Rts/Cts Threshold - Proxim Harmony 8550 Manual

greatly reduce the size of the coverage area provided by the Access Point. Once the PC
Card moves outside the range that provides 11 Mbps operation, the PC Card will lose
connectivity with the network.

RTS/CTS Threshold

The 802.11b standard supports optional RTS/CTS communication based on packet size.
Without RTS/CTS, a sending radio listens to see if another radio is already using the
medium before transmitting a data packet. If the medium is free, the sending radio
transmits its packets. However, there is no guarantee that another radio is not transmit-
ting a packet at the same time, causing a collision.
When RTS/CTS occurs, the sending radio first transmits a Request to Send (RTS)
packet to confirm that the medium is clear. When the receiving radio successfully
receives the RTS packet, it transmits back a Clear to Send (CTS) packet to the sending
radio. When the sending radio receives the CTS packet, it sends the data packet to the
receiving radio. The RTS and CTS packets contain a reservation time to notify other
radios that the medium is in use for a specified period of time. This helps to minimize
collisions.
While RTS/CTS adds overhead to the radio network, it is particularly useful for large
packets that take longer to resend after a collision occurs.
You may configure a Harmony 802.11b Access Point to always use RTS/CTS, never
use RTS/CTS, or use RTS/CTS for packets over a certain size.
For example, if the RTS/CTS Threshold is set to 1000 Bytes, then a sending radio will
use RTS/CTS before transmitting any packet 1000 Bytes or larger.
The RTS/CTS Threshold parameter supports a range between 1 and 1513 Bytes (which
is the largest Ethernet packet the radio can transmit). When set to 1, a sending radio will
use RTS/CTS before transmitting any packet. When set to 1513, a sending radio will
not use RTS/CTS for any packets except those that are 1513 Bytes.
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