function [devState, newSimEvents] = startTransmitting(devState, curTime)
    %starts a packet transmission
    
    newSimEvents(1) = createEvent(simEventType.TRAN_START, 0, 0); % just for init!
    newSimEvents(1) = [];
    
    devState = changeDevState(devState, devStateType.TRAN_PACK);
    devState.curBackoff = -1; % no active backoff
    devState.startBackoffTime = -1; % no active backoff
    opts = createOpts(devState.curPkt, timerType.NONE);
    newSimEvents(1) = createEvent(simEventType.TRAN_START, curTime, devState.dev, opts); % note that we have to make the simulation handle this event before increasing the current time !!!!
    newSimEvents(2) = createEvent(simEventType.TRAN_END, curTime + devState.pktLenFunc(devState.curPkt.length, devState.curPkt.link.phyRate), devState.dev, opts); % TODO: insure it works: calculating the transmission time according to the device's provided function (the handling works OK, we just have to implement the function)
    
end