Medium Access Control

for Wireless Links

CS 515
Mobile and Wireless Networking
Ibrahim Korpeoglu
Computer Engineering Department
Bilkent University

1
Outline
 What we have see so far? PHY layer functions and parameters
 General Wireless System Architecture
 Media Access Control
 Classes of MAC protocols

 Simplex and Duplex Channels

 Coordinated MAC Schemes

 FDMA

 TDMA
 Capacity of TDMA systems and which factors affect the capacity.
 Spread Spectrum Access Methods
 FHMA
 Case study: Bluetooth
 CDMA
 Hybrid Spread Spectrum Schemes.
 Random MAC Schemes
 CSMA
 MACA and MACAW
 Case Study: IEEE 802.11 MAC

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 2

What we have seen so far?
 Physical layer functions
 Get stream of bits and transport them to the other end.
 Modulation/Demodulation
 We have seen that this is not an easy task
 Large-scale path loss and Small-scale fading and multipath effects
causes the received power at the receiver to
 Fluctuate (hard to decode the symbols (bits))
 To decrease (Affects of interfering sources increases)
 Received signal power level affect the quality of the signals
(information) that is transported.
 Received signal power level defines the Signal-to-Noise (SNR)
ratio

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 3

What we have seen so far?
 We have seen
 That SNR and bandwidth of a channel affects

 Datarate – bps) of the wireless channel by Shannon limit

 The bit error rate (BER) on the channel.
 That multipath fading results in a wireless channel error model
that changes states between good (low-error rate) and bad (high
error-rate)
 Large-scale path loss defines the range of stations for different

environments (LOS, urban,…)

 The above factors are important channel characteristics that
affect the design of wireless systems architectures and design of
the protocols and applications for wireless links/networks
 In short, we have seen so far some of Fundamental Concepts of
Wireless Communication.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 4

What we will do now?
 We will look now to the protocols, algorithms,
schemes that are developed over this wireless
channels.
 How can we share a wireless channel:
 Results in Wireless Media Access Control Protocols
 How we can change base stations: Results in Handoff algorithms
and protocols
 How can we seamlessly support mobile applications over wireless
links:
 Results in mobility protocols like Mobile IP, Cellular IP, etc.
 How can we design efficient transport protocols over wireless
links:
 Results in solutions like SNOOP, I-TCP, M-TCP, etc.
 How different wireless networks/systems are designed?
 Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, GSM, etc.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 5

Wireless System Architecture and
Functions
Applications

TCP/IP
Neighbor Discovery and Registration,
Wireless Subnet Multicasting, Power Saving Modes, Address
Translation (IP-MAC), Routing, Quality of Services,
Controller Subnet Security

Medium Access Control, MAC level Scheduling,

Wireless Link Controller Link Layer Queueing, Link Layer Reliability – ACKs,
Link Layer NACKs, ….

(Layers 1 and 2 Transceiver Framing and frame synchronization, error control,

in ISO/OSI
Network Frame Controller CRC, bit scrambling, widening, ….
Reference
Model) Carrier frequency, channel bandwidth, carrier detect,
Captude detect, channel data rate, modulation,
Physical Radio Received signal strength (RSSI), transmit power,
Power control, …

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 6

Medium Access Control
 Wireless spectrum (frequency band) is a very precious and
limited resource.
 We need to use this resource very efficiently
 We also want our wireless system to have high user capacity
 A lot of (multiple) users should be able to use the system at the same
time.
 For these reasons most of the time, multiple users (or stations,
computers, devices) need to share the wireless channel that is
allocated and used by a system.
 The algorithms and protocols that enables this sharing by multiple
users and controls/coordinates the access to the wireless channel
(medium) from different users are called MEDIUM ACCESS, or
MEDIA ACCESS or MULTIPLE ACCESS protocols, techniques,
schemes, etc…)

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 7

Wireless Media Access Control
 Random Schemes (Less-Coordinated)
 Examples: MACA, MACAW, Aloha, 802.11 MAC,…
 More suited for wireless networks that are designed to carry
data: IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs
 Coordinated Schemes
 Examples: TDMA, FDMA, CDMA
 More suited for wireless networks that are designed to carry
voice: GSM, AMPS, IS-95,…
 Polling based Schemes
 Examples: Bluetooth, BlueSky,…
 Access is coordinated by a central node
 Suitable for Systems that wants low-power, aims to carry
voice and data at the same time.

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Duplexing
 It is sharing the media between two parties.
 If the communication between two parties is one way, the it
is called simplex communication.
 If the communication between two parties is two- way, then
it is called duplex communication.
 Simplex communication is achieved by default by using a
single wireless channel (frequency band) to transmit from
sender to receiver.
 Duplex communication achieved by:
 Time Division (TDD)
 Frequency Division (FDD)
 Some other method like a random access method

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 9

Duplexing

 Usually the two parties that want to

communication in a duplex manner (both
send and receive) are:
 A mobile station
 A base station
 Two famous methods for duplexing in cellular
systems are:
 TDD: Time Division Duplex
 FDD: Frequency Division Duplex

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 10

Duplexing - FDD
 A duplex channel consists of two F
simplex channel with different B M
carrier frequencies R
 Forward band: carries traffic from Base Mobile
base to mobile Station Station
 Reverse band: carries traffic from
mobile to base

Reverse Forward
Channel Channel

fc,R fc,,F frequency

Frequency separation

Frequency separation should be carefully decided

Frequency separation is constant

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 11

Duplexing - TDD
 A single radio channel (carrier
frequency) is shared in time in a
deterministic manner.
B M
 The time is slotted with fixed slot
length (sec)
 Some slots are used for forward Base Mobile
channel (traffic from base to mobile) Station Station
 Some slots are used for reverse
channel (traffic from mobile to base)

Slot number 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 …
channel F R F R F R F R ….

Reverse Forward
Channel Channel

Ti Ti+1 time

Time separation

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 12

Duplexing – TDD versus FDD
 FDD
 FDD is used in radio systems that can allocate individual radio
frequencies for each user.
 For example analog systems: AMPS
 In FDD channels are allocated by a base station.
 A channel for a mobile is allocated dynamically
 All channels that a base station will use are allocated usually
statically.
 More suitable for wide-area cellular networks: GSM, AMPS all use
FDD
 TDD
 Can only be used in digital wireless systems (digital modulation).
 Requires rigid timing and synchronization
 Mostly used in short-range and fixed wireless systems so that
propagation delay between base and mobile do not change much
with respect to location of the mobile.
 Such as cordless phones…

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Multiple Access - Coordinated

 We will look now sharing the media by more

than two users.
 Three major multiple access schemes
 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
 Could be used in narrowband or wideband systems
 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
 Usually used narrowband systems
 Code Division Multiple Access
 Used in wideband systems.

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Narrow- and Wideband Systems
 Narrowband System
 The channel bandwidth (frequency band allocated for the

channel is small)
 More precisely, the channel bandwidth is large compared to the coherence
bandwidth of the channel (remember that coherence bandwidth is related
with reciprocal of the delay spread of multipath channel)
 AMPS is a narrowband system (channel bandwidth is 30kHz in one-way)

 Wideband Systems
 The channel bandwidth is large
 More precisely, the channel bandwidth is much larger that the coherence
bandwidth of the multipath channel.
 A large number of users can access the same channel (frequency band)
at the same time.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 15

 Narrowband Systems
 Could be employing one of the following multiple access and
duplexing schems
 FDMA/FDD
 TDMA/FDD
 TDMA/TDD
 Wideband systems
 Could be employing of the following multiple access and
duplexing schemes
 TDMA/FDD
 TDMA/TDD
 CDMA/FDD
CDMA/TDD

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 16

Cellular Systems and MAC
Cellular System Multiple Access
Technique
AMPS FDMA/FDD
GSM TDMA/FDD
USDC (IS-54 and IS-136) TDMA/FDD
PDC TDMA/FDD
CT2 Cordless Phone FDMA/TDD
DECT Cordless Phone FDMA/TDD
US IS-95 CDMA/FDD
W-CDMA CDMA/FDD
CDMA/TDD
cdma2000 CDMA/FDD
CDMA/TDD

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 17

Frequency Division Multiple Access
B
 Individual radio
channels are assigned
to individual users
f1,F f2,F fN,F
 Each user is allocated
a frequency band
f1,R f2,R fN,R
(channel)
 During this time, no M M … M
other user can share the
channel
 Base station allocates
channels to the users

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 18

Features of FDMA
 An FDMA channel carries one phone circuit at a time
 If channel allocated to a user is idle, then it is not used
by someone else: waste of resource.
 Mobile and base can transmit and receive
simultaneously
 Bandwidth of FDMA channels are relatively low.
 Symbol time is usually larger (low data rate) than the
delay spread of the multipath channel (implies that inter-
symbol interference is low)
 Lower complexity systems that TDMA systems.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 19

Capacity of FDMA Systems
Frequency spectrum allocated for FDMA system

…
Guard channel Guard
Band Band
Bt  2 Bguard
N
Bc
Bt : Total spectrum allocation
Bguard: Guard band allocated at the edge of the spectrum band
Bc : Bandwidth of a channel

AMPS has 12.MHz simplex spectrum band, 10Khz guard band, 30kHz
channel bandwidth (simplex): Number of channels is 416.

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Time Division Multiple Access
 The allocated radio spectrum for the system
is divided into time slots
 In each slot a user can transmit or receive
 A user occupiess a cyclically repeating slots.
 A channel is logically defined as a particular time
slot that repeats with some period.
 TDMA systems buffer the data, until its turn
(time slot) comes to transmit.
 This is called buffer-and-burst method.
 Requires digital modulation

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 21

 TDMA Concept
Downstream Traffic: Forward Channels: (from base to mobiles)

1 2 3 … N 1 2 3 …. N …

Logical forward channel to a mobile

Base station broadcasts to mobiles on each slot

Upstream Traffic: Reverse Channels: (from mobile to base)

1 2 3 … N 1 2 3 …. N …

Logical reverse channel from a mobile

A mobile transmits to the base station in its allocated slot

Upstream and downstream traffic uses of the two different carrier frequencies.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 22

TDMA Frames
 Multiple, fixed number of slots are put together into a frame.
 A frame repeats.
 In TDMA/TDD: half of the slots in the frame is used for forward
channels, the other is used for reverse channels.
 In TDMA/FDD: a different carrier frequency is used for a reverse
or forward
 Different frames travel in each carrier frequency in different directions
(from mobile to base and vice versa).
 Each frame contains the time slots either for reverse channels or
forward channel depending on the direction of the frame.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 23

General Frame and Time Slot
Structure in TDMA Systems
One TDMA Frame

Preamble Information Trail Bits

Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 … Slot N

Guard Sync Control

Bits Bits Bits Information CRC

One TDMA Slot

A Frame repeats in time

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 24

A TDMA Frame

 Preamble contains address and

synchronization info to identify base station
and mobiles to each other
 Guard times are used to allow
synchronization of the receivers between
different slots and frames
 Different mobiles may have different propagation delays
to a base station because of different distances.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 25

Efficiency of a Frame/TDMA-System
 Each frame contains overhead bits and data bits.
 Efficiency of frame is defined as the percentage of data
(information) bits to the total frame size in bits.
bOH
efficiency   f  (1  ) x100%
bT
bT  T f xR
bT: total number of bits in a frame
Tf: frame duration (seconds)
bOH: number of overhead bits
( Btot  2 Bguard )
Number of channels in a TDMA cell: N m
Bc
m: maximum number of TDMA users supported in a radio channel

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 26

TDMA
 TDMA Efficiency
 GSM: 30% overhead

 DECT: 30% overhead

 IS-54: 20% overhead.

 TDMA is usually combined with FDMA

 Neighboring cells be allocated and using different carrier
frequencies (FDMA). Inside a cell TDMA can be used. Cells may
be re-using the same frequency if they are far from each-other.
 There may be more than one carrier frequency (radio channel)
allocated and used inside each cell. Each carrier frequency (radio
channel) may be using TDMA to further multiplex more user (i.e.
having TDMA logical channels inside radio channels)
 For example: GSM uses multiple radio channels per cell site. Each radio
channel has 200KHz bandwidth and has 8 time slots (8 logical channels).
Hence GSM is using FHMA combined with TDMA.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 27

Contemporary TDMA Systems
GSM IS-54 PDC DECT
(Europa) (USA) (Japan) (European
Cordless)
Bit Rate 270.8 Kbps 48.6 Kbps 42 Kbps 1.152 Mbps

Bandwidth 200 KHz 30 KHz 25 KHz 1.728 MHz

Time Slot 0.577 ms 6.7 ms 6.7 ms 0.417 ms

Upstream slots 8 3 3 12
per frame

Duplexing FDD FDD FDD TDD

Efficiency of 73 % 80 % 80 % 67 %
Time Slots

Modulation GMSK /4 DQPSK /4 DQPSK GMSK

Adaptive Mandatory Mandatory Optional None

Equalized

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 28

Features of TDMA
 Enables the sharing of a single radio channel among N
users
 Requires high data-rate per radio channel to support N
users simultaneously.
 High data-rate on a radio channel with fixed bandwidth
requires adaptive equalizers to be used in multipath
environments (remember the RSM delay spread  parameter)
 Transmission occurs in bursts (not continues)
 Enables power saving by going to sleep modes in unrelated slots
 Discontinues transmission also enables mobile assisted handoff
 Requires synchronization of the receivers.
 Need guard bits, sync bits. large overhead per slot.
 Allocation of slots to mobile users should not be uniform.
 It may depend on the traffic requirement of mobiles.
 This brings extra flexibility and efficiency compared to FDMA
systems.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 29

Capacity of TDMA Systems
 Capacity can be expressed as
 System Capacity (the capacity of the overall system covering
a region)
 Depends on:
 Range of cells
 Whether the system can support macro-cells, micro-cells or pico-
cells.
 Cell Capacity
 Depends on the radio link performance between a base-sation and
mobiles:
 The lowest C/I (carrier-to-interence) ratio the system can operate
for example quality of transmission. This in turn depends on the
speech coding technique, desired speech quality, etc.
 Data-rate over the channel which depends modulation efficiency
(bits_per_second/Hz) and channel bandwidth.
 The frequency re-use factor

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 30

System Capacity: Cluster: 7 cells constitute a cluster.

Cluster size = 7
C B
y
A B D
x
A G
z
G E A

Frequency reuse factor is 1/7: same frequency is used every 7 cell.

A is one set of frequencies, B is an other, etc.

A mobile in cell x receives carrier signal from base x and interferences from
base stations at cells y and z. The carrier signal strength of all combined signal
strength from interfering base stations is called C/I or S/I ratio.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 31

C/I affect on capacity
 C/I ratio affects the cluster size, hence the
frequency reuse factor.
 Frequency_reuse_factor = 1 / cluster_size
 Cluster size can be 3, 7, 12, 13, …

 Cluster size affects the cell capacity

 (it affects the maximum number of frequencies that can
be used in a cell)
 A low C/I requirement for appropriate quality
enables smaller cluster sizes, hence larger
frequency reuse factor, meaning that larger cell
capacities

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 32

Comparing Systems
 AMPS Parameters
 GSM Parameters
 Channel bandwidth =
 Channel banwidth: 200 KHz
30Khz  Required bandwidth per
 Required C/I: 18 dB user = 200/8 = 25 Khz.
 Frequency re-use factor:
 Required minimum C/I: 9dB
1/7 (cluster size=7)  Frequency re-use factor:
 Required bandwidth per 1/3 (cluster size=3)
user = 30kHz.
1
system_cap acity 
channel_ba ndwidth_re quired_per _user

1
system_cap acity   frequency_reuse_factor
cluster_size

capacity(GSM) 1 / 3 1 / 25
   2.8
capacity(AMPS) 1 / 7 1 / 30
assuming other factors are same like the range of base stations.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 33

Spread Spectrum Access
 SSMA uses signals that have transmission
bandwidth that is several orders of magnitued
larger than minimum required RF bandwidth.
 Provides
 Immunity to multipath interference
 Robust multiple access.
 Two techniques
 Frequency Hopped Multiple Access (FHMA)
 Direct Sequence Multiple Access (DSMA)
 Also called Code Division Multiple Access – CDMA

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 34

Frequency Hopping (FHMA)
 Digital muliple access technique
 A wideband radio channel is used.
 Same wideband spectrum is used
 The carrier frequency of users are varied in a pseudo-random
fashion.
 Each user is using a narrowband channel (spectrum) at a specific instance
of time.
 The random change in frequency make the change of using the same
narrowband channel very low.
 The sender receiver change frequency (calling hopping) using the
same pseudo-random sequence, hence they are synchronized.
 Rate of hopping versus Symbol rate
 If hopping rate is greather: Called Fast Frequency Hopping
 One bit transmitted in multiple hops.
 If symbol rate is greater: Called Slow Frequency Hopping
 Multiple bits are transmitted in a hopping period
 GSM and Bluetooth are example systems

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 35

Case Study - Bluetooth
 Uses Frequency Hopping in cell (piconet) over a 79 MHz wideband
radio channel.
 Uses 79 narrowband channels (carrier frequencies) to hop through.
 Freq (f) = 2402+k MHz, k = 0,...,78
 Channel spacing is 1 MHz (narrowband channel bandwidth)
 Wideband spectrum width = 79 MHz.
 Hopping Rate = 1600 Hops/Second
 Hopping sequence is determined by Bluetooth Hardware address and
Clocks that are syncrozied between sender and receiver
79 MHZ

0 1 2 3 ..... 77 78

79-Hop System
1 MHZ

A hop sequence could be: 7,1,78,67,0, 56,39,.......

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 36

Case Study: Bluetooth – Piconet and FHSS
Each node is classified as master or slave.
Master defines a piconet (a cell). Maximum 7 slaves can be connected to
a master. Master coordinates access to the the media.
All traffic has to go over master.
Picocell S Slaves can not talk to each-other
directly.

Range = 10m
FHSS Raw Data-rate: 1 Mbps/piconet
M
Radio channel used by devices in
a piconet is 79MHz channel, which
Is frequency hopped: hopping
S S though 789 channels.
Hoprate = 1600 hops/sec
All slaves and the master hops according to the same hopping sequence.
The hopping sequence is determined by the clock and BT_address of the master.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 37

 Case Study: Bluetooth – Scatternet and
FHSS
Piconet
S S
Piconet can be combined
into scatternets.

Piconet M2 Red slave acts as a

bridge between two
S FHSS piconets.

S
FHSS M1

Each piconet uses FHSS with different

S hopping sequences (masters are different).
S
This prevents interference between piconets.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 38

Case Study: Bluetooth - Media access in a
piconet
Inside a piconet, access to the
Piconet S1 frequency hopped radio channel
is coordinated using time
division multiple access: TDMA/TDD.

FHSS M Slot duration = 1/1600 sec = 625s

In an even slot, master transmits to a

slave.
S2 S3 In an odd slot, the slave that is addressed
in the previous master-to-slave slot transmits.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 …..
M-S1 S1-M M-S2 S2-M M-S3 S3-M M-S1 S1-M ……

slot time=625s

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 39

Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
 In CDMA, the narrowband message signal is multiplied by a very large
bandwidth signal called spreading signal (code) before modulation and
transmission over the air. This is called spreading.
 CDMA is also called DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum). DSSS
is a more general term.
 Message consists of symbols
 Has symbol period and hence, symbol rate
 Spreading signal (code) consists of chips
 Has Chip period and and hence, chip rate
 Spreading signal use a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence (a pseudo-random
sequence)
 PN sequence is called a codeword
 Each user has its own cordword
 Codewords are orthogonal. (low autocorrelation)
 Chip rate is oder of magnitude larger than the symbol rate.
 The receiver correlator distinguishes the senders signal by examining
the wideband signal with the same time-synchronized spreading code
 The sent signal is recovered by despreading process at the receiver.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 40

CDMA Advantages
 Low power spectral density.
 Signal is spread over a larger frequency band
 Other systems suffer less from the transmitter
 Interference limited operation
 All frequency spectrum is used
 Privacy
 The codeword is known only between the sender and receiver. Hence other users
can not decode the messages that are in transit
 Reduction of multipath affects by using a larger spectrum
 Random access possible
 Users can start their transmission at any time
 Cell capacity is not concerete fixed like in TDMA or FDMA systems. Has
soft capacity
 Higher capacity than TDMA and FDMA
 No frequency management
 No equalizers needed
 No guard time needed
 Enables soft handoff

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 41

 CDMA Principle Represent bit 1 with +1
Represent bit 0 with -1
One bit period (symbol period)

1 1
Data
0

PN-Code 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1
(codeword)

Coded
Signal

Chip period
Input to the modulator (phase modulation)

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 42

Processing Gain
 Main parameter of CDMA is the processing gain that is
defined as:

Bspread Bchip
Gp  
R R
Gp: processing gain
Bspread: PN code rate
Bchip: Chip rate
R: Data rate

 IS-95 System (Narrowband CDMA) has a gain of 64. Other systems have
gain between 10 and 100.
 1.228 Mhz chipping rate
 1.25 MHz spread bandwidth

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 43

Near Far Problem and Power Control
 At a receiver, the signals may come from
various (multiple sources. B pr(M)
 The strongest signal usually captures the
modulator. The other signals are considered
as noise
 Each source may have different distances M
to the base station
 In CDMA, we want a base station to
receive CDMA coded signals from M
various mobile users at the same time.
 Therefore the receiver power at the base
station for all mobile users should be close
to eacother. M
 This requires power control at the mobiles.
M
 Power Control: Base station monitors
the RSSI values from different mobiles
and then sends power change
commands to the mobiles over a forward
channel. The mobiles then adjust their
transmit power.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 44

DSSS Transmitter

Message Baseband sss(t)

+
m(t) BPF Transmitted
p(t) Signal

PN Code
Generator Oscillator
fc

Chip Clock

2 Es
sss (t )  m(t ) p (t ) cos(2f c t   )
Ts

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 45

 DSSS Receiver
s1 (t ) m(t )
IF Wideband Phase Shift Keying
Filter Demodulator Received
Data
sss (t ) p (t )
Received PN Code Synchronization
DSSS Signal Generator System
at IF

2 Es
s1 (t )  m(t ) cos(2f c t   )
Ts

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 46

 Spectra of Received Signal
Spectral Interference Spectral
Density Density Signal

Interference

Signal

Frequency Frequency

Output of Wideband filter Output of Correlator after

dispreading,
Input to Demodulator

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 47

CDMA Example (*)
R Receiver (a base station)

Data=1011… Data=0010…

A B

Transmitter (a mobile) Transmitter

Codeword=010011 Codeword=101010

Data transmitted from A and B is multiplexed using CDMA and codewords.

The Receiver de-multiplexes the data using dispreading.

(*) This example is adapted from the CDMA example of Prof. Randy Katz at UC-Berkeley.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 48

 CDMA Example – transmission from two sources

A Data
1 0 1 1

A 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1
Codeword

Data  Code 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0
A Signal

B Data 0 0 1 0

1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
B
Codeword
Data  Code 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0
B Signal

Transmitted
A+B
Signal

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 49

 CDMA Example – recovering signal A at the receiver

A+B
Signal
received

A
Codeword
at
receiver

(A  B)  Code

Integrator
Output

Comparator
Output 0 1 0 1

Take the inverse of this to obtain A

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 50

 CDMA Example – recovering signal B at the receiver

A+B
Signal
received

B
Codeword
at
receiver

(A  B)  Code

Integrator
Output

Comparator
Output
1 1 0 1

Take the inverse of this to obtain B

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 51

 CDMA Example – using wrong codeword at the receiver

A+B
Signal
received

Wrong
Codeword
Used at
receiver

Integrator
Output

Comparator
Output X 0 1 1
Noise
Wrong codeword will not be able to decode the original data!

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 52

Hybrid Spread Spectrum Techniques

 FDMA/CDMA
 Available wideband spectrum is frequency divided into
number narrowband radio channels. CDMA is employed
inside each channel.
 DS/FHMA
 The signals are spread using spreading codes (direct
sequence signals are obtained), but these signal are not
transmitted over a constant carrier frequency; they are
transmitted over a frequency hopping carrier frequency.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 53

Hybrid Spread Spectrum Techniques

 Time Division CDMA (TCDMA)

 Each cell is using a different spreading code (CDMA
employed between cells) that is conveyed to the mobiles
in its range.
 Inside each cell (inside a CDMA channel), TDMA is
employed to multiplex multiple users.
 Time Division Frequency Hopping
 At each time slot, the user is hopped to a new frequency
according to a pseudo-random hopping sequence.
 Employed in severe co-interference and multi-path
environments.
 Bluetooth and GSM are using this technique.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 54

Random Access
 Packet Radio Protocols
 Multihop radio network that carries packets
 Not circuit oriented like GSM, CDMA, etc.
 Example Protocols
 Pure Aloha
 Slotted Aloha
 CSMA Protocols
 1-persistent CSMA
 non-persistent CSMA
 p-persistent CSMA
 CSMA/CD
 Reservation Protocols
 Reservation Aloha
 PRMA
 Others
 MACA, MACAW
 IEEE 802.11 MAC

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 55

Pure Aloha
Algorithm:
A mobile station transmits immediately whenever is has data.
It then waits for ACK or NACK.
If ACK is not received, it waits a random amount of time and retransmits.

Ignoring the propagation delay between mobiles

and base station:
B
The time difference between the time
Ack/Nack a mobile send the first bit of packet and the
time the base station receives the last bit of
Data
the packet is given by 2T.
T = C/P
M1 M3 T: packet time.
M2 C: channel data rate (bps)
P: packet length (bits)
During this 2T period of time, the packet may collide
with someone elses packet.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 56

Throughput of Aloha
Normalized
Throughput
0.2

~0.185 0.18

0.16

0.14

0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.8 1
Normalized
Channel Occupancy

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 57

CSMA: Carrier Sense Multiple
Access
 Aloha does not listen to the carrier before
transmission.
 CSMA listen to the carrier before
transmission and transmits if channel is idle.
 Detection delay and propagation delay are
two important parameters for CSMA
 Detection delay: time required to sense the carrier and
decide if it is idle or busy
 Propagation delay: distance/speed_of_ligth. The time
required for bit to travel from transmitter to the receiver.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 58

CSMA Variations
 1-persistent CSMA:
 A station waits until a channel is idle. When it detects that the channel is idle,
it immediately starts transmission
 Non-persistent CSMA:
 When a station receives a negative acknowledgement, it waits a random
amount of time before retransmission of the packet altough the carrier is idle.
 P-persistent CSMA
 P-persistent CSMA is applied to slotted channels. When a station detects that
a channel is idle, it starts transmission with probability p in the first available
timeslot.
 CSMA/CD
 Same with CSMA, however a station also listen to the carrier while
transmitting to see if the transmission collides with someone else
transmission.
 Can be used in listen-while-talk capable channels (full duplex)
 In single radio channels, the transmission need to be interrupted in order to
sense the channel.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 59

MACA – Medium Access with
Collision Avoidance
 CSMA protocols sense the carrier, but
sensing the carrier does not always releases
true information about the status of the
wireless channel
 There are two problems that are unique to wireless
channels (different than wireline channels), that makes
CSMA useless in some cases. These problems are:
 Hidden terminal problem
 Exposed terminal problem.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 60

MACA – Hidden Terminal Problem
A’s cell C’s cell

A B C
Hidden
terminal

• A is transmitting to B.
• C is sensing the carrier and detects that it is idle (It can not hear A’s
transmission).
• C also transmits and collision occurs at B.
• A is hidden from C.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 61

MACA – Exposed Terminal Problem
B’s cell C’s cell

A B C D
Exposed
terminal

• B is transmitting to A. C is hearing this transmission.

• C now wants to transmit to D. It senses the existence of carrier signal and
defers transmission to D.
• However, C can actually start transmitting to D while B is transmitting to A,
• Since A is out of range of C and C’s signals can not be heard at A.
• C is exposed to B’s transmission.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 62

MACA Solution Concept
Ali, lets talk! I
am available.

Can
Can, I want to Can, I want to
talk to you! talk to you!

Biltepe
Mountain

Ali Veli

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 63

MACA Protocol
 When a station wants to transmit data
 It sends an RTS (Ready-to-Send) packet to the intended
receiver
 The RTS packet contains the length of the data that needs to
be transmitted
 Any station other than the intended recipient hearing RTS
defers transmission for a time duration equal to the end of the
corresponding CTS reception
 The receiver sends back CTS (Clear-to-Send) packet back to
sender if it is available to receive.
 The CTS packet contains the length of the data that original
sender wants to transmit
 Any station other than the original RTS sender, hearing CTS
defers transmission until the data is sent.
 The original sender upon reception of the CTS, starts
transmitting.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 64

MACA Solution for Hidden Terminal
Problem
A is transmitting to B.

A’s cell C’s cell

RTS(n) RTS(n) CTS(n)

X A B C
X defers transmission CTS(n) C defers transmission
until expected CTS for duration of n bytes of
Data(n)
reception time by RTS data transmission. Node A
sender. is no longer hidden from C
effectively.

Waiting time of node X is much smaller than waiting time of node C.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 65

MACA Solution for Exposed Terminal
Problem B is transmitting to A

B’s cell C’s cell

RTS(n) RTS(n)
A B C D
RTS(m)
CTS(n)
CTS(m)
Data(n)
Data(m)

• C defers transmission upon hearing B’s RTS until B could get CTS from A.
• After that C can start transmission to D. For that it first sends an RTS.
• C is not longer exposed to the data transmission of B.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 66

Case Study: IEEE 802.11b MAC
 IEEE 802.11b: High Data-rate Wireless LAN
standard.
 Operates in 2.4-2483 MHz ISM RF Band.
 83 MHz spectrum width
 Max data-rate: 11Mbps simplex.
 Spectrum Usage: FHSS or DHSS
 Modulation Technique: CCK with QPSK
 For 11Mbps:
 Symbol rate = 1,375 MSps
 Number of symbol states = 8
 One symbol can encode 3 bits of information.
 Range: around 100m.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 67

802.11b
 Works in Two Operational Modes
 Infrastructure Mode
 Ad-Hoc Mode

Infrastructure Mode
Access
Access Point Point

Wireless Link
Wireless Link Wireless Link

Mobile
Station

Basic Service Set (BSS) Extended Service Set (ESS)

All traffic has to go through access points

Access point provides connectivity to the wired backbone

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 68

802.11b
Ad-Hoc Mode

Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS)

Mobile Stations can talk directly with each-other. All stations in an IBSS
need to be in the range of each-other.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 69

802.11b MAC Sublayer

 Support two different MAC modes depending

on the operational mode of the Wireless LAN
 1) DCF: Distributed Coordination Function
 Based on CSMA/CA
 Carrier Sensing: Physical and Virtual.
 2) PCF: Point Coordination Function
 Connection oriented
 Contention free service
 Polling based

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 70

802.11b PHY Layer
 Can support data rates at: 1,2,5.5,11 Mbps

802.11b Data Rate Specifications

Data rate Code Length Modulation Symbol Rate Bits/Symbol
1 Mbps 11 (Barker BPSK 1 MSps 1
Sequence)
2 Mbps 11 (Barker QPSK 1 MSps 2
Sequence)
5.5 Mbps 4 (CCK) QPSK 1.375 MSps 4
11 Mbps 8 (CCK) QPSK 1.375 MSps 8

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 71

FHSS

 2.4 GHz band is divided into 75 one-MHz

subchannels. The sender and receiver hops
through this 75 channels in a synchronized
manner using a hopping pattern.
 Can not support more than 2 Mbps data-rate.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 72

DSSS
 Divides the 2.4 GHz band into 14 twenty-two MHz
channels
 Adjacent channels can overlap partially.
 3 of 14 channels are completely non-overlapping
 Data is sent over one 22 MHz channel without
hoppling using DSSS technique (chipping and code
words are used like CDMA)
 Each access point uses a different 22 MHz channel if possible.
 All mobiles in the coverage of the access point uses the channel
that is used by the access point. 802.11b MAC is used to
coordinate the access to the shared 22 MHz channel.
 Original 802.11 systems use 11 bit chipping (code words of length
11).
 Later 802.11b systems use 8 bit chipping (code words of length 8
bits). Defines 64 different codewords from a space of 256.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 73

DSSS Channels
25 25
MHz MHz

2.412 2.437 2.462

GHz GHz GHz

Channel 1 Channel 6 Channel 11

22 MHz 22 MHz 22 MHz

2.400 2.484
GHz GHz

Spectrum Allocated for 802.11b

Channel 1, 6, and 11 are non-overlapping.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 74

Channel Assignment and
Registration.
 In multi-access environment, the operator should try to allocate
non-overlapping channels to the physically adjacent channels.
 If adjacent access points use overlapping channels, then
interference can be high.
 A mobile station periodically tunes to all channels and evaluates
the signal strength received over each channel
 Depending on the signal strength received over the channels, a mobile
selects an access point and registers with that provided that the access
points accepts the mobile. This is also called association.
 Re-association with a new access point occurs when
 the mobile moves away from the current access point.
 When the signal conditions changes between the mobile and current
access point.
 When there are a lot of users associated with the current access point.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 75

Re-association at the PHY layer.
Access Access
Point (AP) Point (AP)
A B

Signal from A

Signal from B

Associated with Associated with

Access Point A Access Point B

Mobile tunes to the channel of AP B when it moves into its range.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 76

An example 3-cell Reuse scheme for
WLAN deployment
1

11 11
6 6
1 1 1
11 11

6 6

An access point is located in the center of each hexagon.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 77

802.11b PHY Layer
MAC

PLCP: Physical Layer Convergence Protocol

PLCP
PMD: Physical Medium Dependent Sublayer
PHY Layer
PMD Sublayer

PLCP Frame Format

SYNC SFD Signal Service Length CRC MPDU
(128) (16) (8) (8) (16) (16) (Variable Length)

SYNC: Synchronization field

SFD: Start frame deliminer
Signal: Indicated how fast the data will be transmitted
Service: Reserved
Length: MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) length
CRC: used for error detecting on the frame

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 78

802.11b MAC Sublayer

 Supports both infrastructure and ad-hoc

modes of operation.
 CRC is added to each MAC frame
 Packet fragmentation is supported to chop
large higher layer (IP) packets into small
pieces. Has advantages:
 Probability a packet gets corrupted increases with the
packet size.
 In case of corruption, only a small fragment needs to be
re-transmitted.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 79

Inter-frame Space (IFS

 4 types of Inter-frame spaces:

1. Short IFS (SIFS): period between completion of packet
transmission and start of ACK frame
2. Point Coordination IFS (PIFS): SIFS plus a slot time.
3. Distributed IFS (DIFS): PIFS plus a slot time.
4. Extended IFS (EIFS): longer IFS used by a station that
has received a packet that it could no longer
understand. Needed to prevent collisions.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 80

MAC Protocol

 802.11b uses CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense

Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) MAC
protocol.
 CSMA/CA is the protocol to implement the
distributed coordination function (DCF) of the
MAC sub-layer.
 RTS/CTS is used to avoid collisions.
 Use of RTS/CTS can be enabled or disabled depending
on the traffic load (probability of collisions).

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 81

CSMA – Transmission of MPDU
(Data) without use of RTS/CTS
DIFS

Source Data

SIFS

Destination ACK
Contention Window
DIFS (Slot Times)

Others Data

Defer Access
Backoff after
Defer

A station backoffs a random number of slot times.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 82

CSMA/CA – Transmission of MPDU
(Data) using RTS/CTS
DIFS

Source RTS DATA

SIFS SIFS
SIFS

Destination CTS ACK

Others
DIFS
Defer Access for NAV(RTS)

Defer Access for NAV(CTS) Backoff after

Defer
Defer Access for NAV(Data)

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 83

CSMA/CA Collision Avoidance
RTS/CTS is used to reserve channel for
Access
the duration of the packet transmission. This prevents
Mobile Point hidden and exposed terminal
problems

RTS ACK is required to understand if the packet

is correctly received (without any collisions ) at the
CTS receiver.
Ethernet does not require ACK to be sent, since the
DATA transmitter can detect the collision on the channel
(cable) without requiring an explicit feedback from the
receiver.
ACK
A wireless transmitter can not detect collision,
because:
1) Transmit power is much larger than the received
power: received signal is regarded as noise (not
collision).
2) There could be a hidden terminal

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 84

 802.11b Frame Format
IEEE 802.11b MAC Frame Format

FC ID Add1 Add2 Add3 SC Add4 Data CRC

(2 bytes) (2) (6) (6) (6) (2) (6) (0-2312 bytes) (4)

Frame Control Format (2 bytes)

Protocol Type Subtype To DS From DS More Frag Retry Pw Mgt More Data WEP Order
(2 bits) (2) (4) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1)

Protocol Version: version of 802.11 standard

Frame Control (FC): protocol version and
Type: Management. Control, Data frame
frame type
Subtype: RTS, CTS, ACK frame
Duration/ID (ID): power-save poll message
To DS: 1 if frame is sent to Distribution System (DS)
frame type and for NAV calculation
From DS: 1 if frame is received from Distribution System
Address Fields: contains up-to 4 MAC
More fragment: 1 if there are more fragments belonging to the same
addresses
frame following the current frame.
Sequence Control: fragmentation and
Retry: indicates that is fragment is retransmission of previously
sequence number.
transmitted fragment.
Data: higher layer data that is maximum
Power Management: the type of power management mode that the
2312 bytes.
station will be after the transmission of the frame.
CRC: 32 bit cyclic redundancy check for
More Data: indicates that there are more frames buffered at the
detecting error on the frame.
sender for this station.
WEP: indicates that frame body is encrypted according to WEP.
Order: indicates that the frame is sent using the strictly-ordered
service class.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 85

Mobility
 What happens when a station moves
between access points
 Re-association function of the PHY layer associates a
mobile with a new access point.
 Some vendor specific, layer-2 (datalink layer) solutions
solves the mobility at layer.
 Solutions like Mobile IP needed to provide seamless
mobility to higher layers (transport and application
layers).
 DHCP is also a method but not as convenient as Mobile IP.
 We will see in the forthcoming classes how
Mobile IP works.
CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 86