Module 17 - Wireless LAN
Introduction
architectural comparison
arch wired LAN wireless LAN
materials
medium wires air
hosts always connected with fixed link layer not physically connected
address
isolated set of host connected via link layer set of hosts that can
LANs switch communicate freely
characteristics
attenuation: signals decrease rapidly since it is dispersed in all directions
interference: may receive from other senders if they are using the same frequency
band
multipath propagation: may receive more than one signal from the same sender
due to reflection on from some obstacles; may receive signal at different phases
error: errors and error detection are more serious issues in wireless network
IEEE 802.11
specifications for wireless LAN which covers the physical and data link layer
(sometimes called wireless Ethernet)
Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) - wireless LAN that is certified by the WiFi Alliance
architecture: defines two kinds of services - basic service set (BSS) and extended
service set (ESS)
Basic Service Set (BSS)
building block of a wireless LAN
made up of stationary or mobile wireless stations and an optional central base station,
access point (AP)
ad hoc - BSS without AP
infrastructure - BSS with AP
Extended Service Set (ESS)
made up of two or more BSSs with APs; BSS are connected through a distribution
system, usually a wired LAN
mobile or stationary stations
Station Types
No-Transition: stationary or moving only inside a BSS
BSS-Transition: station can move from one BSS to another confined inside one
ESS
ESS-Transition: station can move from one ESS to another
IEEE does not guarantee that communication is continuous
IEEE 802.11 MAC Layer
Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
uses CSMA/CA
cannot use CSMA/CD because:
station must send and receive at the same time; costly
collision may not be detected because of hidden station problem
distance between stations may be great
CSMA/CA Flowchart
Network Allocation Vector (NAV)
how other stations defer sending their data if one station acquires access?
when a station sends an RTS frame, it includes the duration of time it needs to
occupy the channel
station affected by the transmission creates a timer called NAV
each station, before sensing the physical medium to see if it is idle, first checks to see
its NAV to see if it has expired
during handshaking - no CTS means collision
CSMA/CA and NAV
Point Coordination Function (PCF)
optional access method for time-sensitive transmission
can be implemented in an infrastructure network only
centralized, contention-free polling access method
PIFS and SIFS - PIFS shorter than DIFS (gives higher priority to PCF over DCF)
repetition interval - allow DCF stations to access the medium (when PCF is present)
Fragmentation
wireless environment is very noisy
corrupted frames must be re-transmitted
more efficient to resent small frames than a large one
IEEE 802.11 Frame Format
Frame Control (FC) - defines the type of frame and some control information
D - duration of the transmission that is used to set the value of NAV
Addresses - four 6-byte addresses (depends on the value of TO DS and FROM DS)
Sequence Control - sequence number of the frame to be used in flow control
Frame Body - can be between 0 and 2312 bytes; information depends on the type and
subtype in FC
FCS - CRC-32
Frame Types
management frames - initial communication
data frames - data
control frames - accessing the channel and acknowledging frames; type field: 01
Addressing Mechanism
Hidden Station Problem
can reduce the capacity of the network because of collision
handshaking to solve HSP using CTS frame
Exposed Station Problem
station refrains from using the channel even when it is available
IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer
ISM Band
internationally reserved portion of the radio frequency bands for industrial, scientific,
and medical uses; no need for government licenses
opened up for wireless LANs and mobile communications
IEEE 802.11 FHSS
band is divided into 79 sub bands if 1 MHz (and some guard bands)
modulation technique is PSK at 1 Mbaud/s
IEEE 802.11 Infrared
infrared light in the range of 800 to 950 nm
Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
mapped sequence are converted to optical signals, presence of light specifies 1 ,
absence of light specifies 0
IEEE 802.11a OFDM
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) - same as FDM except all sub
bands are used by one source at a given time
5.725 - 5.850 GHz ISM band
band is divided into 52 sub bands with 48 groups of bits at a time and 4 sub bands for
control information
uses PSK (18 Mbps) and QAM (54 Mbps)
IEEE 802.11b DSSS
high-rate direct sequence spread spectrum (HR-DSSS)
2.400 - 4.835 GHz ISM
uses complementary code keying (CCK)
encode 4 or 8 bits to one CCK symbol
IEEE 802.11g
defines forward correction and OFDM using the 2.400 - 4.835 GHz ISM band
22- or 54-Mbps data rate
backward compatible with 802.11b but modulation technique is OFDM
IEEE 802.11n
upgrade to 802.11 project called 802.11n (next generation of wireless LAN)
goal is to increase throughput of wireless LAN (some have reached up to 600 Mbps
data rate)
eliminated some unnecessary overhead
uses multiple-input multiple-output antenna (MIMO)
if it can send multiple output signals and receive multiple signals, it is in better
position to eliminate noise
relabeled as WiFi 4
Latest Standards
802.11ac - relabeled as WiFi 5
frequency band: 5.8 GHz ISM band; max data rate: 6.93 Gbps
implements multi-user MIMO (MU MIMO) which enables simultaneous
transmission of different data frames to different clients
802.11ax - relabeled as WiFi 6
frequency bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, 6 GHz for WiFi 6E
multiuser technology: OFDMA + MU MIMO
max data rate: 600.4 Mbps (80 MHz channel & 1 spatial stream), 9607.8 Mbps
(160 MHz channel & 8 spatial streams)
Bluetooth
wireless LAN technology designed to connect devices of different functions such as
telephones, notebooks, computers (desktop and laptop), cameras, etc.
an ad hoc network - piconet
network cannot be large
started as a project by the Ericsson Company
from the word "Blaatand"
Piconet
may have up to 8 nodes; one primary others secondary
Scatternet
combination of Piconets
a secondary station in one piconet can be the primary in another
a station can be a member of two piconets
current data rate of 1Mbps with 2.4 GHz bandwidth - can cause interference with
802.11b
Bluetooth Layers
Radio Layer
equivalent to the physical layer
range of 10m
2.4-GHz ISM band divided into 79 channels of 1 MHz each
FHSS - hops 1600 times per second
uses Gaussian FSK for modulation
Baseband Layer
equivalent to the MAC sublayer
uses time-division duplex TDMA
communication is between primary and secondaries only
if there is one secondary, time slot is divided into 625 micro seconds with the primary
using even-numbered slots and secondary using odd-numbered slots
single secondary communication; primary uses even numbered slots
multiple-secondary communication; similar to poll/select with reservations
Links
Synchronous connection-oriented (SCO)
used when avoiding latency is more important than integrity; no re-transmission
reserves two slots at regular intervals
used in real-time audio
Asynchronous connectionless link (ACL) - used when data integrity is more important
than latency; with re-transmission
Frame Format
three types: one-slot, three-slot, five-slot
a slot is 625 microseconds
one-slot - with 1-MHz bandwidth and 1 bit/Hz, size is 366 bits
three-slot - size is 1616 bits
five-slot - size is 2866 bits
access code - 72-bits; sync bits; primary id
header - 54 bits in a repeated 18-bit pattern
address: secondaries id
type: type of data
F - flow control, A - ACK, S - sequence number, HEC - checksum
data - 0 to 2740 bits
L2CAP
Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol
roughly equivalent to the LLC sublayer
used for exchange in ACL link
allows multiplexing, segmentation and reassembly, QoS, and Group Management
