802.11 Reference Design: MAC

The MAC implementation is based on the DCF (distributed coordination function) protocol specified in section 9.3 of the 802.11-2012 standard. This design does not implement the PCF (point coordination function) in section 9.4 of the standard.

Frames: The MAC specification defines many frame formats in section 8 of the 802.11-2012 standard. Our implementation supports a sub-set of these frames.

Data/ACK: Data and ACK frames are of course supported.

Management Frames: The following management frames are supported:

• Beacon
• Probe Request
• Probe Response
• Authentication
• Deauthentication
• Association Request
• Association Response
• Reassociation Request
• Reassociation Response
• Disassociation

Handshakes: The standard defines many inter-node handshakes for many combinations of ad-hoc and infrastructure networks. Our current MAC implementation supports the common association handshake required for a STA (node) to join the network of an AP. This handshake consists of:

STA	Direction	AP
Probe Request	→	↓
↓	←	Probe Response
Authentication	→	↓
↓	←	Authentication
Association Request	→	↓
•	←	Association Response

RTS/CTS: Support for the RTS/CTS handshake is not currently implemented (it will be soon)