Profile photo for James Harris

CSMA/CD could, in theory, be used in wireless networks, however there are serious limitations which make it a poor choice.

Half Duplex

Pretty much all of the standard IEEE 802.11 (AKA WiFi) devices run at half duplex. Half duplex means the radio can transmit and receive but it can only do one of these things at any moment in time. So a radio can't collision detect because while it is transmitting it is not listening to the channel to see if there has been a collision. Even if you got around this issue (e.g. using multiple radios) there are still other issues.

Hidden Node Problem

This is where there are multiple nodes (or computers), the nodes can see the access point, but not each other. In this example see means detect the radio signals from the other node. So if 2 nodes that hidden from each other transmit at the same time they will never see the signal from the competing node and be able to tell that there was a collision.

This image from Wikipedia illustrates the concept well:


Here A and C can each communicate with the access point B, but are hidden from each other.

There are the 2 biggest issues, there are also problems with self interface that occurs if you have radios operating in full duplex (on the same channel).

View 2 other answers to this question
About · Careers · Privacy · Terms · Contact · Languages · Your Ad Choices · Press ·
© Quora, Inc. 2025