Mobile computing, is the way of the future, as evident by such initiatives
as Bluetooth, Iceberg and HomeRF. However, for mobile computing to be succe
ssful, an obvious layer, the MAC layer, must be efficient in channel access
and reservation. Therefore, in-depth understanding is needed of the wirele
ss MAC layer if wireless computing is to takeoff. Many random access wirele
ss MAC protocols have been proposed and even standardized. However, there h
as yet been an attempt to understand why certain designs are used and what
makes certain protocols better than others. In this paper, we survey severa
l popular, contemporary, wireless, random access MAC protocols and determin
e the effects behind the design choices of these protocols.