Medium Access Control

&
RAVI KUMAR Tele-communication
Systems
Topics Covered:

• Motivation for a Specialized MAC

• SDMA
• FDMA
• TDMA
• CDMA
• Comparison of S/T/F/CDMA
• GSM
• DECT
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Motivation for a Specialized MAC

• The Media Access Control (MAC) data communication

protocol sub-layer, also known as the Medium Access
Control, is a sublayer of the Data Link Layer specified in
the seven-layer OSI model (layer 2).

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Motivation for a Specialized MAC

• One of the most commonly used MAC schemes for wired

networks is carrier sense multiple access with collision
detection (CSMA/CD).
• In this scheme, a sender senses the medium (a wire or coaxial
cable) to see if it is free. If the medium is busy, the sender
waits until it is free.
• If the medium is free, the sender starts transmitting data and
continues to listen into the medium.
• If the sender detects a collision while sending, it stops at once
and sends a jamming signal. But this scheme doesn’t work
well with wireless networks.

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Motivation for a Specialized MAC

The problems are:

• Signal strength decreases with distance
• The sender would apply CS and CD, but the collisions happen
at the receiver
• It might be a case that a sender cannot “hear” the collision,
i.e., CD does not work
• Furthermore, CS might not work, if for e.g., a terminal is
“hidden”

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Hidden and Exposed Terminals

• Consider the scenario with three mobile phones as shown below.

The transmission range of A reaches B, but not C (the detection range
does not reach C either). The transmission range of C reaches B, but
not A. Finally, the transmission range of B reaches A and C, i.e., A
cannot detect C and vice versa.

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Hidden terminals

 A sends to B, C cannot hear A

 C wants to send to B, C senses a “free” medium (CS fails) and starts
transmitting
 Collision at B occurs, A cannot detect this collision (CD fails) and continues
with its transmission to B
 A is “hidden” from C and vice versa

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Exposed terminals

• B sends to A, C wants to send to another terminal (not A or B)

outside the range
• C senses the carrier and detects that the carrier is busy.
• C postpones its transmission until it detects the medium as
being idle again
• but A is outside radio range of C
• C is “exposed” to B

Hidden terminals cause collisions, where as

Exposed terminals causes unnecessary delay.
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Near and far terminals

• Consider the situation shown below. A and B are both sending

with the same transmission power.

• Signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the

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

• It is used for allocating a separated space to users in wireless networks.

• A typical application involves assigning an optimal base station to a mobile
phone user.
• The mobile phone may receive several base stations with different quality.
• A MAC algorithm could now decide which base station is best, taking into
account which frequencies (FDM), time slots (TDM) or code (CDM) are
still available.
• The basis for the SDMA algorithm is formed by cells and sectorized
antennas which constitute the infrastructure implementing space
division multiplexing (SDM).
• SDM has the unique advantage of not requiring any multiplexing
equipment.
• It is usually combined with other multiplexing techniques to better utilize
the individual physical channels.
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FDMA

• Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) describes schemes to

subdivide the frequency dimension into several non-
overlapping frequency bands.

• Frequency Division Multiple Access is a method employed to

permit several users to transmit simultaneously on one
medium by assigning a specific frequency within the channel
to each user. 11
FDMA

• Each conversation gets its own, unique, radio channel.

• The channels are relatively narrow, usually 30 KHz or less and
are defined as either transmit or receive channels.
• A full duplex conversation requires a transmit & receive
channel pair.
• FDM is often used for simultaneous access to the medium by
base station and mobile station in cellular networks
establishing a duplex channel.
• A scheme called frequency division duplexing (FDD) in
which the two directions, mobile station to base station and
vice versa are now separated using different frequencies.

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Disadvantages of FDMA

• While radio stations broadcast 24 hours a day, mobile

communication typically takes place for only a few minutes at
a time.
• Assigning a separate frequency for each possible
communication scenario would be a tremendous waste of
frequency resources.
• Additionally, the fixed assignment of a frequency to a sender
makes the scheme very inflexible and limits the number of
senders.

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TDMA

• A more flexible multiplexing scheme for typical mobile

communications is time division multiplexing (TDM).

• Compared to FDMA, time division multiple access (TDMA)

offers a much more flexible scheme.
• In this certain time slots allocated for communication.

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TDMA

• Now synchronization between sender and receiver has to be

achieved in the time domain. Again this can be done by using
a fixed pattern similar to FDMA techniques, i.e., allocating a
certain time slot for a channel, or by using a dynamic
allocation scheme.
Fixed TDM
• The simplest algorithm for using TDM is allocating time slots
for channels in a fixed pattern.
• This results in a fixed bandwidth and is the typical solution for
wireless phone systems.

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Fixed TDM

• The above figure shows how these fixed TDM patterns are
used to implement multiple access and a duplex channel
between a base station and mobile station. Assigning different
slots for uplink and downlink using the same frequency is
called time division duplex (TDD).

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Fixed TDM Disadvantages

• Each connection is allotted its own up- and downlink

pair.
• This general scheme still wastes a lot of bandwidth.
• It is too static, too inflexible for data communication.
• In this case, connectionless, demand-oriented TDMA
schemes can be used.

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Classical Aloha

• In this scheme, TDM is applied without controlling

medium access. Here each station can access the
medium at any time as shown below:

• This is a random access scheme, without a central

arbiter controlling access and without coordination
among the stations.
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Classical Aloha

• If two or more stations access the medium at the

same time, a collision occurs and the transmitted
data is destroyed.
• Resolving this problem is left to higher layers (e.g.,
retransmission of data).
• The simple Aloha works fine for a light load and does
not require any complicated access mechanisms.

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Slotted Aloha

• The first refinement of the classical Aloha scheme is provided

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

• The introduction of slots raises the throughput from

18 per cent to 36 per cent, i.e., slotting doubles the
throughput.
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Carrier sense multiple access

• One improvement to the basic Aloha is sensing the

carrier before accessing the medium.
• Sensing the carrier and accessing the medium only if
the carrier is idle decreases the probability of a
collision.
• But, as already mentioned in the introduction,
hidden terminals cannot be detected, so, if a hidden
terminal transmits at the same time as another
sender, a collision might occur at the receiver.

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The different versions of CSMA

• 1-persistent CSMA: Stations sense the channel and listens if

its busy and transmit immediately, when the channel becomes
idle. It’s called 1-persistent CSMA because the host transmits
with a probability of 1 whenever it finds the channel idle.
• non-persistent CSMA: stations sense the carrier and start
sending immediately if the medium is idle. If the medium is
busy, the station pauses a random amount of time before
sensing the medium again and repeating this pattern.
• p-persistent CSMA: systems nodes also sense the medium,
but only transmit with a probability of p, with the station
deferring to the next slot with the probability 1-p, i.e., access is
slotted in addition
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CDMA

• Code division multiple access systems apply codes

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

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CDMA

• All terminals send on the same frequency

probably at the same time and can use the
whole bandwidth of the transmission channel.
• Each sender has a unique random number, the
sender XORs the signal with this random
number.
• The receiver can “tune” into this signal if it
knows the pseudo random number, tuning is
done via a correlation function
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Disadvantages:

• Higher complexity of a receiver (receiver

cannot just listen into the medium and start
receiving if there is a signal)
• All signals should have the same strength at a
receiver

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Advantages:

• All terminals can use the same frequency, no

planning needed
• Huge code space (e.g. 232) compared to
frequency space
• Interferences (e.g. white noise) is not coded
• Error correction and encryption can be easily
integrated

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Comparison

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GSM Architecture

The GSM network architecture consists of three major subsystems:

• Mobile Station (MS)

• Base Station Subsystem (BSS)

• Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)

The wireless link interface between the MS and the Base

Transceiver Station (BTS), which is a part of BSS. Many
BTSs are controlled by a Base Station Controller (BSC).
BSC is connected to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC),
which is a part of NSS. Figure shows the key functional
elements in the GSM network architecture.
GSM Architecture
GSM Architecture
GSM Architecture

Mobile station (MS)

• Mobile Equipment Unit –

• Physical Terminal
• Telephone
• Mobile

• SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) –

•Store subscriber identity

• Contact list
• Network info
GSM Architecture

Base-Station Subsystem (BSS)

• Base Station Controller

• Responsible for receiving radio frequencies

• Manage handoff

• Base Transceiver Station

• Single cell area

• Radio antenna

• Radio Transceiver
GSM Architecture

Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)

• Mobile Switching services Centre (MSC):

• Registration
• Authentication
• Call location
• Inter MSC handover
• Call routing
• MSC have four databases
• Home Location Register

• Visitor Location Register

• Authentication Center
• contains the secret key also contained in the user's
SIM card.
•Equipment Identity Register
•International Mobile Equipment Identity.
DECT - Reference model
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication

• DECT was Digital European Cordless Telephone

standardized for cordless telephones
• This standard also describes air interface between base-
station and mobile phone
• DECT has been renamed for international marketing
reasons into "Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telecommunication"
•Characteristics
•frequency: 1880-1900 MHz
•channels: 120 full duplex
•duplex mechanism: TDD (Time Division Duplex) with 10
ms frame length
•Multplexing scheme: FDMA with 10 carrier frequencies,
TDMA with 2x 12 slots
•modulation: digital, Gaussian Minimum Shift Key
(GMSK)
•power: 10 mW average (max. 250 mW)
•range: aprox. 50 m in buildings, 300 m open space
System architecture
DECT Layers I
DECT time multiplex frame
DECT layers II

Data link control layer

• creation and keeping up reliable connections between the
mobile terminal and base station
• two DLC protocols for the control plane (C-Plane)
• connectionless broadcast service: paging functionality
• point to point protocol

• several services specified for the user plane (U-Plane)

• null-service: offers unmodified MAC services
• frame relay: simple packet transmission
• frame switching: time-bounded packet transmission
• error correcting transmission: uses Forward Error
Correction, time bounded services
• bandwidth adaptive transmission
• „Escape“ service: for further enhancements of the
standard
DECT layers III

Network layer
It offers services to request, check, reserve, control, and
release resources at the base station and mobile terminal
Manages Resources
• necessary for a wireless connection
• necessary for the connection of the DECT system to the fixed
network
Main tasks
Call control: Establishment and release of network connections,
negotiation of connection capabilities, release , setup
Call independent services (Supplementary services): call
forwarding, accounting, call redirecting
Mobility management: identity management, authentication
management of the location register
Short Message Service – support sms services
Link Control – Matches and coordinates various logical links
provided by the data link layer to network layer entities
Enhancements of the standard