Chapter 12

Multiple Access

12.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Figure 12.1 Data link layer divided into two functionality-oriented sublayers

12.2
 Figure 12.2 Taxonomy of multiple-access protocols discussed in this chapter

12.3
Binary Exponential
Backoff
 Sender sends immediately with idle
channel
 Continues to listen while transmitting
 In case of a collision, the sender waits for
a random period (maximum of two time
slots)
 In case they collide again, the interval is
just doubled every time it experiences a
collision
 When doubling is repeated to the slot size
to 0–1023 it will not increase further
 Binary Exponential Back off
 Algorithm
Time is divided into discrete slots whose length is equal to the worst-case round-
trip propagation time on the either (2τ).

minimum frame is 64 bytes (header + 46 bytes of data) = 512 bits

Channel capacity 10 Mbps, 512/10 M = 51.2µ
 After 1st collision, each station waits for 0 or 1 time slot before trying again.
 After 2nd collision, each station picks up either 0,1,2 or 3 at random and waits
for that much time slots.
 If 3rd collision occurs, then next time number of slots to wait is chosen randomly
from interval 0 to 23-1.
 In general, after ith collision, random number between 0 to 2i -1 is chosen, that
number of time slot is skipped.
 After 10th collision, randomized interval is frozen at max of 1023 slots.
 After 16th collision, controller reports failure back to computer sending and
further recovery is upto higher layers.
 This algorithm is called Binary Exponential Back off Algorithm.
 Advantage: Ensures a low delay when only a few stations collide, but also
assures that the collision is resolved in a reasonable interval when many
stations collide.
 Disadvantage: Could introduce significant delay.
 12-1 RANDOM ACCESS

In random access or contention methods, no station is

superior to another station and none is assigned the
control over another. No station permits, or does not
permit, another station to send. At each instance, a
station that has data to send uses a procedure defined
by the protocol to make a decision on whether or not to
send.
Topics discussed in this section:
ALOHA
Carrier Sense Multiple Access
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection
Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
12.6
 ALOHA
 Norman Abramson at University of Hawaii, in 70’s wanted to connect
computer centers of all the islands of Hawaii.
 Hawaii is a collection of islands and it was not possible to connect them
with telephone lines.
 Joining islands with wires laid on seabed was very expensive, so they
started thinking about wireless solution.
 Solution: ALOHA
 Using short range radios.
 Half duplex by nature. At a time, only can send or receiver. Switching
also takes time.
 Two different frequencies, one for sending, another for receiving.
 But, problem of collision, how to solve it?
 Solution: Let the users communicate, if signals collide, not
acknowledged and so, sender resends data.
 Adding randomness reduces the chance of collision.
 Algorithm is called Binary Exponential Back-off Algorithm.
 Also had problem: While transmitting, sender can not sense collision.
 In ALOHA, maximum 18 out of 100 packets pass without collision if
ALOHA works with optimum speed.
ALOHA connecting islands at
Hawaii
 Slotted ALOHA
 Solution: Slotted ALOHA

Robert, in 1972 proposed a scheme.

Packets are vulnerable to collide with only those packets which
were transmitted before, but not during the lifetime.

He divided timeslots equal to lifetime of packets.

Packet can be transmitted only in beginning of next slot only.

Slotted ALOHA introduces additional delay.

Eg : B is to be transmitted during A’s lifetime, B will be delayed
till next slot.

Thus, reducing collision probability to half and performance is
doubled.

In slotted ALOHA, 36 out of 100 packets are delivered without
collision at optimum speed.

In slotted ALOHA time is divided into discrete intervals, each
corresponding to one frame.

A computer is not permitted to send whenever it has data to
send.

Instead it is required to wait for the next available slot.
 Well, it still needs improvement.
 See next figures that explain ALOHA and Slotted ALOHA.
 Figure 12.3 Frames in a pure ALOHA network

12.10
 Figure 12.4 Procedure for pure ALOHA protocol

12.11
 Figure 12.5 Vulnerable time for pure ALOHA protocol

12.12
 Figure 12.6 Frames in a slotted ALOHA network

12.13
 Figure 12.7 Vulnerable time for slotted ALOHA protocol

12.14
 Figure 12.9 Vulnerable time in CSMA

12.15
 Figure 12.8 Space/time model of the collision in CSMA

12.16
 Figure 12.11 Flow diagram for three persistence methods

12.17
 Figure 12.10 Behavior of three persistence methods

12.18
CSMA:
 TYPES:
 1. 1 Persistent CSMA
 2. Non Persistent CSMA
 3. P Persistent CSMA
 4. CSMA/CD
Carrier Sense Multiple Access
(CSMA)
•Protocols in which stations listen for a carrier (i.e.
transmission) and act accordingly are called
carrier sense protocols.
1. 1-persistent CSMA
Channel Busy  Continue sensing until free
and then grab.
Channel Idle  Transmit with probability 1.
Collision  Wait for a random length of
time and try again.
2. Non-persistent CSMA:
Channel Busy  Does not continually sense
the channel. Wait for a random length of
time and try again.
Channel Idle  Transmit.
Collision  Wait for a random length of
time and try again.
20
 3. P-persistent CSMA:
Channel Busy  Continue sensing until free
(same as idle).
Channel Idle  Transmit with probability p, and
defer transmitting until the next slot with
probability q = 1-p.
Collision  Wait for a random length of time
and try again.
• Analysis:
• The non-persistent CSMA has better channel
utilization but longer delays than 1-persistent CSMA.
• CSMA are an improvement over ALOHA because they
ensure that no station begins to transmit when it
senses the channel busy.
• Another improvement is for stations to abort their
transmissions as soon as they detect a collision.
• Quickly terminating damaged frames saves time and
bandwidth.
• This protocol is called CSMA/CD (CSMA with Collision
Detection).

21
By: Dr. Bhargavi H. Goswami, 9426669020, Email:[email protected]
 CSMA/CD
 Carrier Sense: Ethernet card listen to channel before
transmission and differ to transmit if somebody else is
already transmitting.
 Multiple Access: More than one user needs channel access.
 Collision Detection: Protocol listen when transmission is
going on and find stop transmitting when it finds colliding.
 Interframe gap: As soon as channel becomes free, it waits
for small interframe gap and then transmits. Interframe gap
is idle time between frames. After a frame has been sent,
transmitters are required to transmit a minimum of 96 bits
(12 octets) of idle line state before transmitting the next
frame.
 Maximum distance limitation: Frame size min 64 bytes.
 Minimum frame size limitation: Frame length min 250 m.
 Both, distance and size can not be increased together.
 More bandwidth deteriorates performance.
 If first 64 bytes are successfully received, means later there
would be no collision.
Collision Detection &
Avoidance
 Collision garble the frames.
 Collision Detection:

Let collision happen and then solve it.

If sender detects collision, it can stop sending and
restart later by following ‘binary back-off algorithm’.

Need a mechanism to listen to channel.

Used by classic Ethernet.
 Collision Avoidance:

See that collision do not occur by carefully avoiding it.

Here, it is possible to extract any component signal from
collided signal. So retransmission is not needed. We just
extract what we need from the received signals.

Preferred by 802.11 wireless LANs.

CDMA Code Division Multiple Access is used in Mobile
phones.
CSMA/CA
 Collision Avoidance with Career
Sense Multiple Access.
 On Wireless Networks
 Strategies:
 1. Inter-frame Spacing (IFS)
 2. Contention Window – Binary
Exponential Back off Algorithm
 3. Acknowledgement
 Figure 12.12 Collision of the first bit in CSMA/CD

12.25
 Figure 12.13 Collision and abortion in CSMA/CD

12.26
 Figure 12.14 Flow diagram for the CSMA/CD

12.27
 Figure 12.15 Energy level during transmission, idleness, or collision

12.28
 Figure 12.16 Timing in CSMA/CA

12.29
 Note

In CSMA/CA, the IFS can also be used to

define the priority of a station or a
frame.

12.30
 Note

In CSMA/CA, if the station finds the

channel busy, it does not restart the
timer of the contention window;
it stops the timer and restarts it when
the channel becomes idle.

12.31
 Figure 12.17 Flow diagram for CSMA/CA

12.32
 NAV – DIFS – SIFS – PIFS – EIFS – CTS - RTS
network allocation vector (NAV) that shows how much time must pass before

these stations are allowed to check the channel for idleness.

12.33
 12-2 CONTROLLED ACCESS

In controlled access, the stations consult one another

to find which station has the right to send. A station
cannot send unless it has been authorized by other
stations. We discuss three popular controlled-access
methods.

Topics discussed in this section:

Reservation
Polling
Token Passing

12.34
 Figure 12.18 Reservation access method

12.35
 Figure 12.19 Select and poll functions in polling access method

12.36
Figure 12.20 Logical ring and physical topology in token-passing access method

12.37