This document provides an overview of medium access control sublayer topics, including channel allocation, multiple access protocols, Ethernet, wireless LANs, and data link layer switching. It discusses static and dynamic channel allocation approaches. For multiple access protocols, it describes ALOHA, carrier sense multiple access, and collision-free protocols. It provides details on pure ALOHA, slotted ALOHA, 1-persistent CSMA, non-persistent CSMA, CSMA/CD, bit-map protocols, token passing, and binary countdown.
5. The Channel Allocation Problem
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Channel allocation is a process in which a single channel is divided and allotted
to multiple users in order to carry user specific tasks.
 user’s quantity may vary every time the process takes place.
 The channel might be :
– a portion of the wireless spectrum in a geographic region,
– or a single wire or optical fiber to which multiple nodes are connected.
Channel allocation problem is how to allocate a single broadcast channel among
competing users.
Channel allocation problem can be solved by two schemes:
Static Channel Allocation in LANs and MANs, and Dynamic Channel Allocation.
6. The Channel Allocation Problem
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Static Channel allocation:
The traditional approach of allocating a single channel among multiple competing users
using Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM).
FDM - if there are N users, the frequency channel is divided into N equal sized portions
(bandwidth), each user being assigned one portion. since each user has a private
frequency band, there is no interference between users.
It is not efficient to divide into fixed number of chunks.
Where,
T = mean time delay,
C = capacity of channel,
L = arrival rate of frames,
1/U = bits/frame,
N = number of sub channels,
T(FDM) = Frequency Division Multiplexing Time
7. The Channel Allocation Problem
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When the number of senders is large and varying or the traffic is bursty,
FDM presents some problems:
•If (number of spectrum portions < number of stations)
»some of them will be denied permission for lack of bandwidth.
•If (number of spectrum portions > number of stations)
»a large piece of valuable spectrum will be wasted.
•when some stations are quiescent,
»their bandwidth is simply wasted. They are not using it, and no one
else is allowed to use it either.
8. The Channel Allocation Problem
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5 Key Assumptions for Dynamic Channel Allocation
Station Model: The model consists of N independent stations (e.g., computers,
telephones, or personal communicators), each with a program or user that generates
frames for transmission. Stations are sometimes called terminals. The probability of a
frame being generated in an interval of length Dt is lDt, where l is a constant (the arrival
rate of new frames). Once a frame has been generated, the station is blocked and does
nothing until the frame has been successfully transmitted.
Single Channel Assumption: A single channel is available for all communication. All
stations can transmit on it and all can receive from it. As far as the hardware is concerned,
all stations are equivalent, although protocol software may assign priorities to them.
Collision Assumption: If two frames are transmitted simultaneously, they overlap in time
and the resulting signal is garbled. This event is called a collision. All stations can detect
collisions. A collided frame must be transmitted again later. There are no errors other than
those generated by collisions.
9. The Channel Allocation Problem
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Key Assumptions for Dynamic Channel Allocation continued……
4a. Continuous Time. Frame transmission can begin at any instant. There is no master
clock dividing time into discrete intervals.
4b. Slotted Time. Time is divided into discrete intervals (slots). Frame transmissions
always begin at the start of a slot. A slot may contain 0, 1, or more frames,
corresponding to an idle slot, a successful transmission, or a collision, respectively.
5a. Carrier Sense. Stations can tell if the channel is in use before trying to use it. If the
channel is sensed as busy, no station will attempt to use it until it goes idle.
5b. No Carrier Sense. Stations cannot sense the channel before trying to use it. They
just go ahead and transmit. Only later can they determine whether the transmission
was successful.
10. Multiple Access Protocols
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Multiple Access: enabling many devices to gain access to the channel at the same
time.
Multiple Access Protocols:
- Contention Protocols
Aloha Protocols
Carrier Sense Multiple Access(CSMA)protocols
- Collision-Free Protocols
- Limited-Contention Protocols
11. Multiple Access Protocols
ALOHA:
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ALOHA:
Abramson’s work, called the ALOHA system, used ground based radio broadcasting,
the basic idea is applicable to any system in which uncoordinated users are competing
for the use of a single shared channel.
Two versions of ALOHA here: Pure and Slotted.
They differ with respect to whether time is continuous, as in the pure version,
or divided into discrete slots into which all frames must fit.
13. Multiple Access Protocols
ALOHA:
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 In pure ALOHA, the stations transmit frames whenever they have data to send.
 When two or more stations transmit simultaneously, there is collision and the
frames are destroyed.
 Whenever any station transmits a frame, it expects the acknowledgement from the
receiver.
 If acknowledgement is not received within specified time, the station assumes that
the frame (or acknowledgement) has been destroyed.
 If the frame is destroyed because of collision the 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.
 Therefore pure ALOHA dictates that when time-out period passes, each station must
wait for a random amount of time before resending its frame.
 This randomness will help avoid more collisions.
14. Multiple Access Protocols
ALOHA:
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Vulnerable time
Let us find the length of time, the
vulnerable time, in which there is
a possibility of collision.
We assume that the stations send
fixed length frames with each
frame taking Tfr S to send.
15. Multiple Access Protocols
ALOHA:
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Station A sends a frame at time t. Now imagine
station B has already sent a frame between t -
Tfr and t. This leads to a collision between the
frames from station A and station B.
The end of B's frame collides with the
beginning of A's frame. On the other hand,
suppose that station C sends a frame between t
and t + Tfr .
Here, there is a collision between frames from
station A and station C.
The beginning of C's frame collides with the
end of A's frame. Looking at Figure, we see that
the vulnerable time, during which a collision
may occur in pure ALOHA, is 2 times the frame
transmission time.
Pure ALOHA vulnerable time = 2 x Tfr
Figure shows the vulnerable time for station A.
16. Multiple Access Protocols
ALOHA:
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Slotted ALOHA: Pure ALOHA has a vulnerable time of 2 x Tfr .
This is so because there is no rule that defines when the station can send. A station may send
soon after another station has started or soon before another station has finished.
Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency of pure ALOHA.
In slotted ALOHA we divide the time into slots of Tfr s and force the station to send only at the
beginning of the time slot.
Because a station is allowed to send only at the beginning of the synchronized time slot, if a
station misses this moment, it must wait until the beginning of the next time slot. This means
that the station which started at the beginning of this slot has already finished sending its
frame. Of course, there is still the possibility of collision if two stations try to send at the
beginning of the same time slot.
However, the vulnerable time is now reduced to one-half, equal to Tfr. Figure 4 shows the
situation
18. Multiple Access Protocols
ALOHA:
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Slotted ALOHA:
Figure 4. shows the situation that the vulnerable time for slotted ALOHA is one-half that of pure
ALOHA. Slotted ALOHA vulnerable time = Tfr
The throughput for slotted ALOHA is,
S = G × e−G .
The maximum throughput Smax = 0.368
when G = 1.
19. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
To minimize the chance of collision and, therefore, increase the performance, the CSMA
method was developed. The chance of collision can be reduced if a station senses the medium
before trying to use it.
CSMA requires that each station first listen to the medium (or check the state of the medium)
before sending. In other words, CSMA is based on the principle "sense before transmit" or
"listen before talk."
CSMA can reduce the possibility of collision, but it cannot eliminate it. The reason for this is,
Stations are connected to a shared channel (usually a dedicated medium).
The possibility of collision still exists because of propagation delay; station may sense the
medium and find it idle, only because the first bit sent by another station has not yet been
received.
Versions of CSMA:–
- 1-persistent CSMA
–nonpersistent CSMA
–CSMA with Collision Detection
20. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
Space/time model of the collision in CSMA
At time tI' station B senses the medium
and finds it idle, so it sends a frame.
At time t2 (t2> tI)‘ station C senses the
medium and finds it idle because, at this
time, the first bits from station B have not
reached station C.
Station C also sends a frame.
The two signals collide and both frames
are destroyed.
21. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
Vulnerable Time
The vulnerable time for CSMA is the
propagation time Tp.
This is the time needed for a signal to
propagate from one end of the medium
to the other.
When a station sends a frame, and any
other station tries to send a frame
during this time, a collision will result.
But if the first bit of the frame reaches
the end of the medium, every station will
already have heard the bit and will
refrain from sending.
Vulnerable Time in CSMA
22. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
1 Persistence Methods:
•What should a station do if the channel is busy?
•What should a station do if the channel is idle?
• When a station has a frame to send, it first listens to the channel (idle or busy)
•If the channel is idle, the station sends its frame.
•if the channel is busy, the station continuously listen to tothe channel until it becomes
idle.Then the station transmits a frame.
•If a collision occurs, the station waits a random amount of time and starts all over again.
23. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
Non-persistent:
When a station has a frame to send, it first listens to the channel (idle or busy)
•If the channel is idle, the station sends its data.
•if the channel is busy, the station waits a random period of time and then repeats the
algorithm
•this algorithm leads to better channel utilization but longer delays than 1-persistent CSMA.
24. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
p-Persistent: This is used if the channel has time slots with a slot duration equal to or greater
than the maximum propagation time. The p-persistent approach combines the advantages of
the other two strategies. It reduces the chance of collision and improves efficiency.
In this method, after the station finds the line idle it follows these steps:
1.With probability p, the station sends its frame.
2.With probability q = 1 - p, the station waits for the beginning of the next time slot and checks
the line again.
a. If the line is idle, it goes to step 1.
b. If the line is busy, it acts as though a collision has occurred and uses the backoff procedure.
26. Multiple Access Protocols
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Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA):
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)
The CSMA method does not specify the procedure following a collision.
Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) augments the algorithm
to handle the collision.
In this method, a station monitors the medium after it sends a frame to see if the
transmission was successful. If so, the station is finished. If, however, there is a collision, the
frame is sent again.
To better understand CSMA/CD, let us
look at the first bits transmitted by the
two stations involved in the collision.
Although each station continues to send
bits in the frame until it detects the
collision, we show what happens as the
first bits collide. In the Figure, stations A
and C are involved in the collision.
27. Multiple Access Protocols
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Collision Free Protocol:
Collision-Free Protocols
•there will never be any collisions (0% collision)
•Versions of Collision-Free Protocols
–A Bit-Map Protocol
–Token Passing
–Binary Countdown.
28. Multiple Access Protocols
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Collision Free Protocol:
A Bit-Map Protocol
–(before any transmission happens) there is contention period consists of number of
slots, each slot is assigned to a station.
–Each station (has a frame to be sent) sends a 1 bit during the its slot
–At the end of the contention period the order of the transmissions (that are going to
happen) are known.
29. Multiple Access Protocols
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Collision Free Protocol:
Token Passing protocol
•Token Passing is to pass a small message called a token from one station to the next in
the same predefined order. (The token represents permission to send).
•If a station has a frame queued for transmission when it receives the token, it can send
that frame before it passes the token to the next station.
•If it has no queued frame, it simply passes the token.
30. Multiple Access Protocols
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Collision Free Protocol:
Binary Countdown
• A station wanting to use the channel
broadcasts its address as a binary bit string,
starting with the high order bit.
• The bits in each address position from
different stations are BOOLEAN ORed
together by the channel when they are sent
at the same time.
• The higher-numbered stations have a
higher priority than lower-numbered
stations.
Network links can be divided into two categories: those using point-to-point connections and those using broadcast channels. We studied point-to-point links in Chap. 2; this chapter deals with broadcast links and their protocols.
In any broadcast network, the key issue is how to determine who gets to use the channel when there is competition for it.
To make this point, consider a conference call in which six people, on six different telephones, are all connected so that each one can hear and talk to all the others. It is very likely that when one of them stops speaking, two or more will start talking at once, leading to chaos.
In a face-to-face meeting, chaos is avoided by external means. For example, at a meeting, people raise their hands to request permission to speak. When only a single channel is available, it is much harder to determine who should go next.
Many protocols for solving the problem are known.
In the literature, broadcast channels are sometimes referred to as Multiaccess channels or random access channels.
The protocols used to determine who goes next on a multiaccess channel belong to a sublayer of the data link layer called the MAC (Medium Access Control) sublayer.
The MAC sublayer is especially important in LANs, particularly wireless ones because wireless is naturally a broadcast channel. WANs, in contrast, use point-to-point links, except for satellite networks. Because multiaccess channels and LANs are so closely related, in this chapter we will discuss LANs in general, including a few issues that are not strictly part of the MAC sublayer, but the main subject here will be control of the channel.
Channel allocation problem is how to allocate a single broadcast channel among competing users.
The channel might be a portion of the wireless spectrum in a geographic region, or a single wire or optical fiber to which multiple nodes
are connected. It does not matter. In both cases, the channel connects each user to all other users and any user who makes full use of the channel interferes with other users who also wish to use the channel.
If there are N number of users and channel is divided into N equal-sized sub channels, Each user is assigned one portion.
If the number of users are small and don’t vary at times, then Frequency Division Multiplexing can be used as it is a simple and efficient channel bandwidth allocating technique.Â
This scheme is also referred as fixed channel allocation or fixed channel assignment.
In this allocation scheme, there is no interference between the users since each user is assigned a fixed channel. However, it is not suitable in case of a large number of users with variable bandwidth requirements.
In dynamic channel allocation scheme, frequency bands are not permanently assigned to the users. Instead channels are allotted to users dynamically as needed, from a central pool. The allocation is done considering a number of parameters so that transmission interference is minimized.
This allocation scheme optimises bandwidth usage and results is faster transmissions.
Dynamic channel allocation is further divided into centralised and distributed allocation.
The original ALOHA protocol is called pure ALOHA. This is a simple, but elegant protocol.
The idea is that each station sends a frame whenever it has a frame to send. However, since there is only one channel to share, there is the
possibility of collision between frames from different stations.
Below Figure shows an example of frame collisions in pure ALOHA.
The original ALOHA protocol is called pure ALOHA. This is a simple, but elegant protocol.
The idea is that each station sends a frame whenever it has a frame to send. However, since there is only one channel to share, there is the
possibility of collision between frames from different stations.
Below Figure shows an example of frame collisions in pure ALOHA.
In this protocol, the station listen to the channel while it is transmitting, and when it detects the collision, it stops transmitting to save time and bandwidth.–This protocol isthe basis of the Ethernet LAN.
Collision of the first bit in CSMA/CD
At time t 1, station A has executed its persistence procedure and starts sending the bits of its frame. At time t2, station C has not yet sensed the first
bit sent by A. Station C executes its persistence procedure and starts sending the bits in its frame, which propagate both to the left and to the right. The
collision occurs sometime after time t2.Station C detects a collision at time t3 when it receives the first bit of A's frame. Station C immediately (or after a
short time, but we assume immediately) aborts transmission.
Station A detects collision at time t4 when it receives the first bit of C's frame; it also immediately aborts transmission. Looking at the figure, we see that A
transmits for the duration t4 - tl; C transmits for the duration t3 - t2.