Medium Access Control in

Wireless Networks
 Acknowledgements

Many of the slides are based on a tutorial by

Prof. Nitin Vaidya and some other sources.
 Overview
• Issues with spectrum sharing
• Current MAC protocols
• Power management
• Rate control
• Interaction with PHY layer
 Medium Access Control
• Wireless channel is a shared medium
• MAC coordinates transmission between
users sharing the spectrum
• Goals: prevent collisions while maximizing
throughput and minimizing delay
• Types:
– Centralized
– Decentralized
 MAC Protocols: a taxonomy
Three broad classes:
• Channel Partitioning
– divide channel into smaller “pieces” (time slots,
frequency)
– allocate piece to node for exclusive use
• Random Access
– allow collisions
– “recover” from collisions
• “Taking turns”
– tightly coordinate shared access to avoid collisions
Goal: efficient, fair, simple, decentralized
 Channel Partitioning
MAC protocols: TDMA
TDMA: time division multiple access
• Access to channel in "rounds"
• Each station gets fixed length slot (length =
pkt trans time) in each round
• Unused slots go idle
 Channel Partitioning
MAC protocols: FDMA

FDMA: frequency division multiple access

• Channel spectrum divided into frequency bands
• Each station assigned fixed frequency band
• Unused transmission time in frequency bands go
idle
 Random Access Protocols:
Unslotted ALOHA
• Simpler, no synchronization
• Packet needs transmission:
– Send without awaiting for beginning of slot
– Maximum throughput: 18.4%
 Slotted Aloha
• time is divided into equal size slots (= pkt trans. time)
• node with new arriving pkt: transmit at beginning of
next slot
• if collision: retransmit pkt in future slots with
probability p, until successful.
• Maximum throughput: 37%

Success (S), Collision (C), Empty (E) slots

Carrier Sense Multiple Access
(CSMA)
• In some shorter distance networks, it is possible to
listen to the channel before transmitting
• In radio networks, this is called “sensing the
carrier”
• The CSMA protocol works just like Aloha except:
If the channel is sensed busy, then the user waits
to transmit its packet, and a collision is avoided
• This really improves the performance in short
distance networks!
 Hidden Terminal Problem

A B C

Nodes A and C cannot hear each other

Transmissions by nodes A and C can collide at node B

Nodes A and C are hidden from each other

 Busy Tone Solutions
[Tobagi75]
• A receiver transmits busy tone when
receiving data
• All nodes hearing busy tone keep silent
• Avoids interference from hidden terminals
• Requires a separate channel for busy tone
 MACA Solution for Hidden
Terminal Problem [Karn90]
• When node A wants to send a packet to node B,
node A first sends a Request-to-Send (RTS) to A
• On receiving RTS, node A responds by sending
Clear-to-Send (CTS), provided node A is able to
receive the packet
• When a node (such as C) overhears a CTS, it
keeps quiet for the duration of the transfer
– Transfer duration is included in RTS and CTS both

A B C
 Reliability
• Wireless links are prone to errors. High
packet loss rate detrimental to transport-
layer performance.
• Mechanisms needed to reduce packet loss
rate experienced by upper layers
Simple Solution to Improve
Reliability
• When node B receives a data packet from
node A, node B sends an Acknowledgement
(Ack). This approach adopted in many
protocols.
• If node A fails to receive an Ack, it will
retransmit the packet.
A B C
IEEE 802.11 Wireless MAC
Distributed and centralized MAC components
– Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
– Point Coordination Function (PCF)
• DCF suitable for multi-hop ad hoc
networking
• DCF is a Carrier Sense Multiple
Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)
protocol
 IEEE 802.11 DCF
• Uses RTS-CTS exchange to avoid hidden terminal
problem
– Any node overhearing a CTS cannot transmit for the duration
of the transfer
• Uses ACK to achieve reliability
• Any node receiving the RTS cannot transmit for the
duration of the transfer
– To prevent collision with ACK when it arrives at the sender
– When B is sending data to C, node A will keep quite

A B C
 Collision Avoidance
• With half-duplex radios, collision detection is not
possible
• CSMA/CA: Wireless MAC protocols often use
collision avoidance techniques, in conjunction with a
(physical or virtual) carrier sense mechanism
• Carrier sense: When a node wishes to transmit a
packet, it first waits until the channel is idle.
• Collision avoidance: Nodes hearing RTS or CTS stay
silent for the duration of the corresponding
transmission. Once channel becomes idle, the node
waits for a randomly chosen duration before
attempting to transmit.
 IEEE 802.11

RTS = Request-to-Send

RTS
A B C D E F

Pretending a circular range

 IEEE 802.11

RTS = Request-to-Send

RTS
A B C D E F
NAV = 10

NAV = remaining duration to keep quiet

 IEEE 802.11

CTS = Clear-to-Send

CTS
A B C D E F
 IEEE 802.11

CTS = Clear-to-Send

CTS
A B C D E F
NAV = 8
 IEEE 802.11
•DATA packet follows CTS. Successful data reception
acknowledged using ACK.

DATA
A B C D E F
 IEEE 802.11

ACK
A B C D E F
 IEEE 802.11
Reserved area

ACK
A B C D E F
 IEEE 802.11
Interference Carrier sense
“range” range

DATA
A B C D E F

Transmit “range”
 CSMA/CA
• Physical carrier sense, and
• Virtual carrier sense using Network Allocation Vector
(NAV)
• NAV is updated based on overheard
RTS/CTS/DATA/ACK packets, each of which specified
duration of a pending transmission
• Nodes stay silent when carrier sensed (physical/virtual)
• Backoff intervals used to reduce collision probability
 Backoff Interval
• When transmitting a packet, choose a backoff
interval in the range [0,cw]
– cw is contention window
• Count down the backoff interval when medium is
idle
– Count-down is suspended if medium becomes busy
• When backoff interval reaches 0, transmit RTS
 DCF Example

B1 = 25 B1 = 5
wait data

data wait
B2 = 20 B2 = 15 B2 = 10

B1 and B2 are backoff intervals

cw = 31 at nodes 1 and 2
 Backoff Interval
• The time spent counting down backoff
intervals is a part of MAC overhead
• Choosing a large cw leads to large backoff
intervals and can result in larger overhead
• Choosing a small cw leads to a larger
number of collisions (when two nodes
count down to 0 simultaneously)
 Backoff Interval
• Since the number of nodes attempting to
transmit simultaneously may change with
time, some mechanism to manage
contention is needed

• IEEE 802.11 DCF: contention window cw

is chosen dynamically depending on
collision occurrence
Binary Exponential Backoff
in DCF

• When a node fails to receive CTS in

response to its RTS, it increases the
contention window
– cw is doubled (up to an upper bound)
• When a node successfully completes a data
transfer, it restores cw to CWmin
• cw follows a sawtooth curve
 Fairness Issues in MAC
• Many definitions of fairness plausible
• Simplest definition: All nodes should
receive equal bandwidth

A B
Two flows

C D
 Fairness Issues in MAC
• Assume that initially, A and B both choose a backoff
interval in range [0,31] but their RTSs collide
• Nodes A and B then choose from range [0,63]
– Node A chooses 4 slots and B choose 60 slots
– After A transmits a packet, it next chooses from range [0,31]
– It is possible that A may transmit several packets before B
transmits its first packet

A B
Two flows

C D
 Fairness Issues in MAC

• Unfairness occurs when one node has

backed off much more than some other
node

A B
Two flows

C D
 MACAW Solution for
Fairness [Bharganav94]
• When a node transmits a packet, it appends the cw
value to the packet, all nodes hearing that cw value
use it for their future transmission attempts
• Since cw is an indication of the level of congestion
in the vicinity of a specific receiver node,
MACAW proposes maintaining cw independently
for each receiver
• Using per-receiver cw is particularly useful in
multi-hop environments, since congestion level at
different receivers can be very different
 Another MACAW Proposal
• For the scenario below, when node A sends
an RTS to B, while node C is receiving
from D, node B cannot reply with a CTS,
since B knows that D is sending to C
• When the transfer from C to D is complete,
node B can send a Request-to-send-RTS to
node A
– Node A may then immediately send RTS to
node B
A B C D
 Problems
• This approach, however, does not work in
the scenario below
– Node B may not receive the RTS from A at all,
due to interference with transmission from C

A B C D
 Energy Conservation

• Since many mobile hosts are operated by batteries,

MAC protocols which conserve energy are of
interest
• Two approaches to reduce energy consumption
– Power save: Turn off wireless interface when desirable
– Power control: Reduce transmit power
 Power Aware Multi-Access
Protocol (PAMAS)
[Singh98]
• A node powers off its radio while a
neighbor is transmitting to someone else
Node A sending to B

B Node C stays powered off

A C
 Power Aware Multi-Access
Protocol (PAMAS)
• What should node C do when it wakes up and
finds that D is transmitting to someone else
– C does not know how long the transfer will last
Node D sending to E
Node A sending to B

C stays powered off

B

C wakes up and
A C finds medium busy
D E
SKIP
 PAMAS
• PAMAS uses a control channel separate from the data
channel
• Node C on waking up performs a binary probe to
determine the length of the longest remaining transfer
– C sends a probe packet with parameter L
– All nodes which will finish transfer in interval [L/2,L] respond
– Depending on whether node C sees silence, collision, or a
unique response it takes varying actions
• Node C (using procedure above) determines the duration
of time to go back to sleep
 Disadvantages of PAMAS
• Use of a separate control channel
• Nodes have to be able to receive on the control
channel while they are transmitting on the data
channel
– And also transmit on data and control channels
simultaneously
• A node (such as C) should be able to determine
when probe responses from multiple senders
collide
 Another Proposal in
PAMAS
• To avoid the probing, a node should switch off the
interface for data channel, but not for the control
channel (which carries RTS/CTS packets)
• Advantage: Each sleeping node always knows
how long to sleep by watching the control channel
• Disadvantage: This may not be useful when
hardware is shared for the control and data
channels
– It may not be possible turn off much hardware due to
the sharing
Power Save in IEEE 802.11
Ad Hoc Mode
• Time is divided into beacon intervals

ATIM
window

Beacon interval

• Each beacon interval begins with an ATIM

window
Power Save in IEEE 802.11
Ad Hoc Mode
• If host A has a packet to transmit to B, A must
send an ATIM Request to B during an ATIM
Window
• On receipt of ATIM Request from A, B will reply
by sending an ATIM Ack, and stay up during the
rest of the beacon interval
• If a host does not receive an ATIM Request during
an ATIM window, and has no pending packets to
transmit, it may sleep during rest of the beacon
interval
 Power Save in IEEE 802.11
Ad Hoc Mode
Node A

ATIM ATIM Data Ack

Req Ack

Node B

Node C Sleep
Power Save in IEEE 802.11
Ad Hoc Mode
• Size of ATIM window and beacon interval
affects performance
• If ATIM window is too large, reduction in
energy consumption reduced
– Energy consumed during ATIM window
• If ATIM window is too small, not enough
time to send ATIM request
 Power Save in IEEE 802.11
Ad Hoc Mode
• How to choose ATIM window dynamically?
– Based on observed load [Jung02infocom]
• How to synchronize hosts?
– If two hosts’ ATIM windows do not overlap in time, they
cannot exchange ATIM requests
– Coordination requires that each host stay awake long enough
(at least periodically) to discover out-of-sync neighbors
[Tseng02infocom]
ATIM

ATIM
 Impact on Upper Layers
• If each node uses the 802.11 power-save
mechanism, each hop will require one
beacon interval
– This delay could be intolerable
• Allow upper layers to dictate whether a
node should enter the power save mode or
not [Chen01mobicom]
 Energy Conservation

• Power save
• Power control
 Power Control

• Power control has two potential benefits

– Reduced interference & increased spatial reuse
– Energy saving
 Power Control
• When C transmits to D at a high power
level, B cannot receive A’s transmission
due to interference from C

A B C D
 Power Control
• If C reduces transmit power, it can still
communicate with D
• Reduces energy consumption at node C
• Allows B to receive A’s transmission (spatial reuse)

A B C D
 Power Control 
• Received power level is proportional to 1/d , 
• If power control is utilized, energy required to transmit
to a host at distance d is proportional to

d + constant
• Shorter hops typically preferred for energy
consumption (depending on the constant) [Rodoplu99]
– Transmit to C from A via B, instead of directly from A to C

A C
B
Power Control with 802.11
• Transmit RTS/CTS/DATA/ACK at least power
level needed to communicate with the received

A B C D

• A/B do not receive RTS/CTS from C/D. Also do

not sense D’s data transmission
• B’s transmission to A at high power interferes
with reception of ACK at C
 A Plausible Solution
• RTS/CTS at highest power, and DATA/ACK at smallest necessary
power level
Data sensed

A B C D

Data
RTS
• A cannot sense C’s data transmission, and may transmit DATA to
Interference
some other host range Ack
• This DATA will interfere at C
• This situation unlikely if DATA transmitted at highest power level
– Interference range ~ sensing range
 Solution (cont.)
• Transmitting RTS at the highest power level
also reduces spatial reuse
• Nodes receiving RTS/CTS have to defer
transmissions
 Caveat
• Energy saving by power control is limited
to savings in transmit energy
• Other energy costs may not change, and
may represent a significant fraction of total
energy consumption
 Power Controlled Multiple
Access (PCMA)
[Monks01infocom]
• If receiver node R can tolerate interference E, it
sends a busy tone at power level C/E, where C is
an appropriate constant
• When some node X receives a busy-tone a power
level Pr, it may transmit at power level Pt <= C/Pr

busy tone
X Pt
R
data C/E
Y
S
 Power Controlled Multiple
Access (PCMA)
• If receiver node R can tolerate noise E, it sends a
busy tone at power level C/E, where C is an
appropriate constant
• When some node X receives a busy-tone a power
level Pr, it may transmit at power level Pt <= C/Pr
• Explanation:
– Gain of channel RX = gain of channel XR = g
– Busy tone signal level at X = Pr = g * C / E
– Node X may transmit at level = Pt = C/Pr = E/g
– Interference received by R = Pt * g = E
 Power Controlled Multiple
Access (PCMA)
• Advantage
– Allows higher spatial reuse, as well as power
saving using power control
• Disadvantages:
– Need a separate channel for the busy tone
– Since multiple nodes may transmit the busy
tones simultaneously, spatial reuse is less than
optimal
 Adaptive Modulation
• Channel conditions are time-varying
• Received signal-to-noise ratio changes with
time

A B
 Adaptive Modulation
• Multi-rate radios are capable of transmitting
at several rates, using different modulation
schemes
• Choose modulation scheme as a function of
channel conditions
Modulation schemes provide
a trade-off between
Throughput
throughput and range

Distance
 Adaptive Modulation
• If physical layer chooses the modulation scheme
transparent to MAC
– MAC cannot know the time duration required for the
transfer
• Must involve MAC protocol in deciding the
modulation scheme
– Some implementations use a sender-based scheme for
this purpose [Kamerman97]
– Receiver-based schemes can perform better
 Sender-Based “Autorate
Fallback” [Kamerman97]
• Probing mechanisms
• Sender decreases bit rate after X
consecutive transmission attempts fail
• Sender increases bit rate after Y
consecutive transmission attempt succeed
 Autorate Fallback
• Advantage
– Can be implemented at the sender, without making any
changes to the 802.11 standard specification
• Disadvantage
– Probing mechanism does not accurately detect channel
state
– Channel state detected more accurately at the receiver
– Performance can suffer
• Since the sender will periodically try to send at a rate higher than
optimal
• Also, when channel conditions improve, the rate is not increased
immediately
Receiver-Based Autorate
MAC [Holland01mobicom]
• Sender sends RTS containing its best rate
estimate
• Receiver chooses best rate for the
conditions and sends it in the CTS
• Sender transmits DATA packet at new rate
• Information in data packet header implicitly
updates nodes that heard old rate
Receiver-Based Autorate
MAC Protocol

RTS (2 Mbps)
A B
CTS (1 Mbps)
Data (1 Mbps)

D
NAV updated
using rate
specified in the
data packet
802.11b Physical Layer
 Spectrum
• 802.11 operates in the unlicensed band
(ISM – Industrial Scientific and Medical
band) ~ 3 such bands
• Cordless Telephony: 902 to 928 MHz
• 802.11b: 2.4 to 2.483 GHz
• 3rd ISM Band: 5.725 to 5.875 GHz
• 802.11a: 5.15 to 5.825 GHz
 Data Rates and Range
• 802.11: 2Mbps (Proposed in 1997)

• 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5 and 11 Mbps, 100mts. range

(product released in 1999, no product for 1 or 2
Mbps)

• 802.11g: 54Mbps, 100mts. range (uses OFDM)

• 802.11a: 6 to 54 Mbps, 50mts. range (uses OFDM)

 802.11x
a  OFDM in the 5GHz band
b  High Rate DSSS in the 2.4GHz band
c  Bridge Operation Procedures
e  MAC Enhancements for QoS to improve
QoS for better support of audio and video
(such as MPEG-2) applications.
g  OFDM based 2.4 GHz WLAN.
i  Medium Access Method (MAC) Security
Enhancements: enhance security and
authentication mechanisms.
 IEEE 802.11a
– 5 GHz (5.15-5.25, 5.25-5.35,
5.725-5.825 GHz)
– OFDM (Orthogonal Freq. Div. Multiplexing)
ISM
– 52 Subcarriers in OFDM
– BPSK/QPSK/QAM
– Forward Error Correction (Convolutional)
– Rates: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps
 Base specifications
• Three Physical Layers:
– FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
– DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum)
– OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing)
 Why Spread Spectrum?
• C = B*log2(1+S/N)
• To achieve the same channel capacity C
– Large S/N, small B
– Small S/N, large B
– Increase S/N is inefficient due to the logarithmic relationship

power power

signal
noise, interferences
signal

frequency B B
e.g. B = 30 KHz e.g. B = 1.25 MHz
 Frequency Hopping SS
(FHSS)
• 2.4GHz band divided into 75 1MHz subchannels
• Sender and receive agree on a hopping pattern
(pseudo random series). 22 hopping patterns defined
One possible pattern

• Different hopping
f f f fsequences f f f co-existence of
f f f f enable
multiple BSSs
• Robust against narrow-band interferences
 Direct Sequence SS
• Direct sequence (DS): most prevalent
– Signal is spread by a wide bandwidth
pseudorandom sequence (code sequence)
– Signals appear as wideband noise to unintended
receivers
• Not for intra-cell multiple access
– Nodes in the same cell use same code sequence
 802.11b PHY FRAME
Scrambled 1’s Data Rate Locked clock, mod. select
Start of Frame

SYNC SFD SIGNAL SERVICE LENGTH CRC

(128) (16) (8) (8) (8) (16)
Frame Details
Lock/Acquire Frame
(data rate, size)

PLCP Preamble PLCP Header PSDU

(144) (48) (2304 max)

Preamble at 1Mbps (DBPSK)

2Mbps (DQPSK)
PPDU 5.5 and 11 Mbps
(PLCP Protocol Data Unit) (CCK)