CSMA/CD vs CSMA/CA
Network communication requires a set of rules to provide controlled and efficient access to the network medium. Medium access control (MAC) is the generic term used when discussing the concept of medium access. There are many ways to provide the access to the medium. There are methods like polling, token-passing, and contention. In this post, we will discuss contention-based methods. CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA are the two most commonly used contention methods. Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) method used in ethernet (802.3) networks to provide the access to the medium. Carrier sense multiple access with collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) method used in Wireless local area networks (802.11) to provide the access to the medium. In both these methods stations have to listen to the medium to see if any other device is transmitting, otherwise, they have to wait before transmitting. Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD...