Multiple access

Content:
Intro / Background
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
Slow Frequency Hopping CDMA (SFH-CDMA)
Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA)
Fast Frequency Hopping CDMA (FFH-CDMA)
Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)
Comparisons of the different access methods
Random Access
- Aloha and slotted Aloha
- Applications: Inmarsat, GSM, Ethernet, W-LAN
- Stochastic behavior and dynamic control (short)
1

Background / Starting point

Essentially 5 types of multiple access techniques:
Frequency Division Multiple Access FDMA
Time Division Multiple Access TDMA
Code Division Multiple Access CDMA (or Direct Sequence
CDMA - DS-CDMA, or Spread Spectrum Multiple Access - SSMA)

Space Division Multiple Access SDMA

Random Access RA
Plus: Slow Frequency Hopping CDMA - SFH-CDMA
is a combination of the techniques above but treated
specially since important variant.
Modern systems often use many of these techniques in
combination.
2

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

Different sources use different frequency bands that
do not overlap.
Also usually different bands in the two directions:
FDD Frequency Division Duplex.
Guard band and
special device
(duplexer) to
separate
simultaneous
sending and
receiving at
stations
3

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Different sources send at different times in assigned
timeslots or bursts in a repeating frame structure.
Full frequency spectrum used by the TDMA system.
Timing is important: stations at different distance
from a receiver must start sending at correct/
adjusted time to not overlap in time at the receiver.
Guard times
between bursts are
short to utilize
bandwidth
efficiently.
4

TDMA (2)
Example GSM:
Mobile stations
send and receive
at different times
in each direction:
Time Division
Duplex (TDD).
A simple
duplexer in this
case: an
electronic
gate/switch.
5

Slow Frequency Hopping

Code Division Multiple Access (SFH-CDMA)
Can be regarded as a special case of FDMA:
Sending frequency is changed periodically, but the full
bandwidth (of one frequency band) is used inbetween jumps,
i.e. during one dwell time.
The Code (of CDMA) is actually the pseudo-random jumping
pattern in this case; different senders have different jumping
patterns. Receiver must of course know/use the same jumping
pattern. All channels should be used before sequence is
repeated. Orthogonal jumping patterns ~ 1% collisions.
Slow (frequency hopping) means that dwell time is (much)
longer than one bit-period.
All dwell times have equal length.
Main purpose is to equalize transmission conditions.
6

SFH-CDMA (2)
Jumping pattern for
two sources:
S/N ratio different
for different
frequencies

(often > 75)

Normal coding.
Phase difference
between original
and reflexed signal
can either increase
or reduce power
level received:

Frequency diversity

In addition: Interference diversity to equalize noise from

neighbouring cells in a mobile systems.

Exercise:
What happens if you have a constant source
of noise or interference somewhere in the
frequency spectrum when using SFH-CDMA?
What about direct transmission of the original
signal (without using SFH-CDMA) assuming
the same noise/interference?

SFH-CDMA (3)

Original
signal

Received
signal

If a collision destroys only a small part of the content of a transmission

Content can often be recreated at a receiver without a need for
retransmission, if redundant information is available (Forward Error
Correction FEC).
9

Direct Sequence
Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA)
Basic principle: Each bit/symbol (0 or 1) is
replaced by a (potentially very long) string (denoted
the spreading code) of sub-bits called chips.
Receiver must know spreading code and be
synchronized to correct phase and chip-rate.
Every packet must start with synchronization info.
Detection of symbol 0 or 1 is done by
correlating with expected pattern.
Other transmissions with different spreading codes
are just noise This puts a limit to the total number
of simultaneous transmissions, given by S/N ratio.
10

DS-CDMA (2)
Encoding of bits/symbols with spreading code of 5
chips (for illustration):

We observe that 0 and 1 have inverted chip

sequences.

11

DS-CDMA (3)

or DS-CDMA

or FH-CDMA

12

DS-CDMA (4)
Example: In W-LAN (IEEE 802.11 standard) the
following 11-chip spreading code is used:

(Pseudonoise code = spreading code)

13

DS-CDMA (5)
Reception of perfect signal, i.e. no errors in the sequence:

14

DS-CDMA (6)
Chip-sequences out of phase will give low correlation
(here: 1 or 2 positions out of phase to the right):

15

DS-CDMA (7)
Still out of phase, now 1 or 2 chips to the left:

16

DS-CDMA (8)
Random noise and interference from other types of signals
have no natural correlation with the expected pattern and
will usually give low correlation.
Only the real signal will correlate and be identifiable at
the receiver:
Power control is
important.
Ideally all
sources should
be received
with the same
power level at a
receiver.
17

DS-CDMA (9)
Correlation peaks can also be used (by receiver) for
synchronization (NB! inside a packet) since bits are
supposed to be received and interpreted periodically.
Even if some of the chips of a signal are destroyed in
transmission, the correlation in an expected position (i.e.
time instant) will be either positive or negative, thus
enough information to decide correctly if this is a 0 or
1 in most cases.

In total
(with reflected real
signals):

18

DS-CDMA (10)
NB! DS-CDMA in general use many very long spreading
codes in parallell, unlike the previous illustration examples
(5 or 11 chips pr. bit/symbol)!
Spreading codes are defined orthogonal to each other to
minimize correlation between them.
DS-CDMA receivers can therefore be complex compared to
e.g. W-LAN receivers with fixed 11 chip spreading code.
DS-CDMA
terminal:

19

Fast frequency hopping (FFH-)CDMA

Similar to SFH-CDMA but now with many hops per bit
of the duty signal, i.e. dwell time is shorter than one
bit period.
I.e. each bit/symbol is represented by being
transmitted at multiple frequencies. (Kind of a chip
sequence as in DS-CDMA).
At the receivers a bit/symbol is then recreated by
combining multiple contributions at different
frequencies but at different times.
However: Frequency synthesizers must be extremely
fast and are expensive.
Also: less capacity efficient than DS-CDMA.
20

10

Exercise:
Compare FDMA, TDMA and DS-CDMA with
regard to:
1) Capacity limit of a given system
2) Use of resources (Spectrum/Time/Code space)

21

Comparison of FDMA, TDMA, and DS-CDMA

According to Shannons fundamental theorem a given bandwidth
should make it possible to transmit a given maximum amount of
information, regardless of actual multiple access technique.
However actual physical systems have different qualities wrt.
cost, size, power consumption, computational requirements and
technological maturity ( influences reliability), and
environmental constraints.
A given technique may be best in a given context, but there is
no overall winner.

22

11

Comparison of DS-CDMA and FH-CDMA

Available capacity in 2.4 MHz ISM band (NB! USA):

Existing systems based on DS-CDMA (= DSSS above) with capacities

of 11 Mbit/s per channel. But few channels available in allocated
waveband (~3 colocated coverage areas).
For FH-CDMA (= FHSS above) systems maximum 3 Mbit/s per
channel (~ 26 colocated coverage areas due to higher number of less
overlapping 1 MHz channels).
23

Comparison of DS-CDMA and FH-CDMA (2)

Constant noise in a fixed frequency band will influence a DS-CDMA
system all the time, but only sporadic influence a FH-CDMA system:

24

12

Comparison of DS-CDMA and FH-CDMA (3)

DS-CDMA: Collisions between packets can happen if all are using the
same spreading code (e.g.W-LAN) and packets that collide are lost.
This happens much rarer than in other systems since asynchronous
transmission of packets rarely happens to be synchronous in time.
In narrowband systems time-overlapping packets would always be
destroyed.

In DS-CDMA packets have to

be almost synchronous to loose
both. (Pre-amble time+ must not
overlap). If first bit is found,
expected time for next bit is
used to ignore the in-between
bits meant for another receiver.
(If both are to the same receiver,
one of them will naturally be
lost!)

25

Comparison of DS-CDMA and FH-CDMA (4)

Similarly: In FH-CDMA it is possible to use the same
hopping pattern delayed in time (i.e. different phase):

These will never collide!

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13

Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

Based on sharing space, e.g. for a satellite different
geograhical areas covered by different beams:
Reuse of
frequencies
possible!
Mobile systems also
use geographical
cells to allow reuse
of frequencies
(in cells with a certain
distance):
27

Random Access basic principles

Pure Aloha: Each source just sends a packet of
length T whenever Maximum utilization ~18%.
Slotted Aloha: As above but time is divided into slots
of length T (= packet length) and sending is delayed
until start of next slot Max. Utilization ~37%.
Intuitively correct since collision period is halved
compared to pure Aloha!
Performance can be improved by letting a station
listen to a medium before deciding to send or not:
Carrier Sense Multiple Access - CSMA.

28

14

Random Access basic principles (2)

1-persistent CSMA:
Packet is sent immediately if medium is free;
otherwise wait and send when medium becomes
free.
p-persistent CSMA:
(slot below is not necessarily = packet length):
Packet is sent in first idle slot with probability p.
If it waits (with probability 1 - p) AND next slot is
idle, it again sends with probability p.
Repeated until successfull or a maximum limit is
reached.
Continued
29

Random Access basic principles (3)

p-persistent CSMA (cont.):
If channel is busy after rescheduling: either wait for
next slot
OR
apply same algorithm as if a packet has collided
(see below).
If a packet collides: use back-off algorithm,
e.g. draw a negexp distributed waiting time until next
try. (Mean value used when drawing usually increased with
number of tries, i.e. a true back-off).

30

15

Random Access basic principles (4)

non-persistent CSMA:
Packet is sent immediately if medium is free; if
medium is busy a random waiting time is drawn after
the medium is found free before checking again. In
practice this is an integer and limited (max.) number
of slots and often a uniform value of slots to wait is
drawn between zero and a maximum number.
Repeated if busy again.

31

Not a fair method. Modified and made fair for W-LAN:

countdown of back-off time is stopped if medium
becomes busy during waiting time, but continued (not
restarted as above) after medium becomes idle again.
Called Collision Avoidance - CA

Exercise:
So what are the differences between 1-, pand non- persistent CSMA summed up?
Answer: 1-per. can be regarded as a special
case of p-per. (with probability of sending in a
slot = 1.0).
Non-persistent means that you keep listening
until free but then wait an additional time to
avoid collision with others also waiting; but
always send (like 1-persistent) if medium is
found free after waiting expires.
32

16

Aloha techniques in Inmarsat and GSM

Pure Aloha is better than slotted Aloha for first
access from ships to earth station in Inmarsat.
Reason: Slotted Aloha would need a minimum slot
size larger than twice the access packet length due
to differential delays inside the coverage area
Time is wasted.
Slotted Aloha is better than Aloha for GSM, with
slot duration equal to a TDMA timeslot.
Reason: Duration of a request packet is now larger
than twice the differential propagation delay.
33

GSM capture effect:

Even when two
random access
signals collide one of
them may be
suppressed and the
other one be
successfully decoded!
(if difference in signal
level > 5 dB).

Non-conflicting access

Also: Can be conflict

in identities since only
5 bit ref. nr. is used in
access message

Conflicting access
34

17

Ethernet access
CDMA with Collision Detect - CSMA/CD:
Stations that want to send listens to the medium
(Carrier Sense).
If free medium: start sending (Multiple Access)
(i.e. 1-persistent Aloha).

Continue listening (while sending) to detect if there is a

collision with other stations starting to send close (in
time) to this one (Collision Detect).
If collision is detected: Stop sending and draw a random
time period until next try.
Mean hold-off time is doubled for each repeated try
(binary exponential backoff); maximum 16 attempts.
35

Ethernet access (2)

A:
C:

36

Time
Time tt1032::

Important point: Station A must still be sending when signal from

other station reaches it, to detect a collision!

18

Gigabit Ethernet
CSMA/CD in Gigabit speed (half-duplex):

Problem: If MAC layer is kept unchanged

Max. 20 meter distance between stations can be allowed to detect
collisions.
Mac layer and frames have to be modified slightly.
Two extensions of the
standard:
Carrier extension:
always send at least 512
octets on the medium.
Frame bursting:
more frames is sent in
sequence, without delay.

37

Gigabit Ethernet (2)

Carrier extension:
Frames larger than 512 octets are sent as before.
Frames that are smaller must be padded by special
characters (carrier extension symbols) so the minimum
frame length is 512 octets.
This extends the efficient collision distance to ca. 200
meters, which is acceptable.
However: low utilization of capacity if many small
frames need to be transmitted!

38

19

Gigabit Ethernet (3)

Frame bursting:
Introduced to counteract the Carrier extension, i.e. to increase
efficiency in transmission.
A station which has managed to get control of the medium (e.g. by
padding in first frame), continues to send more frames without
padding.

10 Gigabit Ethernet uses only switched solutions, giving full

duplex up to 40 km. I.e. CSMA/CD is not used any more.
39

Wireless LAN (W-LAN) access

Collision Detection (CD)
can not be used in radio
systems using Frequency
Division Duplex (FDD).
Cannot send and receive
same frequency at the same
time to detect collision.
In addition: Problem with
hidden nodes: Two
stations are both visible to
AP, but not to each other.
Collision Avoidance
(CA) instead.

Access Point (AP) usually

coordinates all communication

40

20

Protocol hierarchy for W-LAN

MAC and physical layer is defined by IEEE 802.11.
Datalink layer is the same as for other 802 LANs and
described in the IEEE 802.2 standard.

Alternatives on physical layer:

FH = Frequency Hopping based (i.e. FH-CDMA),
DS = Direct Sequence based (i.e. DS-CDMA),
(Also: IR = Based on infrared light communication).
41

Frame formats
Three main types of frames:
Data frames with payload (i.e. user data),
Control frames (e.g. RTS, CTS, ACK),
Administrative frames (e.g. beacon frames).
All frames have the same general structure:

Preamble: Content depends on which physical layer is

used, but always contains synchronization information
(80 bit 010101 ... sequence) and unique word/flag
(0000 1100 1011 1101) which is also used for timing
purposes.
42

21

Frame formats (2)

PLCP header (always transmitted at speed 1 Mbit/s)
contains some logical information that is needed by the
physical layer to decode the MAC data field: length of the
packet, speed of transmission, and Header Error Control
(HEC):
MAC data:

43

Here: DS (Distribution System) = AP (Access Point)

Frame formats (3)

Control frames:
Request-To-Send
(RTS) and
Clear-To-Send
(CTS):
RA = Receiver
Adress.
TA = Transmitter
Adress.
Acknowledgement
(ACK):
44

22

Slot time and interframe distances

A slot time is defined and used in connection with backoff (/CA). This contributes to reducing the collision
probability on the medium. (50 s for FH-CDMA and 20 s for DS-CDMA).
Different InterFrame Space terms are defined as follows
(are all used in CSMA/CA):

SIFS (Short InterFrame Space): Minimum distance

between two frames. Defined from physical parameters
and different for different physical layers.
(28 s for FH-CDMA, 10 s for DS-CDMA).

DIFS (Distributed coordination function IFS) =

SIFS + two slot times.
PIFS (Point Coordination IFS) = SIFS + one slot time.
(In addition EIFS (Extended IFS) used to handle error situations).
45

Slot time and interframe distances (2)

Relationships
between different
InterFrame Space
(IFS) terms:

Physical layer
delays are basis

46

23

Slot time and interframe distances (3)

Diagram:

Different situations give different

needed hold-off times.

Stations use exponential backoff (in a whole number of

time slots) when
- The radio medium is busy.
- After retransmission.
- After successfull transmission.
47

IEEE 802.11 MAC layer

Two different medium access methods are specified:
- Distributed Coordination Function: Mandatory. Suited for data
traffic (i.e. Best Effort). The normal implemented and used method.
- Point Coordination Function: Optional. May be used to realize
services with larger demands for real-time operation. Based on
polling from the Access Point (AP).

Distributed Coordination Function uses CSMA/CA (CA =

Collision Avoidance) (actually + ACK) for access to the
medium.
Again: CSMA/CD (e.g. Ethernet) can not be used because:
- Would demand simultaneous sending and listening (both expensive
and difficult for a radio) .
- It can not be assumed that all stations can hear all other stations in the
coverage area of an AP.
Only the AP must be able to hear all stations in its coverage area.
48

24

CSMA/CA
CSMA/CA plus ACK - mechanism follows the
algorithm:
1) Station listens to the radio medium. If busy it has to
wait. (DIFS + drawn # slot times, with addition when medium is busy).
2) If free medium is observed for more than a given time
(= Distributed Inter Frame Space (DIFS)) a station is
allowed to send (following specific rules, see below).
3) A receiving station checks the CRC of a packet and
sends an explicit purpose ACK message back to the sender.
4) If ACK is not received the packet will be retransmitted.
49

CSMA/CA (2)
Example of station (Node A) that sends alone
(i.e. no influence from other stations):

To let potential other

stations access the medium
50

25

CSMA/CA (3)
Example assuming first (and single) packets from three
different stations (Nodes A to C in the figure):

NB! Back-off interval countdown is suspended

when medium is observed as being busy!
51

CSMA/CA (4)
Example with two stations with multiple
packets to send competing for the medium:

52

26

CSMA/CA (5)
Because a station can not listen at the same time it sends
(to detect collisions) explicit acknowledgement packets
(ACK) must be returned to the sender when a packet is
successfully received:

SIFS < DIFS ACKs get higher priority transmission than data packets
53

CSMA/CA (6)
Optionally: A Virtual Carrier Sense mechanism can be
added to decrease the collision probability between stations
that can not hear each other. A station starts by sending a
short control packet of type Request to Send (RTS)
(contains source, destination, and length of planned
communication).
The station which is to receive the information answers
with a short control packet of type Clear to Send (CTS)
(with the same length of communication, including the
time to transmit an ACK back to the sender).
All other stations that hear RTS and/or CTS updates a local
Virtual Carrier Sense indicator/database, called NAV =
Network Allocation Vector.
54

27

CSMA/CA (7)

55

CSMA/CA (8)
NAV is used in addition to physical listening to the medium
in the CSMA/CA algorithm. I.e. the medium can not be
used even if it appears to be free if anyone has reserved it.
Because the RTS and CTS messages are very short
compared to normal length data packets to be transmitted,
this reduces the probability of collisions between stations
that can not hear each other.
If a very short data packet is to be transmitted, this is done
without the use of RTS/CTS reservation. (Defined by a
RTS threshold value).

56

28

CSMA/CA (9)

57

Point Coordination Function

PCF is an optional access method (in addition to the
Distributed Coordination Function realized by
CSMA/CA + ACK) to implement services with strict realtime demands.
The basic idea is simple: AP polls all active stations in
its coverage area to ask if they have any real-time traffic to
send. PIFS (< DIFS) is used to give such packets priority.
I.e. allocation of capacities on the medium is decided by
the AP.
However: AP has a duty to also let stations with only best
effort traffic use the medium (via DCF) inbetween.

58

29

Point Coordination Function (2)

A loose superframe structure is then defined where capacities
are partly allocated by the AP and partly accessed via use of
CSMA/CA + ACK (DCF):
When necessary to avoid
destroying any data packets

59

Random Access

stochastic behaviour and dynamic control

Channel model for

Slotted Aloha:
NB! The number of packets in
backlog can never be reduced
by more than 1 at a time, but
may (theoretically) increase
by an arbitray number of
colliding packets!
Makes Aloha sensitive to
bursty behavior!
If a burst saturates the
channel it may take a long
time before the channel
again operates properly.
60

30

RA - Stochastic behaviour and dynamic control (2)

Stability of a slotted
Aloha channel:
Channel
load lines

: Fresh traffic =
expected throughput
of the channel

For one given

value of

61

RA - Stochastic behaviour and dynamic control (3)

Fluid approximation:

62

31

RA - Stochastic behaviour and dynamic control (4)

Control procedures:

K is the upper limit of the

randomisation interval
before retransmission of
sources in backlog.

Alternatives 1 and 2 can also be combined

63

32