Question

Why is csma/cd unsuitable for wireless networks?

Answer 1

The physical characteristics of WiFi make it impossible and impractical for the CAMA/CD mechanism to be used. This is due to CSMA/CD’s nature of ‘listening’ if the medium is free before transmitting packets. Using CSMA/CD, if a collision is detected on the medium, end-devices would have to wait a random amount of time before they can start the retransmission process. For this reason, CSMA/CD works well for wired networks, however, in wireless networks, there is no way for the sender to detect collisions the same way CSMA/CD does since the sender is only able to transmit and receive packets on the medium but is not able to sense data traversing that medium. Therefore, CSMA/CA is used on wireless networks. CSMA/CA doesn’t detect collisions (unlike CSMA/CA) but rather avoids them through the use of a control message. Should the control message collide with another control message from another node, it means that the medium is not available for transmission and the back-off algorithm needs to be applied before attempting retransmission.