ABSTRACT
A wireless local area network (WLAN) consists of multiple stations that coexist within a limited geographic area and share a common wireless channel to communicate with each other. All the stations in a WLAN can access this channel by first reserving it and then transmitting or receiving data frames. However, due to the absence of a physical medium and on account of the limited communication range of transmitters and receivers, the medium access control (MAC) issues in wireless channels are significantly different from those in their wired counterparts. In this chapter, we review medium access control issues related to WLANs and provide an overview of different MAC protocols designed for such networks. We also review the popular IEEE 802.1115 standard for the MAC layer in WLANs.
