each of the 4-bit nibbles in the byte;
leading 0s are dropped.
o For example, 8:0:2b:e4:b1:2 is the human-readable representation of Ethernet address
00001000 00000000 00101011 11100100 10110001 00000010

o Each frame transmitted on an Ethernet is received by every adaptor connected to that

Ethernet. Each adaptor recognizes those frames addressed to its address and passes only
those frames on to the host.
o In addition to these addresses, an Ethernet address consisting of all 1s is treated
as a address; all adaptors pass frames addressed to the broadcast address up
to the host.
o An address that has the first bit set to 1 but is not the broadcast address is called a
ddress. A given host can program its adaptor to accept some set of multicast
addresses. Multicast addresses are used to send messages to some subset of the hosts
on an Ethernet (e.g., all file servers).

Transmitter Algorithm:

The transmitter algorithm is defined as follows.

o When the adaptor has a frame to send and the line is idle, it transmits the frame
immediately; there is no negotiation with the other adaptors.
o When an adaptor has a frame to send and the line is busy, it waits for the line to go idle
and then transmits immediately. The Ethernet is said to be a protocol because
an adaptor with a frame to send transmits with probability 1 whenever a busy line goes
idle. In general, a algorithm transmits with probability 0 ≤ ≤ 1 after a line
becomes idle, and defers with probability = 1− .
o Since there is no centralized control it is possible for two (or more) adaptors to begin
transmitting at the same time, either because both found the line to be idle or because
both had been waiting for a busy line to become idle. When this happens, the two (or
more) frames are said to on the network. Each sender, because the Ethernet
supports collision detection, is able to determine that a collision is in progress. At the

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 moment an adaptor detects that its frame is colliding with another, it first makes sure to
transmit a 32-bit jamming sequence and then stops the transmission.
o Thus, a transmitter will minimally send 96 bits in the case of a collision: 64-bit preamble
plus 32-bit jamming sequence.
o Suppose host A begins transmitting a frame at time , as shown in (a). It takes it one link
latency (let’s denote the latency as ) for the frame to reach host B. Thus, the first bit of A’
s frame arrives at B at time + , as shown in (b). Suppose an instant before host A’s frame
arrives (i.e., B still sees an idle line), host B begins to transmit its own frame. B’s frame will
immediately collide with A’s frame, and this collision will be detected by host B (c). Host B
will send the 32-bit jamming sequence, as described above. (B’s frame will be a runt.)
Unfortunately, host A will not know that the collision occurred until B’s frame reaches it,
which will happen one link latency later, at time +2× , as shown in (d). Host A must
continue to transmit until this time in order to detect the collision.

Once an adaptor has detected a collision and stopped its transmission, it waits a certain amount
of time and tries again. Each time it tries to transmit but fails, the adaptor doubles the amount of
time it waits before trying again. This strategy of doubling the delay interval between each
retransmission attempt is a general technique known as . Adaptors typically
retry up to 16 times, although the backoff algorithm caps in the above formula at 10.

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Types of Ethernet:

High speed LANs have emerged broadly into three types -

and . we have discussed and its variations in the
preceding lesson. In the second category we have the and . In the
third category we have , and the .

Successors of Ethernet
On a regular Ethernet segment, all stations share the available bandwidth of 10 Mb/s. With the
increase in traffic, the number of packet collisions goes up, lowering the overall throughput. In
such a scenario, there are two basic approaches to increase the bandwidth.
One is to replace the Ethernet with a higher speed version of Ethernet. Use of Fast Ethernet
operating at 100 Mb/s and Gigabit Ethernet operating at 1000 Mb/s belong to this category. This
approach requires replacement of the old network interface cards (NICs) in each station by new
ones.
The other approach is to use Ethernet switches (let us call it switched Ethernet approach)
that use a high- speed internal bus to switch packets between multiple (8 to 32) cable segments
and offer dedicated 10 Mb/s bandwidth on each segment/ports. In this approach, there is no
need to replace the NICs; replacement of the hub by a switch serves the purpose. This approach
is discussed in the following section.

Switched Ethernet
Switched Ethernet gives dedicated 10 Mb/s bandwidth on each of its ports. On each of the ports
one can connect either a thick/thin segment or a computer.

In Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) the topology, though physically is star but logically is BUS, i.e. the
collision domain of all the nodes in a LAN is common. In this situation only one station can send
the frame. If more than one station sends the frame, there is a collision. A comparison between
the two is shown in Fig. 5.6.1.

In Switched Ethernet, the collision domain is separated. The hub is replaced by a switch,
which functions as a fast bridge. It can recognize the destination address of the received frame
and can forward the frame to the port to which the destination station is connected. The other
ports are not involved in the transmission process. The switch can receive another frame from
another station at the same time and can route this frame to its own final destination. In this case,
both the physical and logical topologies are star.

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 Switched LAN
IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet)
Figure 5.6.1 Difference Between 802.3 and Switched LAN

There are two possible forwarding techniques that can be used in the implementation of Ethernet
switches: and . In the first case, the entire frame is captured at the
incoming port, stored in the switch’s memory, and after an address lookup to determine the LAN
destination port, forwarded to the appropriate port. The lookup table is automatically built up. On
the other hand, a cut-through switch begins to transmit the frame to the destination port as soon
as it decodes the destination address from the frame header.

Store-and-forward approach provides a greater level of error detection because damaged

frames are not forwarded to the destination port. But, it introduces longer delay of about 1.2 msec
for forwarding a frame and suffers from the chance of losing data due to reliance on buffer
memory. The cut-through switches, on the other hand, has reduced latency but has higher switch
cost.

The throughput can be further increased on switched Ethernet by using full-duplex

technique, which uses separate wire pairs for transmitting and receiving. Thus a station can
transmit and receive simultaneously, effectively doubling the throughput to 20 Mb/s on each port.

Fast Ethernet
The 802.u or the fast Ethernet, as it is commonly known, was approved by the IEEE 802
Committee in June 1995. It may not be considered as a new standard but an addendum to the
existing 802.3 standard. The fast Ethernet uses the same frame format, same CSMA/CD protocol
and same interface as the 802.3, but uses a data transfer rate of 100 Mb/s instead of 10 Mb/s.
However, fast Ethernet is based entirely on 10-Base-T, because of its advantages (Although
technically 10-BASE-5 or 10-BASE-2 can be used with shorter segment length).

Fortunately, the Ethernet is designed in such a way that the speed can be increased if
collision domain is decreased. The only two changes made in the MAC layer are the data rate and
the collision domain. The data rate is increased by a factor of 10 and collision domain is
decreased by a factor of 10. To increase the data rate without changing the minimum size of the
frame (576 bits or 76 bytes in IEEE 802.3), it is necessary to decrease the round-trip delay time.
With the speed of 100Mbps the round-trip time reduce to 5.76 microseconds (576 bits/100 Mbps;

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which was 57.6 microsecond for 10Mbps Normal Ethernet). This means that the collision domain
is decreased 10 fold from 2500 meters (in IEEE802.3) to 250 meters (fast Ethernet).

IEEE has designed two categories of Fast Ethernet: 100Base-X and 100Base-T4.
100Base-X uses two-wire interface between a hub and a station while 100Base-T4 uses four-wire
interface. 100-Base-X itself is divided into two: 100Base-TX and 100base-FX as shown in Fig.
5.6.2.

Figure 5.6.2 Fast Ethernet implementations

100 BASE-T4:
This option is designed to avoid overwriting. It is used for half-duplex communication using four
wire-pairs of the existing category 3 UTP cables, which are already available for telephone
services in homes/offices. Two of four pairs are bi- directional; other two are unidirectional. This
means that there are 3 pairs to be used for carrying data, in each direction (2 bi-directional and 1
uni-directional) as shown in Fig. 5.6.3. Because 100Mbps data cannot be handled by voice-grade
UTP, this specification splits the 100 Mbps flow into three 33.66 Mbps flows.

Figure 5.6.3 100Base-T4 implementation

100 BASE TX:

This option uses two pairs of category 5 UTP or two shielded twisted-pair (STP) cable to connect
a station to hub as shown in Fig. 5.6.4. One pair is used to carry frames from the hub to the
station and other to carry frames from station to hub. It uses 4B/5B encoding to handle 100 Mbps
using NRZ-I signaling. The distance between station and hub should be less than 100 meters.

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 Figure 5.6.4 100Base-TX implementation
100 BASE FX:
This option uses two Fiber optic cables, one carry frames from station to hub and other from hub
to station as shown in Fig. 5.6.5. The encoding is using 4B/5B and it uses NRZ-I signaling. The
distance between station and hub should be less than 2000 meters.

Figure 5.6.5 100Base -FX implementation

Gigabit Ethernet

As applications increased, the demand on the network, newer, high-speed protocols such as FDDI
and ATM became available. However, in the last couple of years, Fast Ethernet has become the
backbone of choice because it’s simplicity and its reliance on Ethernet. The primary goal of
Gigabit Ethernet is to build on that topology and knowledge base to build a higher-speed protocol
without forcing customers to throw away existing networking equipment.
In March 1996, the IEEE 802.3 committee approved the 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet Standardization
project. At that time as many as 54 companies expressed there intent to participate in the
standardization project. The Gigabit Ethernet Alliance was formed in May 1996 by 11 companies.
The Alliance represents a multi-vendor effort to provide open and inter-operable Gigabit Ethernet
products. The objectives of the alliance are:

Supporting extension of existing Ethernet and Fast Ethernet technology in response to

demand for higher network bandwidth.
• Developing technical proposals for the inclusion in the standard
• Establishment of inter-operability test procedures and processes

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WIRELESS LAN:

The IEEE 802.3 standard has been revised and extended every few years. High-speed versions with
transmission rate as high as 1000 Mbps are currently available.

Some of the advantages are mentioned below:

● Availability of low-cost portable equipments: Due to the technology enhancements, the equipment
costs that are required for WLAN set-up have reduced a lot.
● Mobility: An increasing number of LAN users are becoming mobile. Wireless LAN can provide users
mobility, which is likely to increase productivity, user convenience and various service opportunities.
● Installation speed and simplicity
● Installation flexibility: Wireless technology allows network to go anywhere wire cannot reach.
● Reduced cost of ownership: Long-term cost-benefits are greater in dynamic environment requiring
frequent moves and changes.
● Scalability: Wireless LAN can be configured in a variety of topologies to meet the users need and
can be easily scaled to cover a large area with thousands of users roaming within it.

However, wireless LAN technology needs to overcome a number of inherent limitations and
challenges. Some of the limitations and challenges are mentioned below:
● Lower reliability due to susceptibility of radio transmission to noise and interference.
● Fluctuation of the strength of the received signal through multiple paths causing fading.
● Vulnerable to eavesdropping leading to security problem.
● Limited data rate because of the use of spread spectrum transmission techniques enforced to ISM
band users.

Transmission Media

There are three media that can be used for transmission over wireless LANs. Infrared, radio frequency
and microwave.

Topology

Each computer, mobile, portable or fixed, is referred to as a in 802.11. The difference between a
portable and mobile station is that a portable station moves from point to point but is only used at a fixed
point. Mobile stations access the LAN during movement. Fundamental to the IEEE 802.11 architecture is
the concept of . A BSS is defined as a group of stations that
coordinate their access to the medium under a given instance of medium access control. The geographic
area covered by a BSS is known as the , which is very similar to a cell in a cellular
communication network. All stations with in a BSA with tens of meters in diameter may communicate with
each other directly. The 802.11 standard support the formation of two distinct types of BSSs: ad hoc
network and Infrastructure BSS.
Two or more BSS's are interconnected using a . This concept of DS
increases network coverage. Each BSS becomes a component of an extended, larger network. Entry to the
DS is accomplished with the use of . An access point is a station, thus addressable. So
data moves between the BSS and the DS with the help of these access points.

Creating large and complex networks using BSS's and DS's leads us to the next level of hierarchy,
the . The beauty of the ESS is the entire network looks like an independent basic
service set to the Logical Link Control layer (LLC) . This means that stations within the ESS can
communicate or even move between BSS's transparently to the LLC.

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 The first type of BSS is known as , which consists of a group of stations within the
range of each other. As its name implies, ad hoc networks are temporary in nature, which are typically
created and maintained as needed without prior administrative arrangement. Ad hoc networks can be
formed anywhere spontaneously and can be disbanded after a limited period of time. A typical ad hoc
network is shown in Figure 5.7.5(a).

The second type of BSS is known as which is commonly used in practice.

An ESS is shown in Fig. 5.7.6 Here, several BSSs are interconnected by a distribution system to form an
extended service set (ESS) as shown in Fig. 5.7.5(b). The BSSs are like cells in a cellular communications
network. Each BSS is provided with an Access point (AP) that has station functionality and provides access
to the distribution system. APs operate on a fixed channel and remain stationary like in a
cellular communication system. APs are located such that the BSSs they serve overlap slightly to provide
continuous service to all the stations.

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 (a) (b)
Figure 5.7.5 (a) Basic Service set (BSS), (b) Infrastructure BSS (ESS)

Figure 5.7.6 Extended service set (ESS)

An ESS can also provide gateway access for wireless users into a wired network. Each end station
associates itself with one access point. Figure 5.7.6 shows three BSSs interconnected through three APs to
a distribution system. If station A associated with AP-1 wants to send a frame to another station associated
with AP- 2, the first sends a frame to its access point (AP-1), which forwards the frame across the
distribution system to the access point AP-2. AP-2 finally delivers it to the destination station. For
forwarding frames across the APs, bridging protocol may be used, which is beyond the scope of IEEE
802.11 standard. However, the 802.11 standard specifies how stations select their access points. The
technique used for this purpose is known as , which involves the following steps:

 A station sends a .
 All APs within reach reply with a .
 The station selects one of the access points, and sends the AP an .
 The AP replies with an .

The above protocol is used when a station joins a network or when it wants to discontinue association
with the existing AP because of weakened signal strength or some other reason. The discontinuation of
association takes place whenever a station acquires a new AP and the new AP announces it in step 4
mentioned above. For example, assume that station B is moving away from the BSS of AP-1 towards the
BSS of AP-2. As it moves closer to the BSS of AP-2, it sends probe frames, which is responded eventually by
AP-2. As some of point of time station B prefers AP-2 over AP-1 and associates itself with the access point
AP-2. The above mechanism is known as , as the node is actively searching for an access
point. An access point also periodically sends Beacon frame that advertises the capabilities of the access
point. In response, a station can associate to the AP simply by sending it an Association request frame.
This is known as .

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Medium Access Control

Most wired LANs products use Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) as the
MAC protocol. Carrier Sense means that the station will listen before it transmits. If there is already
someone transmitting, then the station waits and tries again later. If no one is transmitting then the station
goes ahead and sends what it has. But when more than one station tries to transmit, the transmissions will
collide and the information will be lost. This is where Collision Detection comes into play. The station will
listen to ensure that its transmission made it to the destination without collisions. If a collision occurred
then the stations wait and try again later. The time the station waits is determined by the back off algorithm.
This technique works great for wired LANs but wireless topologies can create a problem for CSMA/CD.
However, the wireless medium presents some unique challenges not present in wired LANs that must be
dealt with by the MAC used for IEEE 802.11. Some of the challenges are:
 The wireless LAN is prone to more interference and is less reliable.
 The wireless LAN is susceptible to unwanted interception leading to security problems.
 There are so called and problems.

In the discussion of both the problem, we shall assume that all radio transmitters have fixed range. When
the receiver is in the range of two active transmitters then the signal will be garbled. It is important to note
that not all stations are in range of two transmitters.

The Hidden Station Problem

Consider a situation when A is transmitting to B. If C senses the media, it will not hear anything because it is
out of range, and thus will falsely conclude that no transmission is going on and will start transmit to B. the
transmission will interfere at B, wiping out the frame from A. The problem of a station not been able to
detect a potential competitor for the medium because the competitor is too far away is referred as
As in the described scenario C act as a hidden station to A, which is also competing for the
medium.

Figure Hidden Station Problem

Exposed Station problem

Now consider a different situation where B is transmitting to A, and C sense the medium and detects the
ongoing transmission between B and A. C falsely conclude that it can not transmit to D, when the fact is
that such transmission would cause on problem. A transmission could cause a problem only when the
destination is in zone between B and C. This problem is referred as In this
scenario as B is exposed to C, that’s why C assumes it cannot transmit to D. So this problem is known as
(i.e. problem caused due to exposing of a station). The problem here is that before
transmission, a station really wants to know that whether or not there is any activity around the receiver.
CSMA merely tells whether or not there is any activity around the station sensing the carrier.

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Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA)

The solution to these problems is Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance or CSMA/CA as
shown in Fig.

Main steps can be summarized as:

Sender sends a short frame called RTS (20bytes) to the destination. RTS also
contains the length of the data frame.
 Destination station responds with a short (14 bytes) (CTS) frame.
 After receiving the CTS, the sender starts sending the data frame.
If collision occurs, CTS frame is not received within a certain period of time.

Figure Four-Way handshake protocol

CSMA/CA works as follows: the station listens before it sends. If

someone is already transmitting, wait for a random period and try again. If
no one is transmitting then it sends a short message. This message is
called the message . This message contains the
destination address and the duration of the transmission. Other stations
now know that they must wait that long before they can transmit. The
destination then sends a short message, which is the
This message tells the source that it can send without
fear of collisions. Each packet is acknowledged. If an acknowledgement
is not received, the MAC layer retransmits the data. This entire sequence
is called the 4-way handshake protocol.

Framing

The frame format of the IEEE 802.11 is shown in Figure 5.7.10(a). The frames can be categorized into three
types; management frame, control frame and data frame. The management frames are used for
association and disassociation of stations with at the AP, authentication and de-authentication, and timing
and synchronization. The detailed Frame Format is shown in Fig. 5.7.10.

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 MAC HEADER
2 6 6 6 2 6 0-2312 4
Frame Addr. Addr. Addr. Frame CRC
control 1 2 3 4 body
(a)

Type Subtype To From More Retry Pwr. WEP Rsvd

DS DS Frag mgt. data

(b)

To From Addr. Addr. Addr. Addr. Meaning

DS DS 1 2 3 4
0 Desti. Source N/A Data from station to
0 station within a BSS
Addr. Addr.
Source N/A
0 1
Addr. Addr. DS

Source Desti.
1 0 N/A
Addr. Addr.

1 1 Trans Desti. Source WDS frame being

Addr. Addr. Addr. Addr.

(c)
Figure 5.7.10 Frame format for 802.11

Each frame consists of a MAC header, a frame body and a frame check sequence (FCS). The basic
frame can be seen in Figure 5.7.11 below.

MAC Header

Frame Duration FCS

Control ID 1 2 3 Control 4

AC header will be described in a little while. Frame Body varies from 0-2312 bytes. At last is the FCS field.
The is a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check which ensures there are no errors in the
frame. For the standard generator polynomial see IEEE P802.11.

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 The MAC header consists of seven fields and is 30 bytes long. The fields are frame control, duration,
address 1, address 2, address 3, sequence control, and address 4. The frame control field is 2 bytes long
and is comprised of 11 subfields as shown in Fig. 5.7.12 below.

Protocol Type Subtype To From More Retry Power More WEP Order
Version DS DS Frag Mgmt. Data

2 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Bits

Figure 5.7.12 802.11 MAC Header

Frame Control Field (in MAC header)

● The protocol version field is 2 bits in length and will carry the version of the 802.11 standard. The
initial value of 802.11 is 0; all other bit values are reserved.
● Type and subtype fields are 2 and 4 bits, respectively. They work together hierarchically to
determine the function of the frame.
● The remaining 8 fields are all 1 bit in length.
● The To DS field is set to 1 if the frame is destined for the distribution system.
● From DS field is set to 1 when frames exit the distribution system. Note that frames which stay
within their basic service set have both of these fields set to 0.
● The More Frag field is set to 1 if there is a following fragment of the current MSDU.
● Retry is set to 1 if this frame is a retransmission.
● Power Management field indicates if a station is in power save mode (set to 1) or active (set to
0).
● More data field is set to 1 if there is any MSDUs are buffered for that station.
● The WEP field is set to 1 if the information in the frame body was processed with the WEP
algorithm.
● The Order field is set to 1 if the frames must be strictly ordered.
● The Duration/ID field is 2 bytes long. It contains the data on the duration value for each field and
for control frames it carries the associated identity of the transmitting station.
● The address fields identify the basic service set, the destination address, the source address, and
the receiver and transmitter addresses. Each address field is 6 bytes long.
● The sequence control field is 2 bytes and is split into 2 subfields, fragment number and
sequence number.
● Fragment number is 4 bits and tells how many fragments the MSDU is broken into.
● The sequence number field is 12 bits that indicates the sequence number of the MSDU. The
frame body is a variable length field from 0 - 2312. This is the payload.

IEEE 802.11 extensions

As the first standard was wrapping up, the creation of a new standards activity begun in the 802.11
standards body. The new activity gave rise to two more standards; IEEE 802.11 b and IEEE 802.11a.
802.11b: This standard was developed by IEEE with the support from the consortium Wireless
Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA). This standard is backward compatible with the original
standard that added two new data rates 5.5 mbps and 11 Mbps using two coding techniques; the
mandatory coding mode known as Complementary Coding Keying (CCK) modulation and Packet
Binary Convolution Coding (PBCC). Because of backward compatibility with the 802.11, this
standard has gained wide popularity with millions of installed base, which is growing rapidly.

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  802.11a: The successor to 802.11b is 802.11a with greater speed and at a different frequency. It
operates at radio frequencies between 5 GHz incorporating a coded multi-carrier scheme known
as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multi-carrier (OFDM). The 5 GHz band is currently unlicensed
and less congested than the 2.4 GHz ISM band. The 802.11a specifies data speed as high as 54
mbps, also supports 6, 12, 24, and 34 mbps. There is trade off between bandwidth and range -
lower bandwidth cases offering increases range. For 54 mbps, the typical range is 20-30 meters.
The 802.11a and 802.11b devices can coexist without interference or reduced performance.

 802.11g: The success of 802.11b has led to another extension that provides 22 Mbps
transmission. It retains backward compatibility with the popular 802.11b standard. This standard
will become 802.11g.

Upper

802.11 802.11 DSSS 802.11a 802.11g

OFDM

WiFi: Any of the above wireless LAN standards are referred to by the brand name “WiFi”. It essentially
denotes a set of Wireless LAN standards developed by the working group 11 of the IEEE LAN/MAN
Standards Committee (IEEE 802).
WiMAX: The story of wireless LAN cannot be complete without the mention of WiMAX, which stands for
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access by the WiMAX Forum. The forum was formed in June
2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the IEEE 802.16 standard, officially known as
Wireless (Metropoliton Area Network) MAN. The Forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based
technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and
DSL". It supports point to multi-point (PMP) broadband wireless access. WiMAX can deliver a maximum of
70 Mbit/s, over a maximum distance of 70 miles (112.6 kilometers). It has some similarities to DSL in this
respect, where one can either have high bandwidth or long range, but not both simultaneously. The other
feature to consider with WiMAX is that available bandwidth is shared between users in a given radio sector,
so if there are many active users in a single sector, each will get reduced bandwidth.

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Bluetooth:

It is a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) technology and is used for

exchanging data over smaller distances. This technology was invented by
Ericson in 1994. It operates in the unlicensed, industrial, scientific and
medical (ISM) band at 2.4 GHz to 2.485 GHz. Maximum devices that can be
connected at the same time are 7. Bluetooth ranges upto 10 meters. It
provides data rates upto 1 Mbps or 3 Mbps depending upon the version.
The spreading technique which it uses is FHSS (Frequency hopping spread
spectrum). A bluetooth network is called piconet and a collection of
interconnected piconets is called scatternet.

Bluetooth Architecture:

The architecture of bluetooth defines two types of networks:

1. Piconet
2. Scatternet

Bluetooth Architecture
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Piconet:

Piconet is a type of bluetooth network that contains one primary

node called master node and seven active secondary nodes called slave
nodes. Thus, there are total of 8 active nodes which are present at a
distance of 10 metres. The communication between the primary and
secondary node can be one-to-one or one-to-many. Possible
communication is only between the master and slave; Slave-slave
communication is not possible. It also have 255 parked nodes, these are
secondary nodes and cannot take participation in communication unless it
get converted to the active state.
Scatternet:

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It is formed by using various piconets. A slave that is present in one piconet
can be act as master or primary in other piconet. This kind of node can
receive message from master in one piconet and deliver the message to its
slave into the other piconet where it is acting as a slave. This type of node
is refer as bridge node. A station cannot be master in two piconets.

Bluetooth protocol stack:

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1. Radio (RF) layer:
It performs modulation/demodulation of the data into RF signals. It
defines the physical characteristics of bluetooth transceiver. It defines
two types of physical link: connection-less and connection-oriented.

2. Baseband Link layer:

It performs the connection establishment within a piconet.

3. Link Manager protocol layer:

It performs the management of the already established links. It also
includes authentication and encryption processes.

4. Logical Link Control and Adaption protocol layer:

It is also known as the heart of the bluetooth protocol stack. It allows the
communication between upper and lower layers of the bluetooth protocol
stack. It packages the data packets received from upper layers into the
form expected by lower layers. It also performs the segmentation and
multiplexing.

5. SDP layer:
It is short for Service Discovery Protocol. It allows to discover the services
available on another bluetooth enabled device.

6. RF comm layer:
It is short for Radio Frontend Component. It provides serial interface with
WAP and OBEX.

7. OBEX:
It is short for Object Exchange. It is a communication protocol to
exchange objects between 2 devices.

8. WAP:
It is short for Wireless Access Protocol. It is used for internet access.

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9. TCS:
It is short for Telephony Control Protocol. It provides telephony service.

10. Application layer:

It enables the user to interact with the application.

Advantages:

● Low cost.
● Easy to use.
● It can also penetrate through walls.
● It creates an adhoc connection immediately without any wires.
● It is used for voice and data transfer.

Disadvantages:

● It can be hacked and hence, less secure.

● It has slow data transfer rate: 3 Mbps.
● It has small range: 10 meters.

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