Question

What are the differences between CSMA/CA vs CSMA/CD?

Answer 1

Difference between CSMA/CD and CSMA/CA:

CSMA/CD stands for carrier sense multiple access collision detection while CSMA/CA stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access Collision Avoidance.

As name indicates CSMA/CD is used for detecting collisions while later is used for avoiding the collision by sensing that channel is free or not to send any message.

Usage area:

In wired network, it is comparatively easy to detect whether a collision has occurred or not while in wireless network, it is very hard to detect whether any collision has occurred or not. Therefore, CSMA/CD is preferred in wired media (standardized in IEEE 802.3) whereas CSMA/CA is preferred in wireless media (standardized in IEEE 802.11).

Operation:

CSMA/CD works on the principle that once a collision is detected it immediately turn off the ongoing transmission so that further loss can be prevented while in CSMA/CA, it uses RTS (request to send) and CTS (clear to send) signals to sense the availability of channel in order to prevent the collision.