Department of Information Technology

Basics of Computer Network (SE-IT)

Unit-3
Multi-Access Mechanism and Ethernet Standards

By: Dr. M. K. Pathak

(Assistant Professor, AISSMS IOIT, Pune)
• TICKET COUNTER
• Which one do you think is
more productive?

• we have some rules or

protocols, like "please stand
in the queue", "do not push
each other", "wait for your
turn", etc.
• in the same way computer
network channels also have
protocols like multiple access
protocols, random access
protocols, etc.
 DLL

multiple access protocols :multiple users might be communicating through the same channel.
 Multiple Access Protocols
• Many protocols have been defined to handle the access to shared link.
• These protocols are organized in three different groups.:
A. Random Access Protocols
B. Controlled Access Protocols
C. Channelization Protocols
A. Random Access Protocols
• It is also called Contention Method. In this method, there is no control
station.
• The random access protocols consist of the following characteristics:
i. There is no time restriction for sending the data (you can talk to your friend without
a time restriction).
ii. There is a fixed sequence of stations which are transmitting the data.
• Any station can send the data. The station can make a decision on whether or
not to send data.
• This decision depends on the state of the channel, i.e. channel is busy or idle.
• There is no scheduled time for a stations to transmit. They can transmit in
random order.
• There is no rule that decides which station should send next. If two
stations transmit at the same time, there is collision and the frames
are lost.
• The various random access methods are:
1. ALOHA
2. CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access)
3. CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection)
4. CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance)
1. ALOHA

• ALOHA was developed at University of Hawaii in early 1970s by

Norman Abramson.
• It was used for ground based radio broadcasting.
• In this method, stations share a common channel.
• When two stations transmit simultaneously, collision occurs and
frames are lost.
• There are two different versions of ALOHA:
1. Pure ALOHA
2. Slotted ALOHA
Pure ALOHA
• In pure ALOHA, stations transmit frames whenever they have data to send.
• When the frame reaches its destination, then the next frame is lined-up for
transmission.
• When two stations transmit simultaneously, there is collision and frames are lost.
• In pure ALOHA, whenever any station transmits a frame, it expects an
acknowledgement from the receiver.
• If acknowledgement is not received within specified time, the station assumes that
the frame has been lost. If the frame is lost, station waits for a random amount of
time and sends it again.
• This waiting time must be random, otherwise, same frames will collide again and
again.
• If first bit of a new frame overlaps with the last bit of a frame almost finished, both
frames will be lost and both will have to be retransmitted.
Slotted ALOHA
• Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency of pure ALOHA
minimize these collisions.
• In slotted ALOHA, time of the channel is divided into precise time
intervals called slots and inform each source when the channel is clear
to send the frame.
• The station can send a frame only at the beginning of the slot and only
one frame is sent in each slot.
• If any station is not able to place the frame onto the channel at the
beginning of the slot, it has to wait until the next time slot.
• There is still a possibility of collision if two stations try to send at the
beginning of the same time slot.
2. Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
• CSMA was developed to overcome the problems of ALOHA i.e. to minimize the
chances of collision.
• CSMA is based on the principle of “carrier sense”. The station sense the carrier or
channel before transmitting a frame. It means the station checks whether the
channel is idle or busy.
• The chances of collision reduces to a great extent if a station checks the channel
before trying to use it.
• The chances of collision still exists because of propagation delay. The frame
transmitted by one station takes some time to reach the other station. In the
meantime, other station may sense the channel to be idle and transmit its frames.
• This results in the collision.
• But, what to do if the channels are busy?
• Solution: the persistence methods can be applied to help the station
act when the channel is busy or idle.
• There are three different types of CSMA protocols:
1. 1-Persistent CSMA
2. Non-Persistent CSMA
3. P-Persistent CSMA
4. O-Persistent CSMA
a) 1-Persistent CSMA
• In this method, station that wants to transmit data, continuously senses the
channel to check whether the channel is idle or busy.
• If the channel is busy, station waits until it becomes idle.
• When the station detects an idle channel, it immediately transmits the frame.
• This method has the highest chance of collision because two or more stations
may find channel to be idle at the same time and transmit their frames.
b) Non-Persistent CSMA
• A station that has a frame to send, senses the channel. If the channel is idle, it
sends immediately. If the channel is busy, it waits a random amount of time
and then senses the channel again.
• It reduces the chance of collision because the stations wait for a random
amount of time.
• It is unlikely that two or more stations will wait for the same amount of time
and will retransmit at the same time.
c) P-Persistent CSMA
• In this method, the channel has time slots such that the time slot duration is equal
to or greater than the maximum propagation delay time.
• When a station is ready to send, it senses the channel. If the channel is busy, station
waits until next slot.
• If the channel is idle, it transmits the frame. It reduces the chance of collision and
improves the efficiency of the network.
d) O-persistent
• In this, the transmission occurs based on the superiority of stations which is
decided beforehand and transmission occurs in that order.
• If the channel is idle, then the station waits for its turn to send the data-frame.

• Throughput & Efficiency of CSMA:

It is comparatively much greater than the throughput of pure and slotted ALOHA.
Here, for the 1-persistent mode, the throughput is 50% and for Non-persistent
mode, the throughput can reach up to 90%.
3. CSMA with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)
• In this protocol, the station senses the channel before transmitting the frame. If the
channel is busy, the station waits.
• Additional feature in CSMA/CD is that the stations can detect collisions. The
stations abort their transmission as soon as they detect collision.
• This feature is not present in CSMA. The stations continue to transmit even though
they find that collision has occurred.
• In CSMA/CD, the station that sends its data on the channel, continues to sense the
• channel even after data transmission. If collision is detected, the station aborts its
• transmission and waits for a random amount of time & sends its data again.
• As soon as a collision is detected, the transmitting station release a jam signal. Jam
signal alerts other stations. Stations are not supposed to transmit immediately after
the collision has occurred.
4. CSMA with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)
• This protocol is used in wireless networks because they cannot detect the
collision.
• So, the only solution is collision avoidance. It avoids the collision by using three
basic techniques:
1. Interframe Space
2. Contention Window
3. Acknowledgements
1. Interframe Space
• Whenever the channel is found idle, the station does not transmit
immediately.
• It waits for a period of time called Interframe Space (IFS).When channel
is sensed idle, it may be possible that some distant station may have
already started transmitting.
• Therefore, the purpose of IFS time is to allow this transmitted signal to
reach its destination.
• If after this IFS time, channel is still idle, the station can send the frames.
2. Contention Window
• Contention window is the amount of time divided into slots.
• Station that is ready to send chooses a random number of slots as its waiting
time. The number of slots in the window changes with time.
• It means that it is set of one slot for the first time, and then doubles each time
the station cannot detect an idle channel after the IFS time.
• In contention window, the station needs to sense the channel after each time
slot.

3. Acknowledgment
• Despite all the precautions, collisions may occur and destroy the data.
• Positive acknowledgement and the time-out timer helps guarantee that the
receiver has received the frame
 B. Controlled Access Protocol

• In this method, the stations consult each other to find which station has
a right to send.
• A station cannot send unless it has been authorized by other station.
• The different controlled access methods are:
1. Reservation
2. Polling
3. Token Passing
 1. Reservation
• In this method, a station needs to make a reservation before sending data.
• The time is divided into intervals. In each interval, a reservation frame
precedes the data frames sent in that interval.
• If there are N stations, then there are exactly N reservation slots in the
reservation frame.
• Each slot belongs to a station.
• When a station needs to send a frame, it makes a reservation in its own slot.
• The stations that have made reservations can send their frames after the
reservation frame
2. Polling
• Polling method works in those networks where primary and secondary
stations exist.
• All data exchanges are made through primary device even when the final
destination is a secondary device.
• Primary device controls the link and secondary device follow the instructions.
3. Token Passing
• Token passing method is used in those networks where the stations are
organized in a logical ring.
• In such networks, a special packet called token is circulated through the ring.
• Station that possesses the token has the right to access the channel.
• Whenever any station has some data to send, it waits for the token. It
transmits data only after it gets the possession of token.
• After transmitting the data, the station releases the token and passes it to the
next station in the ring. If any station that receives the token has no data to
send, it simply passes the token to the next station in the ring
 C. Channelization Protocol
• Channelization is a multiple access method in which the available
bandwidth of a link is shared in time, frequency or code between different
stations.

• There are three basic channelization protocols:

1. Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
2. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
3. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
 FDMA
• In FDMA, the available bandwidth is divided into frequency bands.
• Each station is allocated a band to send its data. This band is reserved for that
station for all the time.
• The frequency bands of different stations are separated by small bands of
unused frequency.
• These unused bands are called guard bands that prevent station interferences.
• FDMA is different from FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing).
• FDM is a physical layer technique, whereas, FDMA is an access method in the
data link layer
TDMA
• In TDMA, the bandwidth of channel is divided among various stations on
the basis of time.
• Each station is allocated a time slot during which it can send its data.
Each station must know the beginning of its time slot.
• TDMA requires synchronization between different stations.
• Synchronization is achieved by using some synchronization bits at the
beginning of each slot.
• TDMA is also different from TDM. TDM is a physical layer technique,
whereas, TDMA is an access method in data link layer
CDMA
• Unlike TDMA, in CDMA all stations can transmit data simultaneously.
• Multiple simultaneous transmissions are separated using coding
theory.
• In CDMA, each user is given a unique code sequence.
 IEEE Standards 802 series & their variant
Various IEEE 802 standards are as
• IEEE 802.1 High Level Interface
• IEEE 802.2 Logical Link Control(LLC)
• IEEE 802.3 Ethernet
• IEEE 802.4 Token Bus
• IEEE 802.5 Token Ring
• IEEE 802.6 Metropolitan Area Networks
• IEEE 802.7 Broadband LANs
• IEEE 802.8 Fiber Optic LANS
• IEEE 802.9 Integrated Data and Voice Network
• IEEE 802.10 Security
• IEEE 802.11 Wireless Network
IEEE 802.3 Ethernet
• Ethernet is a 10Mbps LAN that uses the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision
Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol to control access network.
• When an end station (network device) transmits data, every end station on the LAN
receives it.
• Each end station checks the data packet to see whether the destination address
matches its own address. If the addresses match, the end station accepts and
processes the packet. If they do not match, It disregards the packet.
• If two end stations transmit data simultaneously, a collision occurs and the result is a
composite, garbled message.
• All end stations on the network, including the transmitting end stations, detect the
collision and ignore the message.
• Each end station that wants to transmit waits a random amount of time and then
attempts to transmit again.
• This method is usually used for traditional Ethernet LAN.
• Fast Ethernet –
• This is an extension of 10Mbps Ethernet standard and supports speed
upto 100Mbps.
• The access method used is CSMA/CD .
• For physical connections Star or ring topology is used.
• Fast Ethernet is becoming very popular as an upgradation from
10Mbps Ethernet LAN to Fast Ethernet LAN is quite easy