MAC Protocols

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol, which enables different devices to connect through a common, shared medium by providing three main features: The ability to detect when the shared media is free and the device should send the data, the ability to decide what to do if the data collides with data from another device and the ability to determine how long to wait before re-sending data that has collided. The paper includes illustrations

From the Paper:

"The data is monitored during transmission and if it changes, a collision is assumed to have occurred and the detecting device sends out a "jam bit" or "jam sequence," a random bit pattern meant to "kill the corrupted frames." At the other end, MAC receivers read the first 6 bytes of the PCI, determining the destination address of the frame. If that address matches it's own, the receiver continues to read the rest of the frame. The PDU or data payload of the frame is then read, followed by the CRC. The MAC receiver calculates the CRC to detect any errors in the data, such as a collision, and allows it to discard corrupted frames. Once done, the receiver transmits back confirmation data to the source, notifying it whether the data was sent successfully or was corrupted and needs to be resent."

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