MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL

IEEE defines a section of standards for wireless connectivity technologies at data link layer under the section 802.xx

flowchart TD
subgraph higher_layer
A[802.2]
B[802.3]
C[802.5]
D[802.11]
end
subgraph medium_access_control
E[CSMA/CD]
F[Token-passing]
G[CSMA]
end
higher_layer ~~~ medium_access_control

WIRELESS ARCHITECTURES

There are two possible configuration for a wireless infrastructure:

BASE STATION MODE where the nodes are connected to a base station and communication can only append trough the base station itself

flowchart LR
subgraph net1
A[ap1]
C[node1]
end
subgraph net2
B[ap2]
D[node2]
end
C --> A
D --> B
E((internet))
A & B -->  E

AD HOC MODE all nodes are potentially mobile and communicate directly

flowchart LR
subgraph net
A[node1]
B[node2]
C[node3]
D[node4]
E[node5]
A  <--> B & C
B  <--> D
C  <--> D
D  <--> E
E  <--> B
end