Avaya Wireless AP-3 User Manual

4-26                                                                                  Avaya Wireless AP-3 User’s Guide

When RTS/CTS occurs, the following occurs.

1. The sending radio first transmits a Request to Send (RTS) packet 

to confirm that the medium is clear. 

2. When the receiving radio successfully receives the RTS packet, it 

transmits back a Clear to Send (CTS) packet to the sending radio. 

3. 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 (including hidden nodes) that 
the medium is in use for a specified period. 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.

RTS/CTS Medium Reservation is an advanced parameter and supports a 
range between 0 and 2347 bytes. When set to 2347 (the default setting), 
the RTS/CTS mechanism is disabled. When set to 0, the RTS/CTS 
mechanism is used for all packets. When set to a value between 0 and 
2347, the Access Point uses the RTS/CTS mechanism for packets that 
are the specified size or greater. You should not need to enable this 
parameter for most networks unless you suspect that the wireless cell 
contains hidden nodes.