ALOHA: ALOHA is a system for coordinating and arbitrating access to a shared

communication Networks channel. It was developed in the 1970s by Norman Abramson

and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii. The original system used for ground
based radio broadcasting, but the system has been implemented in satellite
communication systems.
A shared communication system like ALOHA requires a method of handling collisions
that occur when two or more systems attempt to transmit on the channel at the same
time. In the ALOHA system, a node transmits whenever data is available to send. If
another node transmits at the same time, a collision occurs, and the frames that were
transmitted are lost. However, a node can listen to broadcasts on the medium, even its
own, and determine whether the frames were transmitted.

Aloha means "Hello". Aloha is a multiple access protocol at the datalink layer and
proposes how multiple terminals access the medium without interference or collision. In
1972 Roberts developed a protocol that would increase the capacity of aloha two fold.
The Slotted Aloha protocol involves dividing the time interval into discrete slots and
each slot interval corresponds to the time period of one frame. This method requires
synchronization between the sending nodes to prevent collisions.

There are two different versior.s/types of ALOHA:

(i) Pure ALOHA
(ii) Slottecl ALOHA



(i) Pure ALOHA

In pure ALOHA, the stations transmit frames whenever they have data to send.
When two or more stations transmit simultaneously, there is collision and the frames
are destroyed.
In pure ALOHA, whenever any station transmits a frame, it expects the
acknowledgement from the receiver.
If acknowledgement is not received within specified time, the station assumes that the
frame (or acknowledgement) has been destroyed.
If the frame is destroyed because of collision the station waits for a random amount of
time and sends it again. This waiting time must be random otherwise same frames will
collide again and again.
Therefore pure ALOHA dictates that when time-out period passes, each station must
wait for a random amount of time before resending its frame. This randomness will help
avoid more collisions.
Figure shows an example of frame collisions in pure ALOHA.

In fig there are four stations that .contended with one another for access to shared
channel. All these stations are transmitting frames. Some of these frames collide
because multiple frames are in contention for the shared channel. Only two frames,
frame 1.1 and frame 2.2 survive. All other frames are destroyed.
Whenever two frames try to occupy the channel at the same time, there will be a
collision and both will be damaged. If first bit of a new frame overlaps with just the last
bit of a frame almost finished, both frames will be totally destroyed and both will have to
be retransmitted.

(ii) Slotted ALOHA

Slotted ALOHA was invented to improve the efficiency of pure ALOHA as chances of
collision in pure ALOHA are very high.
In slotted ALOHA, the time of the shared channel is divided into discrete intervals
called slots.
The stations can send a frame only at the beginning of the slot and only one frame is
sent in each slot.


In slotted ALOHA, if any station is not able to place the frame onto the channel at the
beginning of the slot i.e. it misses the time slot then the station has to wait until the
beginning of the next time slot.
In slotted ALOHA, there is still a possibility of collision if two stations try to send at the
beginning of the same time slot as shown in fig.
Slotted ALOHA still has an edge over pure ALOHA as chances of collision are reduced
to one-half.

Protocol Flow Chart for ALOHA:


Fig. shows the protocol flow chart for ALOHA.



Explanation:

A station which has a frame ready will send it.
Then it waits for some time.
If it receives the acknowledgement then the transmission is successful.
Otherwise the station uses a backoff strategy, and sends the packet again.
After many times if there is no acknowledgement then the station aborts the idea of
transmission.



Carrier sense multiple access with collision
detection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Simplified Algorithm of CSMA/CD
Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) is a media access
controlmethod used most notably in local area networking using early Ethernet technology. It uses
a carriersensing scheme in which a transmitting data station detects other signals while transmitting
a frame, and stops transmitting that frame, transmits a jam signal, and then waits for a random time
interval before trying to resend the frame.
[1]

CSMA/CD is a modification of pure carrier sense multiple access (CSMA). CSMA/CD is used to
improve CSMA performance by terminating transmission as soon as a collision is detected, thus
shortening the time required before a retry can be attempted.
Contents
[hide]
1 Main procedure
2 Collision detected procedure
3 Jam signal
4 Applications
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
Main procedure[edit]
1. Is my frame ready for transmission? If yes, it goes on to the next point.
2. Is medium idle? If not, wait until it becomes ready
[note 1]

3. Start transmitting.
4. Did a collision occur? If so, go to collision detected procedure.
5. Reset retransmission counters and end frame transmission.
Collision detected procedure[edit]
1. Continue transmission (with a jam signal instead of frame header/data/CRC) until minimum
packet time is reached to ensure that all receivers detect the collision.
2. Increment retransmission counter.
3. Was the maximum number of transmission attempts reached? If so, abort transmission.
4. Calculate and wait random backoff period based on number of collisions.
5. Re-enter main procedure at stage 1.
This can be likened to what happens at a dinner party, where all the guests talk to each other
through a common medium (the air). Before speaking, each guest politely waits for the current
speaker to finish. If two guests start speaking at the same time, both stop and wait for short, random
periods of time (in Ethernet, this time is measured in microseconds). The hope is that by each
choosing a random period of time, both guests will not choose the same time to try to speak again,
thus avoiding another collision.
Methods for collision detection are media dependent, but on an electrical bus such as 10BASE-
5 or 10BASE-2, collisions can be detected by comparing transmitted data with received data or by
recognizing a higher than normal signal amplitude on the bus.
Jam signal[edit]
The jam signal is a signal that carries a 32-bit binary pattern sent by a data station to inform the
other stations that they must not transmit.
The maximum jam-time is calculated as follows: The maximum allowed diameter of
an Ethernet installation is limited to 232 bits. This makes a round-trip-time of 464 bits. As the slot
time in Ethernet is 512 bits, the difference between slot time and round-trip-time is 48 bits (6 bytes),
which is the maximum "jam-time".
This in turn means: A station noting a collision has occurred is sending a 4 to 6 byte long pattern
composed of 16 1-0 bit combinations. Note: The size of this jam signal is clearly beyond the
minimum allowed frame-size of 64 bytes.
The purpose of this is to ensure that any other node which may currently be receiving a frame will
receive the jam signal in place of the correct 32-bit MAC CRC, this causes the other receivers to
discard the frame due to a CRC error.
Applications[edit]
CSMA/CD was used in now obsolete shared media Ethernet variants (10BASE5, 10BASE2) and in
the early versions of twisted-pair Ethernet which used repeater hubs. Modern Ethernet networks,
built with switches and full-duplex connections, no longer need to utilize CSMA/CD because each
Ethernet segment, or collision domain, is now isolated. CSMA/CD is still supported for backwards
compatibility and for half-duplex connections. IEEE Std 802.3, which defines all Ethernet variants, for
historical reasons still bears the title "Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection
(CSMA/CD) access method and physical layer specifications".



Carrier sense multiple access with collision
avoidance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) in computer networking, is a
network multiple access method in which carrier sensing is used, but nodesattempt to avoid
collisions by transmitting only when the channel is sensed to be "idle".
[1][2]
When they do transmit,
nodes transmit their packet data in its entirety.
It is particularly important for wireless networks, where the collision detection of the
alternative CSMA/CD is unreliable due to the hidden node problem.
CSMA/CA is a protocol that operates in the Data Link Layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model.
[3]



Simplified Algorithm of CSMA/CA
Contents
[hide]
1 Details
2 IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS Exchange
3 Performance
4 Usage
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Details[edit]
Collision avoidance is used to improve the performance of the CSMA method by attempting to divide
the channel somewhat equally among all transmitting nodes within the collision domain.
1. Carrier Sense: prior to transmitting, a node first listens to the shared medium (such as
listening for wireless signals in a wireless network) to determine whether another node is
transmitting or not. Note that the hidden node problem means another node may be
transmitting which goes undetected at this stage.
2. Collision Avoidance: if another node was heard, we wait for a period of time for the node to
stop transmitting before listening again for a free communications channel.
Request to Send/Clear to Send (RTS/CTS) may optionally be used at this point to
mediate access to the shared medium. This goes some way to alleviating the problem of
hidden nodes because, for instance, in a wireless network, the Access Point only issues
a Clear to Send to one node at a time. However, wireless802.11 implementations do not
typically implement RTS/CTS for all transmissions; they may turn it off completely, or at
least not use it for small packets (the overhead of RTS, CTS and transmission is too
great for small data transfers).
Transmission: if the medium was identified as being clear or the node received a CTS
to explicitly indicate it can send, it sends the frame in its entirety. UnlikeCSMA/CD, it is
very challenging for a wireless node to listen at the same time as it transmits (its
transmission will dwarf any attempt to listen). Continuing the wireless example, the node
awaits receipt of an acknowledgement packet from the Access Point to indicate the
packet was received and checksummed correctly. If such acknowledgement does not
arrive after a timely manner, it assumes the packet collided with some other
transmission, causing the node to enter a period of binary exponential backoff prior to
attempting to re-transmit.
Although CSMA/CA has been used in a variety of wired communication systems, it is particularly
beneficial in a wireless LAN due to a common problem of multiple stations being able to see the
Access Point, but not each other. This is due to differences in transmit power, and receive
sensitivity, as well as distance, and location with respect to the AP.
[4]
This will cause a station to
not be able to 'hear' another station's broadcast. This is the so-called 'hidden node', or 'hidden
station' problem. Devices utilizing 802.11 based standards can enjoy the benefits of collision
avoidance (RTS / CTS handshake, also Point coordination function), although they do not do so
by default. By default they use a Carrier sensing mechanism called 'exponential backoff', or
(Distributed coordination function) that relies upon a station attempting to 'listen' for another
station's broadcast before sending. CA, or PCF relies upon the AP (or the 'receiver' for Ad hoc
networks) granting a station the exclusive right to transmit for a given period of time after
requesting it (Request to Send / Clear to Send).
[5]

IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS Exchange[edit]
CSMA/CA can optionally be supplemented by the exchange of a Request to Send (RTS)
packet sent by the sender S, and a Clear to Send (CTS) packet sent by the intended receiver
R. Thus alerting all nodes within range of the sender, receiver or both, to not transmit for the
duration of the main transmission. This is known as the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS exchange.
Implementation of RTS/CTS helps to partially solve the hidden node problem that is often found
in wireless networking.
[6][7]

Performance[edit]
CSMA/CA performance is based largely upon the modulation technique used to transmit the
data between nodes. Studies show that under ideal propagation conditions (simulations), Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) provides the highest throughput for all nodes on a network
when used in conjunction with CSMA/CA and the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS exchange under light
network load conditions. Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) follows distantly behind
DSSS with regard to throughput with a greater throughput once network load becomes
substantially heavy. However, the throughput is generally the same under real world conditions
due to radio propagation factors.
[3]