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Sunday, June 5, 2016

What does Medium access sub layer

Some networks have a single channel that is used for all communication. In these networks, the key design issue is the allocation of this channel among the competing stations wishing to use it. FDM and TDM are simple, efficient allocation schemes when the number of stations is small and fixed and the traffic is continuous. Both are widely used under these circumstances, for example, for dividing up the bandwidth on telephone trunks. However, when the number of stations is large and variable or the traffic is fairly bursty—the common case in computer networks—FDM and TDM are poor choices.

Numerous dynamic channel allocation algorithms have been devised. The ALOHA protocol, with and without slotting, is used in many derivatives in real systems, for example, cable modems and RFID. As an improvement when the state of the channel can be sensed, stations can avoid starting a transmission while another station is transmitting. This technique, carrier sensing, has led to a variety of CSMA protocols for LANs and MANs. It is the basis for classic Ethernet and 802.11 networks.

A class of protocols that eliminates contention altogether, or at least reduces it considerably, is well known. The bitmap protocol, topologies such as rings, and the binary countdown protocol completely eliminate contention. The tree walk protocol reduces it by dynamically dividing the stations into two disjoint groups of different sizes and allowing contention only within one group; ideally that group is chosen so that only one station is ready to send when it is permitted to do so.

Wireless LANs have the added problems that it is difficult to sense colliding transmissions, and that the coverage regions of stations may differ. In the dominant wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11, stations use CSMA/CA to mitigate the first problem by leaving small gaps to avoid collisions. The stations can also use the RTS/CTS protocol to combat hidden terminals that arise because of the second problem. IEEE 802.11 is commonly used to connect laptops and other devices to wireless access points, but it can also be used between devices. Any of several physical layers can be used, including multichannel FDM with and without multiple antennas, and spread spectrum.

Like 802.11, RFID readers and tags use a random access protocol to communicate identifiers. Other wireless PANs and MANs have different designs. The Bluetooth system connects headsets and many kinds of peripherals to computers without wires. IEEE 802.16 provides a wide area wireless Internet data service for stationary and mobile computers. Both of these networks use a centralized, connection-oriented design in which the Bluetooth master and the WiMAX base station decide when each station may send or receive data. For 802.16, this design supports different quality of service for real-time traffic like telephone calls and interactive traffic like Web browsing. For Bluetooth, placing the complexity in the master leads to inexpensive slave devices.

Like 802.11, RFID readers and tags use a random access protocol to communicate identifiers. Other wireless PANs and MANs have different designs. The Bluetooth system connects headsets and many kinds of peripherals to computers without wires. IEEE 802.16 provides a wide area wireless Internet data service for stationary and mobile computers. Both of these networks use a centralized, connection-oriented design in which the Bluetooth master and the WiMAX base station decide when each station may send or receive data. For 802.16, this design supports different quality of service for real-time traffic like telephone calls and interactive traffic like Web browsing. For Bluetooth, placing the complexity in the master leads to inexpensive slave devices.

With buildings full of LANs, a way is needed to interconnect them all. Plugand-play bridges are used for this purpose. The bridges are built with a backward learning algorithm and a spanning tree algorithm. Since this functionality is built into modern switches, the terms ‘‘bridge’’ and ‘‘switch’’ are used interchangeably. To help with the management of bridged LANs, VLANs let the physical topology be divided into different logical topologies. The VLAN standard, IEEE 802.1Q, introduces a new format for Ethernet frames.

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