General Overview

The MAC Layer contains the rules governing operation of the Control Channel, the Access Channel, the Forward Traffic Channel, and the Reverse Traffic Channel.

This section presents the protocols for the MAC Layer. Each of these protocols can be independently negotiated at the beginning of the session.

The MAC Layer contains the following protocols:

• Control Channel MAC Protocol: This protocol builds Control Channel MAC Layer packets out of one or more Security Layer packets, contains the rules concerning access network transmission and packet scheduling on the Control Channel, access terminal acquisition of the Control Channel, and access terminal Control Channel MAC Layer packet reception. This protocol also adds the access terminal address to transmitted packets.

• Access Channel MAC Protocol: This protocol contains the rules governing access terminal transmission timing and power characteristics for the Access Channel.

• Forward Traffic Channel MAC Protocol: This protocol contains the rules governing operation of the Forward Traffic Channel. It dictates the rules the access terminal follows when transmitting the Data Rate Control Channel, along with the rules the access network uses to interpret this channel. The protocol supports both variable rate and fixed rate operation of the Forward Traffic Channel.

• Reverse Traffic Channel MAC Protocol: This protocol contains the rules governing operation of the Reverse Traffic Channel. It dictates the rules the access terminal follows to assist the access network in acquiring the Reverse Traffic Channel. It also indicates the rules the access terminal and the access network use to select the transmission rate used over the Reverse Traffic Channel.