UNIT 3(A)

MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL

RANDOM ACCESS ALOHA

Random access protocols refer to communication protocols used in computer networks. Hence, each device
has an equal privilege to access the network and transmit data. These protocols allow nodes to send and
receive data without taking turns or waiting for permission. Random Access Protocols
Random access protocols are communication protocols that allow multiple devices to access a shared communication
channel or medium in random or arbitrary order. Devices access the medium by using a method called random access.
Some common examples of random access protocols are as follows:

2.1. ALOHA

ALOHA is an early random access protocol used in computer networks. It was first used in
the ALOHAnet network at the University of Hawaii in the 1970s. The basic operation of the
ALOHA protocol is as follows:

 Devices can transmit data whenever they have a message to send

 If two or more devices transmit simultaneously, their messages will collide and be
corrupted
 Devices that detect a collision will wait for a random amount of time before trying to
transmit again

ALOHA has two variants:

 Pure ALOHA: In this version, devices can transmit at any time. There is no
coordination between devices
 Slotted ALOHA: The slotted ALOHA divides time into slots and only allows devices
to transmit at the beginning of a slot, which reduces the probability of collision

2.2. CSMA/CD

CSMA/CD stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection. It is a network
access control method used in Ethernet networks. The purpose of CSMA/CD is to avoid
collisions between network devices trying to transmit data at the same time.
The basic idea behind CSMA/CD is that before a network device transmits data, it
listens to the network to check whether the network is busy. If the network is busy, the
device waits until the network is free. If the network is idle, the device starts
transmitting its data.
While transmitting, the device continues to listen to the network to detect collisions. If a
collision is detected, the device stops transmitting and sends a jam signal to indicate to all
other devices on the network that a collision has occurred. After sending the jam signal, the
device waits for a random amount of time before retrying its transmission.
2.3. CSMA/CA

CSMA/CA stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance. It is a
network access control method used in wireless networks such as Wi-Fi. The purpose of
CSMA/CA is to avoid collisions between network devices trying to transmit data at the same
time, as well as to manage the shared medium of the wireless network.
Before transmitting data, a device using CSMA/CA sends a request to transmit called a
Request to Send (RTS). If another device is currently transmitting, it will not respond to the
RTS. If the medium is free, the device receiving the RTS will send a Clear to Send (CTS)
message to indicate that it is ready to receive data. The original device then sends its data.

2.4. TDMA

TDMA stands for Time Division Multiple Access. It is a network access control method used
in telecommunications networks, including cellular networks and satellite communication
systems.

2.5. FDMA

FDMA stands for Frequency Division Multiple Access. It is a network access control method
used in telecommunications networks, including cellular networks and satellite
communication systems.
The purpose of FDMA is to allow multiple users to share the same communication
channel by dividing it into separate frequency bands. During communication, each user
transmits data in their assigned frequency band, and the receiver uses a corresponding
frequency band to receive the data.

2.6. 802.11

The 802.11 protocol is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs),
commonly known as Wi-Fi. It is a protocol suite that defines the specifications for wireless
communication between devices such as laptops, smartphones, and other mobile devices.
It defines the Wi-Fi network’s physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) layer.
The PHY layer defines the modulation scheme

3. Pure ALOHA

Pure ALOHA is a simple and early random access protocol.

In this protocol, any device can transmit data anytime without checking whether the
channel is in use. This can lead to collisions, where two or more devices transmit
simultaneously, resulting in data corruption and lost packets.
The following diagram illustrates how a Pure ALOHA operates:
Pure ALOHA employs a “send and hope” mechanism to recover from these collisions.
Devices send their data and hope it reaches its destination without colliding with other
transmissions. If a collision occurs, the devices involved wait for a random amount
before resending the data.

3.1. Working Principles of Pure ALOHA

Here are the steps involved in the Pure ALOHA protocol:

1. The first step is for each node in the network to listen to the communication channel
and wait for an idle period. If the channel is busy, the node waits for the current
transmission to finish before proceeding
2. Once the node detects an idle period, it transmits its data packet onto the
communication channel
3. After transmitting the packet, the node waits a random amount of time before
checking if the transmission was successful
4. The node waits for another random amount of time before retransmitting the packet
when the node detects a collision
5. If the transmission was successful (i.e., no collisions), the node can then listen for an
acknowledgement (ACK) signal from the receiver to confirm that the packet was
received successfully. If the node does not receive an ACK signal, it assumes the
transmission failed. Then, it will retransmit the packet after waiting for another
random amount of time
6. The node will continue to retransmit the packet until a successful transmission is
achieved or a maximum number of retries is reached
7. Once the node has successfully transmitted its packet and received an ACK signal, it
can then begin the process of listening for another idle period and transmitting another
packet

3.2. The Throughput of Pure ALOHA

Following is the formula for calculating Pure ALOHA’s throughput:

where is the throughput, is the offered load (i.e., the average number of
transmission attempts per unit of time), and is the mathematical constant approximately
equal to 2.71828. The maximum throughput occurs when = 0.5, which means that each
user attempts to transmit, on average, once every two-time unit. In this case, the throughput
is:

The following diagram shows the graph of the throughput for the Pure ALOHA:

In summary, the maximum throughput of Pure ALOHA is approximately 18.4% of the

channel capacity. However, in practice, the actual throughput will be lower due to collisions.
Collisions occur when two or more users attempt to transmit simultaneously. This causes
signals to interfere with each other and make the data unreadable.

4. Conclusions

In this article, we talked about Pure ALOHA, its working principles, and its efficiency.
Pure ALOHA is a simple protocol allowing multiple nodes to share a single communication
channel. However, it is inefficient due to the high probability of collisions. Thus, it laid the
foundation for developing more sophisticated random access protocols, such as Slotted
ALOHA and CSMA/CD.
CARRIER SENSE MULTIPLE ACESS
Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) is a network protocol for carriertransmission that operates in the Medium Access Control (MAC)
layer. It senses or listens whether the shared channel for transmission is busy or not, and transmits if the channel is not busy. Using
CMSA protocols, more than one users or nodes send and receive data through a shared medium that may be a single cable or optical
fiber connecting multiple nodes, or a portion of the wireless spectrum.

Working Principle
When a station has frames to transmit, it attempts to detect presence of the carrier signal from the other nodes connected to the shared
channel. If a carrier signal is detected, it implies that a transmission is in progress. The station waits till the ongoing transmission
executes to completion, and then initiates its own transmission. Generally, transmissions by the node are received by all other nodes
connected to the channel.

CMSA Access Modes

The versions of CMSA access modes are−

Variations of CMSA protocol

There may be further additions to the basic CMSA protocols. This results is the various protocols as follows−
There may be further additions to the basic CMSA protocols. This results is the various protocols as follows−

CSMA WITH COLLISION DECTION

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is a network protocol for carrier transmission that operates in the
Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. It senses or listens whether the shared channel for transmission is busy or not, and defers
transmissions until the channel is free. The collision detection technology detects collisions by sensing transmissions from other
stations. On detection of a collision, the station stops transmitting, sends a jam signal, and then waits for a random time interval before
retransmission.

Algorithms
The algorithm of CSMA/CD is:
 When a frame is ready, the transmitting station checks whether the channel is idle or busy.

 If the channel is busy, the station waits until the channel becomes idle.
 If the channel is idle, the station starts transmitting and continually monitors the channel to detect collision.
 If a collision is detected, the station starts the collision resolution algorithm.
 The station resets the retransmission counters and completes frame transmission.
 The algorithm of Collision Resolution is:
 The station continues transmission of the current frame for a specified time along with a jam signal, to ensure that all the
other stations detect collision.
 The station increments the retransmission counter.
 If the maximum number of retransmission attempts is reached, then the station aborts transmission.
 Otherwise, the station waits for a backoff period which is generally a function of the number of collisions and restart main
algorithm.
The following flowchart summarizes the algorithms:
 Though this algorithm detects collisions, it does not reduce the number of collisions.
 It is not appropriate for large networks performance degrades exponentially when more stations are added.

CSMMA WITH COLLISION AVOIDENCE

Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) is a network protocol for carrier transmission that operates in the
Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. In contrast to CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection) that deals with
collisions after their occurrence, CSMA/CA prevents collisions prior to their occurrence.

Algorithm
The algorithm of CSMA/CA is:
 When a frame is ready, the transmitting station checks whether the channel is idle or busy.
 If the channel is busy, the station waits until the channel becomes idle.
 If the channel is idle, the station waits for an Inter-frame gap (IFG) amount of time and then sends the frame.
 After sending the frame, it sets a timer.
 The station then waits for acknowledgement from the receiver. If it receives the acknowledgement before expiry of timer, it
marks a successful transmission.
 Otherwise, it waits for a back-off time period and restarts the algorithm.
The following flowchart summarizes the algorithms:
 Advantages of CMSA/CD
 CMSA/CA prevents collision.
 Due to acknowledgements, data is not lost unnecessarily.

Disadvantages of CSMA/CD
 The algorithm calls for long waiting times.
 It has high power consumption.

CONTROLLED ACESS:-
RESERVATION POLLING TOKEN PASSING

In controlled access, the stations seek information from one another to find which station has the right to send. It allows only
one node to send at a time, to avoid the collision of messages on a shared medium. The three controlled-access methods
are:

1. Reservation
2. Polling
3. Token Passing
Reservation
 In the reservation method, a station needs to make a reservation before sending data.
 The timeline has two kinds of periods:
1. Reservation interval of fixed time length
2. Data transmission period of variable frames.
 If there are M stations, the reservation interval is divided into M slots, and each station has one slot.
 Suppose if station 1 has a frame to send, it transmits 1 bit during the slot 1. No other station is allowed to
transmit during this slot.
 In general, i th station may announce that it has a frame to send by inserting a 1 bit into i th slot. After all N
slots have been checked, each station knows which stations wish to transmit.
 The stations which have reserved their slots transfer their frames in that order.
 After data transmission period, next reservation interval begins.

Advantages of Reservation:
 The main advantage of reservation is high rates and low rates of data accessing time of the respective
channel can be predicated easily. Here time and rates are fixed.
 Priorities can be set to provide speedier access from secondary.
 Predictable network performance: Reservation-based access methods can provide predictable network
performance,
 Reduced contention: Reservation-based access methods can reduce contention for network resources, as
access to the network is pre-allocated based on reservation requests. This can improve network efficiency
and reduce packet loss.
 Quality of Service (QoS) support: Reservation-based access methods can support QoS requirements, by
providing different reservation types for different types of traffic, such as voice, video, or data. This can
ensure that high-
 Efficient use of bandwidth: Reservation-based access methods can enable more efficient use of available
bandwidth, as they allow for time and frequency multiplexing of different reservation requests on the same
channel.
 Support for multimedia applications: Reservation-based access methods are well-suited to support
multimedia applications that require guaranteed network resources, such as bandwidth and latency, to
ensure high-quality performance.
Disadvantages of Reservation:
 Highly trust on controlled dependability.
 Decrease in capacity and channel data rate under light loads; increase in turn-around time.
Polling
 Polling process is similar to the roll-call performed in class. Just like the teacher, a controller sends a
message to each node in turn.
 In this, one acts as a primary station(controller) and the others are secondary stations. All data exchanges
must be made through the controller.
 The message sent by the controller contains the address of the node being selected for granting access.
 Although all nodes receive the message the addressed one responds to it and sends data if any. If there is
no data, usually a “poll reject”(NAK) message is sent back.
 Problems include high overhead of the polling messages and high dependence on the reliability of the
controller.
 Advantages of Polling:
 The maximum and minimum access time and data rates on the channel are fixed predictable.
 It has maximum efficiency.
 It has maximum bandwidth.

Disadvantages of Polling:
 It consume more time.
 Since every station has an equal chance of winning in every round, link sharing is biased.
 Only some station might run out of data to send.
 An increase in the turnaround time leads to a drop in the data rates of the channel under low loads.
Efficiency Let Tpoll be the time for polling and Tt be the time required for transmission of data. Then,
Efficiency = T /(T + T ) t t poll

Token Passing
 In token passing scheme, the stations are connected logically to each other in form of ring and access to
stations is governed by tokens.
 A token is a special bit pattern or a small message, which circulate from one station to the next in some
predefined order.
 In Token ring, token is passed from one station to another adjacent station in the ring whereas incase of
Token bus, each station uses the bus to send the token to the next station in some predefined order.
 In both cases, 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 passes the token simply.
 Performance of token ring can be concluded by 2 parameters:-
1. Delay, is a measure of time between when a packet is ready and when it is delivered. So, the average time
(delay) required to send a token to the next station = a/N.
2. Throughput, which is a measure of successful traffic.
Throughput, S = 1/(1 + a/N) for a<1
and

S = 1/{a(1 + 1/N)} for a>1.

where N = number of stations
a = T /T p t

(T = propagation delay and T = transmission delay)

p t

Advantages of Token passing:

 It may now be applied with routers cabling and includes built-in debugging features like protective relay and
auto reconfiguration.
 It provides good throughput when conditions of high load.
Disadvantages of Token passing:
 Its cost is expensive.
 Topology components are more expensive than those of other, more widely used standard.
 The hardware element of the token rings are designed to be tricky. This implies that you should choose on
manufacture and use them exclusively.

FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS(FDMA) In FDMA method, guard bands are used between
the adjacent signal spectra to minimize crosstalk between the channels. A specific frequency band is given to one person, and it will
received by identifying each of the frequency on the receiving end. It is often used in the first generation of analog mobile phone.
 Advan
tages of FDMA
As FDMA systems use low bit rates (large symbol time) compared to average delay spread, it offers the following advantages −

 Reduces the bit rate information and the use of efficient numerical codes increases the capacity.
 It reduces the cost and lowers the inter symbol interference (ISI)
 Equalization is not necessary.
 An FDMA system can be easily implemented. A system can be configured so that the improvements in terms of speech
encoder and bit rate reduction may be easily incorporated.

Disadvantages of FDMA
Although FDMA offers several advantages, it has a few drawbacks as well, which are listed below −

 It does not differ significantly from analog systems; improving the capacity depends on the signal-to-interference reduction, or a
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
 The maximum flow rate per channel is fixed and small.
 Guard bands lead to a waste of capacity.
 Hardware implies narrowband filters, which cannot be realized in VLSI and therefore increases the cost

TIME DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS & CODE DIVISION MULTIPLE

ACCESS(CDMA)
TDMA is the channelization protocol in which bandwidth of channel is divided into various stations on a time
basis. There is a time slot given to each station, the station can transmit data during that time slot only which is
as follows:
Each station must aware of its beginning of time slot and the location of the time slot. TDMA requires
synchronization between different stations. It is type of access method in the data link layer. At each station,
data link layer tells the station to use the allocated time slot.
2. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) :
In CDMA, all the stations can transmit data simultaneously. It allows each station to transmit data over the
entire frequency all the time. Multiple simultaneous transmissions are separated by unique code sequence.
Each user is assigned with a unique code sequence.
In the above figure, there are 4 stations marked as 1, 2, 3 and 4. Data assigned with respective stations as d 1,
d2, d3 and d4 and the code assigned with respective stations as c1, c2, c3 and c4.

Difference between TDMA and CDMA :

S.
No
. TDMA CDMA
TDMA stands CDMA stands
for Time for Code
1. Division Division
Multiple Multiple
Access. Access.

In this, there is
In this, only the sharing of both
sharing of time i.e. bandwidth
2. of satellite and time among
transponder different
takes place. stations takes
place.

3. There is no There is no
need of any need of any
S.
No
. TDMA CDMA
codeword. codeword.

In this, guard In this, both

time of the guard bands
4.
adjacent slots and guard time
are necessary. are necessary.

No need of
Synchronizatio
5. synchronization
n is required.
.

There is
There is large
average
6. capacity of the
capacity of the
system.
system.

It is less
Flexibility is
7. flexible than
high.
CDMA.

There is
In this, there is
existence of
8. no Near-far
Near-far
problem.
problem.

Rate of data is Rate of data is

9.
average. high.
 3B WIRED LANS:-
ETHERNET PROTOCAL

The Ethernet Protocol is one of the oldest LAN technology but still the most popular and the most widely used one in LAN
environments. It is used by almost all networks including home, office, universities, and enterprise networks. Of late, due to its
higher rates over longer distances through optical media, it has gained popularity also known as a WAN technology too. The
Ethernet utilizes a linear bus or star topology. Ethernet served as the basis of the IEEE 802.3 standard. The reason behind its wide
usability is Ethernet is easy to understand, implement, maintain, and allows low-cost network implementation. Also, Ethernet offers
flexibility in terms of the topologies which are allowed. Ethernet operates in two layers of the OSI model, Physical Layer, and Data
Link Layer. For Ethernet, the protocol data unit is Frame, since we mainly deal with the DLL. In order to handle collision, the
Access of the control mechanism used in Ethernet is CSMA/CD.

STANDARD ETHERNET

The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center
(PARC). Since then, it has gone through four generations:
MAC Sublayer

In Standard Ethernet, the MAC sublayer governs the operation of the access
method. It also frames data received from the upper layer and passes them to the
physical layer.

GIGABIT ETHERNET
In computer networks, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) is the family of Ethernet technologies that achieve theoretical data rates of 1 gigabit per
second (1 Gbps). It was introduced in 1999 and was defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard.

Varieties of Gigabit Ethernet

The popular varieties of fast Ethernet are 1000Base-SX, 1000Base-LX, 1000BASE-T and 1000Base-CX.
1000BASE-CX
 Defined by IEEE 802.3z standard
 The initial standard for Gigabit Ethernet
 Uses shielded twisted pair cables with DE-9 or 8P8C connector
 Maximum segment length is 25 metres
 Uses NRZ line encoding and 8B/6B block encoding
1000BASE-SX
 Defined by IEEE 802.3z standard
 Uses a pair of fibre optic cables of a shorter wavelength having 770 – 860 nm diameter
 The maximum segment length varies from 220 – 550 metres depending upon the fiber properties.
 Uses NRZ line encoding and 8B/10B block encoding
1000BASE-LX
 Defined by IEEE 802.3z standard
 Uses a pair of fibre optic cables of a longer wavelength having 1270 – 1355 nm diameter
 Maximum segment length is 500 metres
 Can cover distances up to 5 km
 Uses NRZ line encoding and 8B/10B block encoding
1000BASE-T
 Defined by IEEE 802.3ab standard
 Uses a pair four lanes of twisted-pair cables (Cat-5, Cat-5e, Cat-6, Cat-7)
 Maximum segment length is 100 metres
 Uses trellis code modulation technicall

10 GIGABIT ETHERNET
In computer networks, 10-Gigabit Ethernet is the family of Ethernet technologies that achieve maximum rates up to 10 gigabits per
second (10 Gbps). It is also known as 10GE, 10GbE or 10 GigE. It is defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard.

Varieties of Gigabit Ethernet

The popular varieties of fast Ethernet are 1000Base-SX, 1000Base-LX, 1000BASE-T and 1000Base-CX.
10GBase-SR
 Defined by IEEE 802.3ae standard
 Uses fiber optic cables
 Maximum segment length is 300 m
 Deployed using multimode fibers having 0.85μ frequency
10GBase-LR
 Defined by IEEE 802.3ae standard
 Uses fiber optic cables
 Maximum segment length is 10 km
 Deployed using single-mode fibers having 1.3μ frequency
10GBase-ER
 Defined by IEEE 802.3ae standard
 Uses fiber optic cables
 Maximum segment length is 40 km
 Deployed using single-mode fibers having 1.5μ frequency
10GBase-CX4
 Defined by IEEE 802.3ak standard
 Uses 4 pairs of twin-axial cables
 Maximum segment length is 15 m
 Uses 8B/10B coding
10GBase-T
 Defined by IEEE 802.3an standard
 Uses 4 pairs of unshielded twisted pair cables
 Maximum segment length is 100 m
 Uses low-density parity-check code (LPDC code)