MOBILE COMPUTING

(ECS-087)
Anurag Malik
Associate Professor
CE & IT Dept. M.I.T Moradabad
B.Tech VIII CS / IT
UNIT II
Recommended Books:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

J. Schiller, Mobile Communications, Addison Wesley

Asok K.S Talukder, Mobile Computing-Technology,
Applications & Service Creation, TMH
Raj Kamal,Mobile Computing, Oxford University
Press
Charles Perkins, Mobile IP, Addison Wesley
M.V.D. Heijden, M. Taylor, Understanding WAP, Artech House

Wireless Networking

While the term wireless network may technically be used to refer to any type
of network that is wireless, the term is most commonly used to refer to a
telecommunications network whose interconnections between nodes is
implemented without the use of wires, such as a computer network (which is a
type of communications network).
Wireless telecommunications networks are generally implemented with some
type of remote information transmission system that uses electromagnetic
waves, such as radio waves, for the carrier and this implementation usually
takes place at the physical level or "layer" of the network.
Types of Wireless Networking
Wireless LAN : Similar to other wireless devices, it uses radio instead of wires
to transmit data back and forth between computers on the same network. .
Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi is a commonly used wireless network in computer systems which
enable connection to the internet or other machines that have Wi-Fi
functionalities. Wi-Fi networks broadcast radio waves that can be picked up by
Wi-Fi receivers that are attached to different computers or mobile phones.
Fixed Wireless Data: Fixed wireless data is a type of wireless data network
that can be used to connect two or more buildings together in order to extend
or share the network bandwidth without physically wiring the buildings together.

Types of Wireless
Networking

Wireless MAN :A type of wireless network that connects several Wireless

LANs.
WiMAX: WiMAX is the term used to refer to wireless MANs.
Mobile devices networks
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM): The GSM network is
divided into three major systems which are :the switching system, the base
station system, and the operation and support system (Global System for
Mobile Communication (GSM)). The cell phone connects to the base system
station which then connects to the operation and support station; it then
connects to the switching station where the call is transferred where it needs to
go (Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)). This is used for cellular
phones, is the most common standard and is used for a majority of cellular
providers.
Personal Communications Service (PCS): PCS is a radio band that can be
used by mobile phones in North America. Sprint happened to be the first
service to set up a PCS.
D-AMPS: D-AMPS, which stands for Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service,
is an upgraded version of AMPS but it is being phased out due to
advancement in technology. The newer GSM networks are replacing the older
system.

WLAN

Wireless LAN or WLAN is a wireless local area network, which is the

linking of two or more computers without using wires and that doesn't
rely on wired Ethernet connections
WLAN utilizes spread-spectrum or OFDM modulation technology
based on radio waves to enable communication between devices in a
limited area, also known as the basic service set. This gives users the
mobility to move around within a broad coverage area and still be
connected to the network.
Wireless LAN (WLAN) are typically restricted in their diameter to
buildings, a campus, single rooms etc.. and are operated by
individuals, not a large scale network providers.
WLANs employ access points that provide access within a radius of 65
to 300 feet.
WLANs try to provide all the features of wired LANs, but without the
wires. The only noticeable differences to the end user tend to be in
speed (ranging from 1 to 54Mbps, with some manufacturers currently
offering proprietary 108Mbps solutions) and security (the wireless
access point is shared among everybody nearby, so security issues
exist with WLANs that don't exist for wired networks).

IEEE 802 Standards

IEEE 802.1 Bridging (networking) and Network Management

IEEE 802.2 Logical link control (inactive)
IEEE 802.3 Ethernet
IEEE 802.4 Token bus (disbanded)
IEEE 802.5 Defines the MAC layer for a Token Ring (inactive)
IEEE 802.6 Metropolitan Area Networks (disbanded)
IEEE 802.7 Broadband LAN using Coaxial Cable (disbanded)
IEEE 802.8 Fiber Optic TAG (disbanded)
IEEE 802.9 Integrated Services LAN (disbanded)
IEEE 802.10 Interoperable LAN Security (disbanded)
IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN & Mesh (Wi-Fi certification)
IEEE 802.12 demand priority (disbanded)
IEEE 802.13 Not used (officially)

IEEE 802.13ah:-Defines "Copper for the first mile" for Metro Area Networks (proposed)
IEEE 802.14 Cable modems (disbanded)
IEEE 802.15 Wireless PAN

IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth certification)

IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee certification)

IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access (WiMAX certification)

IEEE 802.16e (Mobile) Broadband Wireless Access

IEEE 802.16.1 Local Multipoint Distribution Service

IEEE 802.17 Resilient packet ring
IEEE 802.18 Radio Regulatory TAG
IEEE 802.19 Coexistence TAG
IEEE 802.20 Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handoff
IEEE 802.22 Wireless Regional Area Network

Design Goals for Wireless

LANs
Global, seamless operation

Low power for battery use

No special permissions or licenses needed to use the LAN
Robust transmission technology
Simplified spontaneous cooperation at meetings
Easy to use for everyone, simple management
Protection of investment in wired networks
Security (no one should be able to read my data)
Privacy (no one should be able to collect user profiles)
Safety (low radiation)
Transparency concerning applications and higher layer
protocols,
Location awareness if necessary
6

Advantages Of Wireless
Network

The popularity of wireless LANs is a testament primarily to their

convenience, cost efficiency, and ease of integration with other
networks and network components. The majority of computers sold to
consumers today come pre-equipped with all necessary wireless LAN
technology. The benefits of wireless LANs include:
Convenience: The wireless nature of such networks allows users to
access network resources from nearly any convenient location within
their primary networking environment (home or office). With the
increasing saturation of laptop-style computers, this is particularly
relevant.
Mobility: With the emergence of public wireless networks, users can
access the internet even outside their normal work environment. Most
chain coffee shops, for example, offer their customers a wireless
connection to the internet at little or no cost.
Productivity: Users connected to a wireless network can maintain a
nearly constant affiliation with their desired network as they move from
place to place. For a business, this implies that an employee can
potentially be more productive as his or her work can be accomplished
from any convenient location.

Advantages Of Wireless
Network

Deployment: Initial setup of an infrastructure-based

wireless network requires little more than a single access
point. Wired networks, on the other hand, have the
additional cost and complexity of actual physical cables
being run to numerous locations (which can even be
impossible for hard-to-reach locations within a building).
Expandability: Wireless networks can serve a suddenlyincreased number of clients with the existing equipment. In
a wired network, additional clients would require additional
wiring.
Cost: Wireless networking hardware is at worst a modest
increase from wired counterparts. This potentially
increased cost is almost always more than outweighed by
the savings in cost and labor associated to running
physical cables.
8

Advantages Of Wireless
Network
Flexibility: Within radio coverage, nodes can communicate without

further restriction. Radio waves can penetrate walls, senders and

receivers can be placed anywhere. Furthermore wiring is difficult if
firewall separate buildings (real firewall, made of brick not routers).
Planning: Only wireless ad hoc networks allow communication without
previous planning, any wired network needs wiring plans. As long as
devices follows the same standard, they can communicate. For wired
networks, additional cabling with the right plugs and probably inter
networking units (such as switches) have to be provided.
Design: Only wireless networks allow for the design of small,
independent devices which can for example be put into a pocket.
Cables not only restrict users but also designers of small PDA's,
notepads etc. Furthermore, wireless senders and receivers can be
hidden in historic buildings, i.e. current networking technology can be
introducing without being visible.
Robustness: Wireless networks can survive disasters, e.g.,
earthquake or users pulling a plug. If the wireless devices survive,
people can still communicate. Networks requiring a wired
infrastructure will typically break down completely.

Disadvantages Of Wireless
Network
Security: Wireless LAN transceivers are designed to serve

computers
throughout a structure with uninterrupted service using radio frequencies.
Because of space and cost, the antennas typically present on wireless
networking cards in the end computers are generally relatively poor. In order to
properly receive signals using such limited antennas throughout even a
modest area, the wireless LAN transceiver utilizes a fairly considerable amount
of power.
Range: The typical range of a common 802.11g network with standard
equipment is on the order of tens of meters. While sufficient for a typical home,
it will be insufficient in a larger structure. To obtain additional range, repeaters
or additional access points will have to be purchased. Costs for these items
can add up quickly.
Reliability: Like any radio frequency transmission, wireless networking
signals are subject to a wide variety of interference, as well as complex
propagation effects that are beyond the control of the network administrator. In
the case of typical networks, modulation is achieved by complicated forms of
phase-shift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), making
interference and propagation effects all the more disturbing. As a result,
important network resources such as servers are rarely connected wirelessly.
Speed: The speed on most wireless networks (typically 1-108 Mbit/s) is
reasonably slow compared to the slowest common wired networks (100 Mbit/s
up to several Gbit/s). There are also performance issues caused by TCP and
its built-in congestion avoidance.

10

Disadvantages of Wireless
Network

Quality of services: WLAN's typically offers lower quality than their wired
counterparts. The main reason for this drawback are the lower bandwidth
due to limitations in the radio transmission (e.g., only 1-10 M bits/s), higher
error rates due to inference and higher delay or delay variations.
Cost: While, The cost of wireless interface, cost more their counterpart in
wired LAN.
Proprietary solutions: Due to slow standardization procedure, many
companies have come up with propriety solutions offering standardized
functionality plus many enhanced features. However the additional feature
only work in a homogeneous environment.
Restrictions: All wireless products have to comply with national
regulations. Several government and non-governmental institutions
worldwide regulates the operation and restrict frequencies to minimize
interference.

11

Wireless Network
Architecture

Stations
All components that can connect into a wireless medium in a network
are referred to as stations.
All stations are equipped with wireless network interface cards
(WNICs).
Wireless stations fall into one of two categories:
1.Wireless access point [1 access points and 2.clients].
1.Access point
Access points (APs) are base stations for the wireless network.
They transmit and receive radio frequencies for wireless enabled
devices to communicate with.
2.Clients
Wireless clients can be mobile devices such as laptops, personal
digital assistants, IP phones, or fixed devices such as desktops and
workstations that are equipped with a wireless network interface.

12

Types of WLAN

The private home or small business WLAN: This consists of one or

two access points covering around a 100- to 200-foot radius. The
equipment is common enough to be found in most office supply or
electronics stores, or even some retail stores like Target or Wal-Mart.
With few exceptions, hardware in this category subscribes to the
802.11a, b, or g standards (also known as Wi-Fi).
The enterprise class WLAN: This type has a larger number of
individual access points covering a wider area. The access points
themselves have features not needed for a home or small office, like
better security, authentication, remote management, and tools to help
integrate with existing networks. Each access point has a larger
coverage area than home or small office products, and all are
designed to work together to cover a much larger area. Equipment
here also adheres to the 802.11a, b, or g standard, and in the future
will likely adhere to further security-refining standards such as 802.1x.

13

Types of WMAN

The Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN): The Indiana

University wireless network is an example of this. A WMAN covers an
area from multiple city blocks up to a city's boundaries. The most
common type of WMAN is a collection of individual enterprise class
wireless networks that collectively allow users to access all of them.
For example, IU's WMAN is a collection of individual buildings' and
departments' WLANs taken together as a whole.
Wireless WAN (Wide Area Network): Although a WAN by definition is
the exact opposite of a LAN, Wireless WANs (WWANs) deserve brief
mention here. Most WANs exist to connect LANs that are not in the
same geographical area.
But recently, cellular phone companies like Sprint (for BroadBand
Direct) and AT&T (among others) have begun offering WWAN
technology that the end user can access directly. Those WWANs use
cellular data technology to cover extremely wide areas. While they are
considerably slower than wireless LAN speeds (most advertise
between 50 to 144Kbps; compare this to dial-up speeds, which are
around 56Kbps), they're still better than the lowest end of DSL speeds
(128Kbps), plus they allow far greater mobility than standard 802.11a,
b, or g wireless.

14

WLAN Application areas

Networks in exhibition halls

Hospitals
Warehouses
Airports
Structure of networks in Historic buildings
Extension of existing wired local area
networks in offices, universities etc.

15

16

Infrastructure Vs. Ad-hoc

Wireless communication enables information transfer among a

network of disconnected, and often mobile, users. Popular
wireless networks such as mobile phone networks and
wireless LANs are traditionally infrastructure-based, i.e. base
stations, access points and servers are deployed before the
network can be used. In contrast, ad hoc networks are
dynamically formed amongst a group of wireless users and
require no existing infrastructure or pre-configuration.
The dynamic and self-organizing nature of ad hoc networks
makes them particular useful in situations where rapid network
deployments are required or it is prohibitively costly to deploy
and manage network infrastructure.

17

Infrastructure Vs. Ad-hoc

Here are key differences between the modes.

Because Ad Hoc Mode does not require an access point, it's easier to
set up, especially in a small or temporary network.

Infrastructure takes advantage of the high power of an access point to

cover wide areas. Ad Hoc Mode connections are limited, for example
between two laptops, to the power available in the laptops.

Because the network layout (the network topology) in Ad Hoc Mode

changes regularly, system resources are taken just to maintain
connectivity.

As the Ad Hoc topology changes, throughput and range will change,

sometimes in unanticipated ways.

In an Ad Hoc network with many computers, the amount of interference

for all computers will go up, since each is trying to use the same
frequency channel.

In Ad Hoc Mode, chains of computers will connect to pass your data, if

your computer is not directly in range. On the other hand, you do not
have control over the path your data takes. The automatic configuration
routines may send your data through several computers, causing
significant network delays

18

19

20

21

IEEE 802.11 Protocol architecture and

Bridging

22

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24

25

26

27

28

29

30

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802.11 Physical Layer

3 versions: 2 radio (typ. 2.4 GHz), 1 IR
data rates 1 or 2 Mbit/s
FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)
spreading, despreading, signal strength, typ. 1 Mbit/s
min. 2.5 frequency hops/s (USA), two-level GFSK modulation
DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum)
DBPSK modulation for 1 Mbit/s (Differential Binary Phase Shift Keying),
DQPSK for 2 Mbit/s (Differential Quadrature PSK)
preamble and header of a frame is always transmitted with 1 Mbit/s, rest
of transmission 1 or 2 Mbit/s
chipping sequence: +1, -1, +1, +1, -1, +1, +1, +1, -1, -1, -1 (Barker code)
max. radiated power 1 W (USA), 100 mW (EU), min. 1mW
Infrared
850-950 nm, diffuse light, typ. 10 m range
carrier detection, energy detection, synchonization

32

IEEE 802.11 PHY Frame Format

Using FHSS

Synchronization ():The PLCP preamble starts with 80 bit synchronization,

which is 010101 bit pattern, used for synchronization of potential receivers
and signal detection by the CCA.
Start frame delimiter (SFD): indicate the start of frame and provide frame
synchronization.
PLCP_PDU Length word (PLW): indicates the length of payload .
PLCP signaling field (PSF): indicates the data rates of the payload. (0000lowest data rates1 Mbit/s), 0010- 2 Mbit/s, 1111- 8.5 Mbit/s).
Header Error Check (HEC); PLCP header is protected by 16 bit checksum
with polynomial G(x)= x16 + x12 + x + 1

Bits

80

Synchronization

PLCP Preamble

16

SFD

12

PLW

PSF

16

HEC

variable

Payload

PLCP Header

33

IEEE 802.11 PHY Frame Format

Using
DSSSused for synchronization, energy detection,
Synchronization:

Bits

frequency offset compensation.

Start Frame delimiter (SFD): used for synchronization at the
beginning of a frame and consist of pattern 1111001110100000.
Signal: used to indicate the data rate of payload. Value 0x0A
indicates 1 Mbit/s (DBPSK), 0x14 indicates 2 Mbit/s(DQPSK).
Service: reserved for future use, however 0x00 indicates an
IEEE802.11 compliant frame.
Length: used for length indication of the payload in microseconds.
Header error check (HEC): Signal , service and length fields are
protected by this checksum using standard polynomial.

128
Synchronization

PLCP Preamble

16

SFD

Signal

8
Service

16
Length

16

variable

HEC

Payload

PLCP Header

34

802.11 MAC Layer I

DFWMAC
Traffic services

Asynchronous Data Service (mandatory)

exchange of data packets based on best-effort

support of broadcast and multicast

Time-Bounded Service (optional)

implemented using PCF (Point Coordination Function)

Access methods
DFWMAC-DCF CSMA/CA (mandatory)

collision avoidance via randomized back-off mechanism

minimum distance between consecutive packets

ACK packet for acknowledgements (not for broadcasts)

DFWMAC-DCF w/ RTS/CTS (optional)

Distributed Foundation Wireless MAC

avoids hidden terminal problem

DFWMAC- PCF (optional)

access point polls terminals according to a list

35

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IEEE 802.11 MAC Frame

Format

Types (Control Frames, management frames, data frames)

Sequence Numbers (important against duplicated frames due to lost ACKs)
Address (receiver, transmitter( physical), BSS identifier, sender (logical) )
Miscellaneous (sending time, checksum, frame control, data)

Bytes

Frame
Control

Bits

2
Protocol
Version

Duration ID

4
Type

Address 1

1
Subtype

Address 2

1
To
DS

1
From
DS

Address 3

Sequence
Control

1
MoreFr
ag

1
Retry

Address 4

1
Power
Mgmt

0 2312

Data

CRC

1
MoreDa
ta

WEP

Order

39

IEEE 802.11 MAC Packet

Frame Control: (2 bytes). Contain several subfields and
Structure
perform many functions.

1.
2.

3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

8.

9.

10.

Protocol version:(2 bits): indicates current protocol

Type : (2 bits): determine function of a frame, mgmt =00, control=01,
data=10, reserved=11.
Subtype : (4 bits) :subtype of type field, eg:- association, beacon.
To DS / From DS : (1 bit each) for differentiating of transmission of
frames among stations and access points.
More Fragments : (1 bits) : to remind (if) more frames are left.
Retry : (1 bit) : to indicate retransmitted frame.
Power Management : (1 bit) :indicates the mode (power-save mode) of
station after successful transmission of a frame.
More data: (1 bit): to indicate that sender has more data to send than
the current frame, use by an access point, station.
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)(1 bit): indicate that the standard
security mechanism of 802.11 is applied.

Order: (1 bit) : If this bit is set to 1 the received frames must be

processed in strict order

40

IEEE 802.11 MAC Packet

Duration / ID : (2 bytes): contains the value indicating the period of
Structure
time in which the medium is occupied.

Address 1 to 4: (6 bytes each) : contain standard IEEE 802 MAC

addresses. The meaning of each address depends on the DS bits in the
frame control field.
Sequence Control : (2 bytes): Due to acknowledgment mechanism
frames may be duplicated. Therefore a sequence number is used to
filter duplicates.
Data : (max 2312 bytes): The MAC frame may contain arbitrary data
which is transferred transparently from a sender to the receiver.
Checksum (4 bytes): Finally a 32 bits checksum is used to protect the
frame.
* To / From DS bits : 00= between wireless nodes without access point
* To / From DS bits : 01= between an access point and station
* To / From DS bits : 10= between wireless nodes via access points
* To / From DS bits : 11= between accesses points over distribution
system

41

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IEEE 802.11b

frequency:

transmission power:

2,4 GHz frequency band, also called ISM (= Industrial Scientific

Medical Band), not regulated
850 - 950 nm at infrared
min. 1mW
max. 100mW in Europe (1W in the USA)

reach:

of 10m (IR) to 30km or more with the help of special antennas

(directional antennas)

46

Comparison
Parameters

Standards 802.11
802.11

802.11b

802.11a / h

802.11g

Frequency
band, GHz

2,4 (ISM-Band)

2,4 (ISM-Band)

5,1

2,4 (ISM-Band)

Bit rate, MBit/s

1-11

11

54

54

Use field

building, territory

building, territory

in the buildings

building, territory

Deployment

End 1990

actually

Since 2000

Since March 2003

Available Hardware

Marketable NICs and

APs

Marketable NICs and

APs

Experimental operation Pre-standard Products

Data security

WEP

64/128/256 bit WEP

802.11i - security approaches for WLAN

(encryption, authentication);
WPA - WiFi Protected Access (competition with
802.11i)

none

802.11e (Ende 2003): use of QoS-approaches;

realization of multimedia applications/
Voice over IP

QoS for multimedia- none

transmission

Problematic

low bit rate

low bit rate
low interoperability

National restrictions

Pre-standard

47

Wireless MAC: Motivation

The main question in connection with MAC in the wireless is whether it is possible to use
elaborate Medium Access Control(MAC) schemes from the wired networks, for example
CSMA/CD as used in the original specification of IEEE 802.3 networks(Ethernet)
Considering the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) which
works as follows. A sender senses the medium(a wire or a coaxial cable) to see if it is
free. If the medium is busy, the sender waits until it is free. If the medium is free, the
sender starts transmitting data and continues to listen into the medium. If the sender
now detects a collision while sending. , it stops at once and sends a jamming signal.
But the scheme fails in wireless network. CSMA/CD is not really interested in collision at
the sender, but rather in those at the receiver. The signal should reach the receiver
without collisions. But sender is the one detecting collision. This is not a problem using
wires, as more or less the same signal strength can be assumed all over the wire. If a
collision occurs somewhere in the wire, everybody will notice it. The situation is dierent
in wireless networks. The strength of a signal decrease proportionally to the square of
the distance to the sender. The sender may now apply carrier sense and detect an idle
medium. Thus, the sender starts sending- but a collision happens at the receiver due to
second sender. but the sender wont know the collision due to hidden terminal problem
see section ??. The same can happen to the collision detection. The sender detects no
collision, assumes that data has been transmitted without errors, but actually a collision
might have destroyed the data at the receiver. Thus, this very common MAC scheme
from wired network fails in wireless scenario.

48

Bluetooth
History
The developers of this wireless technology

first used the name

"Bluetooth" as a code name, but as time past, the name stuck.
The word "Bluetooth" is taken from the 10th century Danish King Harald
Bluetooth. King Bluetooth had been influential in uniting Scandinavian
Europe during an era when the region was torn apart by wars and
feuding clans.
The founders of the Bluetooth SIG felt the name was fitting because:
1) Bluetooth technology was first developed in Scandinavia, and
2) Bluetooth technology is able to unite differing industries such as the
cell phone, computing, and automotive markets. Bluetooth wireless
technology simplifies and combines multiple forms of wireless
communication into a single, secure, low-power, low-cost, globally
available radio frequency.
Invented in 1994 by L. M. Ericsson, Sweden
Named after Harald Blaatand Bluetooth, king of Denmark 940-981 A.D.
Bluetooth SIG founded by Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba in Feb
1998
More than 1900 members today
Bluetooth version 1.0 and 1.1 have been released

49

What is Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a universal radio interface, operates on 79 channels in the
2.4 GHz frequency band with 1 Mhz carrier spacing that enables electronic
devices to connect and communicate wirelessly via short-range (10-100
m), ad-hoc networks.
Key Features :

Peak data rate : 1 Mbps ,Low power consumption ,Low cost

(Components (radios and chips) and device adapters are cheaper).

Affordable and appropriate technology.

Younger technology and therefore is less mature.

Ability to simultaneously handle both voice and data

Line of sight not required

connection of peripheral devices (loudspeaker, joystick, headset )

support of ad-hoc networking (small devices, low-cost )

bridging of networks (e.g., GSM via mobile phone - Bluetooth laptop )

Simple, cheap, replacement of IrDA, low range, lower data rates( 2.4
GHz, FHSS, TDD, CDMA)

Piconet is a collection of Bluetooth devices which are synchronized to

the same hoping sequence

50

Motivation for Bluetooth

Ubiquitous Computing

environment of intelligent
networked devices

Cordless
headset
mouse
Cell
phone

Mobile access to LANs/Internet

Home Networking
Automatic Synchronization of
data

Started as a Cable
replacement technology

Voice applications - hands-free

headset
51

System Challenges

Work across a diverse set of devices with varying

computing power and memory
Dynamic environment - the number, location and
variety of devices changing - connection
establishment, routing and service discovery
protocols have to take this into consideration
Unconscious connection establishment
Size of the implementation should be small. The
power consumption should not be more than a
fraction of the host device .

52

Piconets , Masters and

In principle each unit is a peer with the
Slaves
same hardware capabilities
Two or more Bluetooth units that share a
channel form a piconet (Bluetooth
Network)
One of the participating units is becomes
the master (by defn the unit that establishes
the piconet).
Participants may change roles if a slave
unit wants to take over as master
Only one master (primary station) in a
piconet. Upto 7 slaves (Secondary station).
The reason for the upper limit of eight
active devices, is the 3-bit address used in
bluetooth
The communication b/w primary and
secondary can be one to one or one-to-many.

53

Device Addressing

Bluetooth Device Address (BD_ADDR)

unique 48 bit address
Active Member Address (AM_ADDR)
- 3 bit address to identify active slave in a
piconet
- MAC address of Bluetooth device
- all 0 is broadcast address
Parked Member Address (PM_ADDR)
- 8 bit parked slave address

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Why Scatternets

A group of overlapping piconets is called a scatternet

Users in a piconet share a 1 Mbps channel individual throughput decreases

drastically as more units are added
The aggregate and individual throughput of users in a scatternet is much greater
than when each user participates on the same piconet
Collisions do occur when 2 piconets use the same 1 MHz hop channel
simultaneously. As the number of piconets increases, the performance degrades
gracefully.
Two additional types of Devices:
Parked Devise (P) : can not actively participate in the piconet i.e. they do not
have a connection, but are known & can be reactivated within some
milliseconds. If a parked devices wants to communicate and there are already 7
active slaves, one slave has to switch to park mode to allow the parked device
to switch to active mode. More than 200 devices can be parked. This lead to the
idea of forming groups of piconets called scatternet.
Devices in Stand-By (SB): do not participate in the piconet

55

Inter-piconet communication
A unit may participate in more
than one piconet on a TDM basis.
To participate on a piconet it
needs the masters identity and the
clock offset.
While leaving the piconet it
informs the master.
The master can also multiplex as
slave on another piconet. But all
traffic in its piconet will suspended
in its absence.
56

System Architecture
Applications
TCS BIN BNEP

SDP

IP
RFCOMM

Co

Data

ntr
ol

TCP/UDP

L2CAP
Audio
Link Manager

Baseband
RF
Bluetooth Protocol Stack

The Radio, Baseband and Link

Manager are on firmware. The
higher layers could be in software.
The interface is then through the
Host Controller (firmware and
driver). The HCI (Host Controller
Interface) interfaces between the
baseband and L2CAP provides a
command interface to the baseband
controller and link manager and
access to the hardware status and
control registers. The HCI Interface
defined for Bluetooth are UART,
RS232
and
USB.
Audio
Applications may directly use the
basband layer after encoding the
57
audio signals.

System Architecture
The core protocols of Bluetooth comprise the following elements:
Radio: Specification of the air interface, i.e. frequencies, modulation and
transmit power.
Baseband: Description of basic connection establishment, packet formats,
timing and basic QoS parameters (Bandwidth, Latency, Error rate.
Link manager Protocol: Link set-up and management between devices
including security functions and parameter negotiation. Link Manager
handles
- Piconet management (attach/detach slaves, master- slave switch)
- Link Configuration (low power modes, QoS, packet
type selection)
- Authentication, pairing, encryption, synchronization, capability negotiation,
QoS negotiation, Power control
Logical Link Control and adaptation protocol (L2CAP): Adaptation of
higher layers to the baseband (connection & connection-oriented services) .
Its functions include
1. Protocol multiplexing
2. Segmentation and reassembly
3. QoS specifications
4. Signalling channel for connection request, config etc
Service Discovery Protocol: Devices discovery in close proximity plus
querying of service characteristics.

58

Higher layers
SDP : Service Discovery Protocol runs on a client server model. Each
device runs only one SDP server and one client may be run for each
application.

RFCOMM : It is cable replacement Protocol that emulates a serial line

interface following RS-232 standards.
This allows for a simple replacement of serial line cables and enables many
legacy applications and protocols to run over Bluetooth.
It supports multiple serial ports over single physical channels
BNEP is used for transferring another protocol stack's data via an L2CAP channel. Its
main purpose is the transmission of IP packets in the Personal Area Networking
Profile. BNEP performs a similar function to SNAP in Wireless LAN.

Application : This layer basically deal in performing different applications

such as audio , N/W ,telephony ,management

59

A UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) is the microchip with

programming that controls a computer's interface to its attached serial devices.
Specifically, it provides the computer with the RS-232C Data Terminal Equipment
( DTE ) interface so that it can "talk" to and exchange data with modems and other
serial devices. The UART converts the bytes it receives from the computer along
parallel circuits into a single serial bit stream for outbound transmission.
TCS BIN (Telephony Control Protocol Specification- Binary): describes a bitoriented protocol that defines call control signaling for the establishment of voice and
data calls between Bluetooth devices. It also describes mobility and group
management functions.
The Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP) Bluetooth devices
communicate with each other by using standard networking protocols to transport
control and data packets over a network. Devices may use protocols such as TCP,
IPv4 or IPv6. These protocols have dissimilar network packet formats. To provide
seamless transmission of network packets over the L2CAP layer in the protocol stack,
an intermediate protocol is required that encapsulates dissimilar network packet
formats as a standard common format.The Bluetooth Network Encapsulation Protocol
(BNEP) provides this encapsulation by replacing the networking header, such as an
Ethernet header, with a BNEP headers.

60

Bluetooth Profiles

A Bluetooth profile is a specification that defines the minimum requirements that the
Bluetooth device must support in a specific usage scenario. These requirements define
the end-user services and the features and procedures that the Bluetooth device must
support to enable interoperability with peer devices.
There are two types of profiles: conforming and interoperability. Conforming profiles
define the core requirements for Bluetooth devices and are available by default.
Interoperability profiles, which are based on the conforming profiles, define the minimum
requirements for Bluetooth devices to support specific applications. Bluetooth profiles
have implicit and explicit dependencies on each other.
To use Bluetooth wireless technology, a device shall be able to interpret certain
Bluetooth profiles, which are definitions of possible applications and specify general
behaviors that Bluetooth enabled devices use to communicate with other Bluetooth
devices. These profiles include settings to parameterize and to control the
communication from start. Adherence to profiles saves the time for transmitting the
parameters anew before the bi-directional link becomes effective. There are a wide
range of Bluetooth profiles that describe many different types of applications or use
cases for devices
ProfileDescription

Generic Access Profile (GAP) Defines the generic requirements for detecting and establishing a
connection to a Bluetooth device.
Generic Object Exchange Profile (GEOP) Defines procedures for the support of the
Object Exchange Protocol (OBEX) usage models.
Serial Port Profile (SPP) Defines procedures required for configuring serial cable connections
between peer Bluetooth devices using RFCOMM.

61

Bluetooth Air Interface Choices

Made
ISM Band

Frequency Hopping

Global Availability
License Free
2,400-2,483.5 MHz in
Europe and US
2,471-2,497 MHz in
Japan

Interference from baby

monitors, garage door
openers, cordless phones
and microwave ovens.
Spread-Spectrum
for
interference suppression
FH supports low power,
low
cost
radio
implementations
62

Frequency Hopping
1Mhz

79

83.5 Mhz

Divide Frequency band into 1 MHz hop channels

Radio hops from one channel to another in a pseudo
-random manner as dictated by a hop sequence
The instantaneous (hop) bandwidth remains small
Narrow band interference rejection

63

Piconet Channel

The piconet channel is represented by a pseudo-random

hopping sequence (through 79/23 RF frequencies)
The hopping sequence is unique for the piconet and is
determined by the device address of the master of the
piconet. The phase is determined by the master clock.
Channel is divided into time slots - 625 microsecs each .
Each slot corresponds to a different hop frequency.
Time Division Duplex - master and slave alternately
transmit/listen.
Packet start aligned with slot start
64

Physical Link

Synchronous Connection Oriented (SC0) Link : - classical

Telephone (voice))
- symmetric point-to-point link between m and s
- reserved 2 consecutive slots at regular intervals
- master can support upto 3 simultaneous SCO links
mainly for audio/voice
- never retransmitted
Asynchronous Connection-less (ACL) Link : (Typical
data application (web traffic))
- symmetric/asymmetric
- point-to-multipoint between
master and all slaves
- on a per-slot basis (polling
scheme for control) - only one ACL link per piconet- packets
retransmitted (ARQ)

65

Packets

All data on the piconet channel is conveyed in packets

13 packet types are defined for the Baseband layer
- Control packets (ID, NULL, FHS, POLL)
- Voice packets (SCO)
- Data packets (ACL)
Multi-slot packets (1/3/5) : To support high data rates. Packets
always sent on a single-hop carrier that for the first slot.
After multi-slot packet revert to original hop sequence.
Packet format - (68/72 bits) Access Code, (54 bits) Header, (02745 bits) Payload.

66

Packet Format
72 bits 54 bits
Access
Header
code
prea
mble

sync

trailer

AM
addres
s

type

flow

0 - 2745 bits
Payload

ARQ
N

SEQ
N

HEC

ACL
data
header

SCO

Voice

Single-slot packets 64 kbps

Unprotected/ 1/3 or 2/3 FEC
Never retransmitted
Robust CVSD encoding used

CRC

1/3/5 slot packets

Unprotected/ 2/3 FEC
ARQ scheme retransmit lost data pkts

67

Header

Addressing (3) : Max 7 slaves per piconet

Packet type (4) : 13 packet types (some unused)
Flow control (1)
1-bit ARQ
(1) : Broadcast packets are not Acked
Sequencing (1) : for filtering retransmitted packets
HEC
(8) : Verify Header Integrity
Total = 18 bits
Encode with 1/3 FEC to get 54 bits

68

Data Rates on ACL

TYPE

SYMMETRIC
(Kbps)

ASYMMETRI
C (Kbps)

DM1 (2/3 FEC)

108.8

108.8

108.8

DH1

172.8

172.8

172.8

DM3

256.0

384.0

54.4

DH3

384.0

576.0

86.4

DM5

286.7

477.8

36.3

DH5

432.6

721.0

57.6.

(unprotected)

69

Access Code

Access code is used for timing synchronization, inquiry and

paging. There are 3 types of access codes
Channel Access Code (CAC) : Used to identify a unique
piconet. Derived from the device address of the master of the
piconet. All normal (non inquiry and paging) packets on the
piconet will use the CAC.
Device Access Code (DAC) : Used for paging procedure
(initial synchronization). Derived from the device address of
the slave.
Inquiry Access Code : Used for inquiry procedure (to get
device addresses). 2 types : Generic and Device IACs
70

Error Correction/Flow
Control

Error Correction
- 1/3 FEC
- 2/3 FEC
- ARQ (Retransmit till Ack is received/ timeout)
Flow Control
- FIFO queues at TX and RX
- If RX queue is full the flow control bit is set in the
header of the next packet sent. - The TX freezes its FIFO
queue till the bit is reset.

71

Bluetooth Connection
Establishment

Two step process : Inquiry to get device address

Paging for Synchronization

Inquiry : Uses the Inquiry hop sequence and the IAC (DIAC or
GIAC). If a device wants to establish a piconet, a user of the device
wants to scan for other devices in the radio range. The device starts
the inquiry procedure by sending an inquiry access code (IAC) that
is common to all Bluetooth devices and IAC is broadcast over 32 so
called wake-up carriers in turn. Devices in standby that listen
periodically may enter the inquiry mode periodically to search for
IAC messages on wake-up carriers. As soon as a device detects an
inquiry it returns a packet containing its device address and timing
info required by the master to initiate a connection. From that
moment on the device acts as a slave. If the inquiry was successful,
a device enters the page mode.

72

Bluetooth Connection
Establishment

Paging : Uses the Paging hop sequence and the DAC of the
device to be paged. After finding all required devices the
master is able to set up connections to each devices, i.e.
setting up a piconet. Depending on the device addresses
received the master calculates special hopping sequences to
contact each device individually. The slaves answer and
synchronize with the masters clock, i.e. start with the hopping
sequence defined by the master. The master may continue to
page more devices that will be added to the piconet. As soon
as a device synchronize to the hopping pattern of the piconet it
also enters the connection state.

73

Connection Establishment Inquiry

No master and slaves at this point

Inquiry

Inquiry pkt

Inquiry Scan
FHS pkt

Device A

Inquiry Response

Device B
74

Connection Establishment Paging

Master
Page

Slave

Page pkt

Page Scan
ID pkt

Master Page
Response
Assigns active
addr

FHS pkt
ID pkt

Slave Page
Response
Uses FHS to get
CAC and clk info

POLL
NULL

Connected

Connected
75

Connection Establishment
times
Inquiry

Paging

Typical

5.12 s

0.64 s

Max

15.36 s

7.38 s

Connected

76

Connection Modes

Active Mode : Device actively participates on the piconet

channel
Power Saving modes
Sniff Mode : Slave device listens to the piconet at a reduced
rate . Least power efficient.
Hold Mode : The ACL link to the slave is put on hold. SCO
links are still supported. Frees capacity for inquiry, paging,
participation in another piconet.
Park Mode : The slave gives up its active member address.
But remains synchronized (beacon channel). Listens to
broadcasts. Most power efficient.
77

Intra-piconet communication
The master controls all traffic on the piconet
SCO link - reservation
The master allocates capacity for SCO links by reserving slots
in pairs.
ACL link polling scheme
The slave transmits in the slave-to-master slot only when it has
been addressed by its MAC address in the previous master-toslave slot. Therefore no collisions.
78

Major Baseband states of a

Bluetooth device
standby

unconnected

Detach

page

inquiry

Transmit AMA

Park AMA

Connected AMA

Hold AMA

Sniff AMA

connecting

active

Low Power

79

Bluetooth Applications (1)

replaces perhaps infrared in the area of the coupling of peripherals

completely
Intelligent Shop
shop informs the buyer about special offers by mobile phone or handles
inquiries for offers in the individual halls
Bluetooth-capable ticket machine
Payment over mobile telephone is carried out without contacts
control of home appliances by mobile telephone
The Bluetooth technology connects all your office peripherals
wirelessly. Connect your PC or notebook to printers, scanners and faxes
without the ugly and trouble some cable attachments. You can increase
your freedom by connecting your mouse or the keyboard wirelessly to your
computer.
Bluetooth allows us to have three way phones. At home, your phone
functions as a portable phone (fixed line charge). When you're on the
move, it functions as a mobile phone (cellular charge). And when your
phone comes within range of another mobile phone with built-in Bluetooth
wireless technology it functions as a walkie-talkie (no telephony charge).

80

Bluetooth Applications (2)

In meetings and conferences you can transfer selected

documents instantly with selected participants, and
exchange electronic business cards automatically, without
any wired connections.
Connect your wireless headset to your mobile phone,
mobile computer or any wired connection to keep your
hands free for more important tasks when you're at the
office or in your car
If your digital cameras in Bluetooth enabled, you can
send still or video images from any location to any
location without the hassle of connecting your camera to
the mobile phone on the wireline phone.
Upon arriving at your home, the door automatically
unlocks for you, the entry way lights come on, and the
heat is adjusted to your pre-set preferences.
81

Bluetooth Applications (3)

Have automatic synchronization of your desktop, mobile computer,

notebook (PC-PDA and PC-HPC) and your mobile phone. For instance,
as soon as you enter your office the address list and calendar in your
notebook will automatically be updated to agree with the one in your
desktop, or vice versa.

Automatic Message Delivery: Compose e-mails on your portable PC

while you're on an airplane. As soon as you've landed and switched on
your mobile phone, all messages are immediately sent.

IBM researchers are working on a number of personal devices like a

WatchPad that could be connected with other devices through Bluetooth.
The Watch Pad is very thin and contains 8MB of RAM. They are also
working on a version of CyberPhone called CyberPhone - that can project
data onto a small mirror. The CyberPhone can show as much information
as a small PDA because of high resolution VGA screen.

82

Multiple Access Protocol

If many users share a channel

and two or more users transmit packets simultaneously,

collision may occur.

To avoid the collision, suitable access protocol

should be selected.

Channel
Signal space is divided and assigned to each user.
Orthogonal (no interference among users)
Assignment (ex. frequency, time slot, code)Static
Assignment
Simple, but inefficient.Demand Assignment
Efficient, but circuit control function are required.
83

Classification

84

Scheduled Multiple Access

Protocol
Static assignmentWhether each user is active or not,
channel assignment is fixed to each user.TDMA:
Time Division Multiple AccessFDMA: Frequency
Division Multiple Access
Demand assignmentChannel assignment to each
user is done on demandCentral control:
Polling/SelectionDistributed control: Token Passing
Protocol

85

Multiple Access Protocol

Comparison

86

TCP functions

Offers connections between two applications

Within a connection TCP can give certain
guarantees, such as in-order delivery or
reliable data transmission using transmission
technique.
It has built-in mechanisms to behave in a
network friendly manner for eg. If TCP
encounters packet loss, it assumes network
internal congestion and slows down the
transmission rate.
87

Problems With TCP in Wireless

Networks
The performance of TCP is generally lower in wireless

networks

than in wired.
TCP cannot distinguish problems that typically occur in wireless
networks from congestion. The congestion control algorithms in
TCP are based on the assumptions that data is lost mainly due to
congestion and that data loss due to transmission errors is rare .
Therefore, data loss is interpreted as a signal of congestion in the
network.
Even in a wireless network, where data loss may not be related to
congestion, data loss still signals congestion to the sender.
TCP segments may be lost if the radio conditions are poor and the
link layer protocol provides a low reliability. After some
retransmission attempts the link layer protocol gives up and leaves
further error recovery to TCP.
Handover events may also lead to data loss.
TCP may also misinterpret a sudden increase in the round trip time
as data loss. If the delay is long enough for the retransmission
timer to expire before an acknowledgment is received, then TCP
misinterprets the delay as an indication of data loss due to
congestion

88

Problems With TCP in Wireless

Networks

The delayed data is unnecessarily retransmitted and TCP enters slow

start. A highly variable round trip time can also lead to a large RTO
(Retransmission Time Out), since the RTO is based both on estimates
of the round trip time and on variations in the round trip time. If the
RTO is large, then TCP reacts slowly to data loss.
Round trip time variations may also be caused by handover or
competing traffic.
Queuing in routers, base stations, and other intermediate nodes may
also lead to a long round trip time.
A long round trip time may cause low throughput and underutilization
of the network, since it takes a number of round trip times before the
congestion window reaches the capacity of the network.
TCP performance is degraded, especially for short lived flows, which
transmits a small amount of data
Larger bandwidth and delay variation make TCP estimate the RTO
value incorrectly.
Spurious transmissions due to the incorrect RTO value decrease the
TCP throughput.

89

Factors Affecting TCP

Performance

Channel Losses:
Low Bandwidth
Signal Fading
Movement Across Cells
Channel Asymmetry
Link Latency

90

TCP Improvement

Indirect TCP (I-TCP)

Snoop TCP
Mobile TCP
Fast Retransmit / Fast Recovery
Transmission / Time-out Freezing
Selective Retransmission
Transaction-Oriented TCP (T/TCP)
91

Indirect TCP (I-TCP):

Access Point (Foreign Agent

Wired Internet
Wireless TCP

Standard TCP

I-TCP segments a TCP connection into a fixed part and wireless. Mobile host
connected via a wireless link an access point to the wired internet where the
correspondent host resides. Standard TCP is used b/w the wired computer & the
access point. Instead of the mobile host, the access point now terminates the
standard TCP connection, acting as a proxy. This mean that the access point is now
seen as the mobile host for the fixed host & as the fixed host for mobile host. B/W
the access point & the mobile host, a special TCP, adapted to wireless links is used.
A handoff mechanism is proposed to handle the situation when the wireless host
moves across different cells.
Consequence- A consequence of using I-TCP is that the TCP Acks are not end-toend thereby violating the end-to-end semantics of TCP.
Hosts in the fixed part of the net do not notice the characteristics of the wireless
part.

92

Snooping TCP
Local Re-transmission

Correspondent Host

Foreign Agent
Wired Internet

Mobile Host

Snooping of ACKs
Buffering of Data
End-to-End TCP Connection

Snooping means secretive investigations into things that do not concern oneself. One of
the drawback of I-TCP is the segmentation of the single TCP connection into two TCP
connections. This loses the original end to end TCP semantic. The following TCP
enhancement i-e snooping TCP works completely transparently & hence doesnt loses
end-to-end semantic. The main function of the enhancement is buffering of packets close
to the mobile host to perform fast local retransmission in case of packet loss.
In this approach, Foreign agent buffers all packets with destination mobile host &
additionally snoops the packet flow in both directions to recognize acknowledgments.
Data transfer to the mobile host in snooping TCP takes place as follows:

The foreign FA agent buffers data until is receives an acknowledgement from the mobile host, FA
detects packet loss via duplicate ACKs or time-out and then perform faster retransmission compared to
the correspondent host, this all is transparent for the fixed n/w.

This would make the correspondent host believe that mobile host had received the
data & would violate the end-to-end semantic in case of a foreign agent failure data
transfer the mobile host with destination correspondent host works as follows as FA
snoops into the stream to detect gaps in the sequence no. of TCP. FA detects packet loss
on the wireless link via sequence numbers, FA answers directly with a Nack to the MH.
MH can now retransmit data with only a very short delay.
Adv. & Disadv

Detect missing packets

Perform NACK
Reordering of packets is done automatically at the correspondent host by TCP.

93

TCP Improvement

Mobile TCP (M-TCP) :-It has the same goals as I-TCP & snooping TCP i.e. It
also uses a split connection based approach but tries to preserve end-to-end
semantics. M-TCP adopts a three-level hierarchyAt the lowest level, mobile hosts communicate with mobile support stations in
each cell; which are in turn controlled by a supervisory host (SH); The SH is
connected to the wired n/w and serves as the point where the connections is
split.A TCP client exists at the SH.
The TCP client receives the segment from the TCP sender & passes it to M-TCP
client to send it to the wireless device. Thus, B/W the sender & the SH, standard
TCP is used while M-TCP is used b/w the SH & the wireless device. M-TCP is
designed to recover quickly from the wireless losses due to disconnections & to
eliminate serial timeouts. TCP on the SH does not acknowledge packets it
receive until the wireless device acknowledged then.
Fast retransmit / Fast recovery :As moving to a new foreign agent can cause packet loss or time out at mobile
hosts or corresponding hosts. TCP concludes congestion & goes into slow start,
although there is no congestion. The idea is to artificially force the fast retransmit
behavior on the mobile host & correspondent host side. As soon as the mobile
host registers at a new foreign agent using mobile IP, it starts sending duplicated
acknowledgements to correspondent hosts. The proposal is to send three
duplicates. This forces the correspondent host to go into fast retransmit mode.

94

Fast Retransmit

Fast Retransmit is an enhancement to TCP which reduces the time a sender waits
before retransmitting a lost segment.
A TCP sender uses a timer to recognize lost segments. If an acknowledgement is
not received for a particular segment within a specified time (a function of the
estimated Round-trip delay time), the sender will assume the segment was lost in
the network, and will retransmit the segment.
Duplicate acknowledgement is the basis for the fast retransmit mechanism which
works as follows: after receiving a packet (e.g. with sequence number 1), the
receiver sends an acknowledgement by adding 1 to the sequence number (i.e.,
sequence number 2) which means that the receiver receives the packet number 1
and it expects packet number 2 from the sender. Lets assume that three
subsequent packets have been lost. In the meantime the receiver receives the
packet number 5 and 6. After receiving packet number 5, the receiver sends
another acknowledgement, but still only for the sequence number 2. When the
receiver receives packet number 6, it sends yet another acknowledgement value of
2. In this way, the sender receives more than one acknowledgement with the same
sequence number 2 which is called duplicate acknowledgement.
The fast retransmit enhancement works as follows: if a TCP sender receives a
specified number of acknowledgements which is usually set to three duplicate
acknowledgements with the same acknowledge number (that is, a total of four
acknowledgements with the same acknowledgement number), the sender can be
reasonably confident that the segment with the next higher sequence number was
dropped, and will not arrive out of order. The sender will then retransmit the packet
that was presumed dropped before waiting for its timeout.

95

Fast Recovery

After fast retransmit sends what appears to be the missing segment, congestion avoidance,
but not slow start is performed. This is the fast recovery algorithm. It is an improvement that
allows high throughput under moderate congestion, especially for large windows.
The reason for not performing slow start in this case is that the receipt of the duplicate ACKs
tells TCP more than just a packet has been lost. Since the receiver can only generate the
duplicate ACK when another segment is received, that segment has left the network and is in
the receiver's buffer. That is, there is still data flowing between the two ends, and TCP does
not want to reduce the flow abruptly by going into slow start.
The fast retransmit and fast recovery algorithms are usually implemented together as follows.
1. When the third duplicate ACK in a row is received, set ssthresh to one-half the current
congestion window, cwnd, but no less than two segments. Retransmit the missing segment.
Set cwnd to ssthresh plus 3 times the segment size. This inflates the congestion window by
the number of segments that have left the network and which the other end has cached (3).
2. Each time another duplicate ACK arrives, increment cwnd by the segment size. This
inflates the congestion window for the additional segment that has left the network. Transmit
a packet, if allowed by the new value of cwnd.
3. When the next ACK arrives that acknowledges new data, set cwnd to ssthresh (the value
set in step 1). This ACK should be the acknowledgment of the retransmission from step 1,
one round-trip time after the retransmission. Additionally, this ACK should acknowledge all
the intermediate segments sent between the lost packet and the receipt of the first duplicate
ACK. This step is congestion avoidance, since TCP is down to one-half the rate it was at
when the packet was lost.
The fast retransmit algorithm first appeared in the 4.3BSD Tahoe release, and it was followed
by slow start. The fast recovery algorithm appeared in the 4.3BSD Reno release.

96

TCP Improvement

Transmission / Time-out freezing :- The MAC layer can inform the TCP layer of
an upcoming loss of connection or that the current interruption is not caused by
congestion. TCP can now stop sending and Freezes the current state of its
congestion window & further timers. If the MAC layer notices the upcoming interrupting
early enough both the mobile & correspondent nodes can be informed. As soon as,
the MAC layer detects connectivity again, it signals TCP that it can resume operation
at exactly the same point where it had been forced to stop.
Selective Retransmissions- (TCP SACK) : -A very useful extension of TCP is the
use of selective retransmission. TCP ACKs are cumulative i.e. they acknowledge inorder receipt of packets up to a certain packet. If a single packet is lost, the sender
has to retransmit everything starting from the lost packet ( go-back-n retransmission).
This obviously waste bandwidth . using RFC 2018, TCP can indirectly requests a
selective re-transmission of packets. The receiver can acknowledge single packets,
not only trains of in-sequence packets. The sender can now determine precisely which
packet is needed & can retransmit.
Adv. Sender retransmits only the lost packet
Transaction oriented TCP (T/TCP) :- Using TCP requires several packets over the
wireless link. First, TCP uses a 3-way handshake to establish the connection atleast
one additional packet is usually needed for transmission, of the request & requires
three more packets to close the connection via a three-way handshake. To reduce this
overhead, led to the development of a T/TCP. T/TCP can combine packets for
connection establishments & connection release with user data packets. This can
reduce the no. of packets down to two instead of seven.
Adv.: reduction in overhead which standard TCP has for connection setup &
connected release.

97

Configuration Parameter /
Factors to adapt TCP to
wireless
environment
1.
Large Windows
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Limited Transmit
Large MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit)
Selective Acknowledgement
Explicit Congestion Notification
Timestamp

98

Datacasting or Data
Broadcasting
Datacasting (data broadcasting) is the broadcasting of data

over a wide area via radio waves.

It most often refers to supplemental information sent by
television stations along with digital television, but may also
be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio. It
generally does not apply to data which is inherent to the
medium, which defines virtual channels for DTV or direct
broadcast satellite systems; or to things like cable modem or
satellite modem, which use a completely separate channel
for data.
Datacasting often provides news, weather, traffic, stock
market, and other information which may or may not relate to
the program[s] it is carried with. It may also be interactive,
such as gaming, shopping, or education.

99

Datacasting or Data
Broadcasting
The need for Data Broadcast:

Due to the limited bandwidth of the mobile systems,

data should be organized and presented to the users
based on its need.
Data Broadcast can be used to manage sending
(pushing) the same data interest to the listening clients
without a prior request (or lock).

100

Data Broadcasting

Server continually broadcasts data to MUs.

Scalability: Cost does not depend on number of
users listening.
Mobile Unit may/may not have cache.
Facilitates data access during disconnected periods.
Allows location dependent data access.
No need to predict with 100% accuracy the future
data needs.
Broadcast based on probability of access.
Periodic broadcasting of all data.
101

MOBILE IP ( Problem
situation)

The address of a host consists of two parts (1) the higher order bits of the address
determine the n/w on which the host resides (2) the remaining low order bits
determine the host number. IP decides the next-hop by determining the network
information from the destination IP address of the packet. On the other hand, higher
level layers like TCP maintain information about connections that are indexed by a
quadruplet containing the IP addresses of both the endpoints and the port numbers.
Thus, while trying to support mobility on the Internet under the existing protocol
suite, we are faced with two mutually conflicting requirements:

A mobile node has to change its IP address whenever it changes its point of
attachment, so that packets destined to the node are routed correctly.

To maintain existing TCP connections, the mobile nodes IP address must

remain the same. Changing the IP address will cause the connection to be
distrupted and lost.
computer mobility in heterogenic networks
relocation between different IP-subnets
Goal: transparent migration and localization, compatibility to IP, no changes of
existing routers
Idea: introduction of temporary/ actual IP-addresses (also care-of-address, COA);
mapping of permanent to temporary IP-addresses using localization technique

102

Motivation

Mobile IP is a proposed standard protocol that builds on the Internet

Protocol for packet routing and delivery by making mobility transparent
to applications and higher level protocols like TCP.
Changed perceptions of the Internet due to large variety of wireless
devices offering IP connectivity, such as PDAs, handhelds, and digital
cellular phones.
Routing
based on IP destination address, network prefix (e.g. 129.13.42)
determines physical subnet
change of physical subnet implies change of IP address to have a
topological correct address (standard IP) or needs special entries in
the routing tables
Specific routes to end-systems?
Change of all routing table entries to forward packets to the right
Destination
Does not scale with the number of mobile hosts and frequent Changes
in the location, security problems

103

Motivation
Changing the IP-address?: One simple solution is to let the mobile host

change its address as it goes to the new network

Adjust the host IP address depending on the current location
Almost impossible to find a mobile system, DNS updates take to long time
TCP connections break, security problems
Without specific support, delivery not possible for mobile nodes away from
its home IP subnet (because routing based on the network prefix and destn IP
addr).
Cannot change IP address on moving to new IP-subnet (because cannot
maintain tpt/higher level connections).
Use of DHCP to obtain a new address to associate it with the new network. This
approach has several drawbacks.
The configuration files would need to be changed
Each time the computer moves from one network to another, it must be
rebooted.
The DNS tables need to be revised so that every other host in the Internet is
aware of the change.
If the host roams from one N/W to another during a transmission, the data
exchange will be interrupted. This is because the ports and IP addresses of the
client and the server must remain constant for the duration of the connection.

104

MOBILE IP :Introduction

Mobile IP was developed to enable computers to maintain Internet

connectivity while moving from one Internet attachment point to another.
It is an Internet Engineering Task Force( IETF) standard communications
protocol that is designed to allow mobile device users to move from one
network to another while maintaining a permanent IP address.
Provides an efficient, scalable mechanism for roaming within the
Internet.
Using Mobile IP, nodes may change their point-of-attachment to the
Internet without changing their IP address. This allows them to maintain
transport and higher layer connections while moving.
Does not assume base stations exist everywhere
Simple
Correspondent hosts dont need to know about mobility
Works both for changing domains and network interfaces
Although applicable for wired environment, it is particularly suited for
wireless environment
In Mobile connectivity : connection is maintained whereas in Nomadic
connectivity: new connection after every move.

105

Requirements to Mobile IP (RFC

2002)
Compatibility
support of the same layer 2 protocols as IP
no changes to current end-systems and routers required
mobile end-systems can communicate with fixed systems
Transparency
mobile end-systems keep their IP address
continuation of communication after interruption of link possible
point of connection to the fixed network can be changed
Efficiency and scalability
only little additional messages to the mobile system required
(connection typically via a low bandwidth radio link)
world-wide support of a large number of mobile systems
Security
authentication of all registration messages

106

Mobile
IP:
Terminology
Home Network: It is the subnet the MN belongs to with respect to its IP address. No

mobile IP support is needed within the home network.

Foreign Network: It is the current subnet the MN visits and which is not the home net
Mobile Node (MN): It is the node that moves across networks without changing its IP
address
Correspondent Node (CN): It is the host with which MN is corresponding (TCP)
Home Agent (HA)
host in the home network of the MN, typically a router
Maintains the mobility binding table where each entry is identified by the tuple
<permanent home address, temporary care-of-address, association lifetime>.
The purpose of this table is to map a mobile nodes home address with its COA
and forward packets accordingly.
registers the location of the MN, tunnels IP packets to the COA
Foreign Agent (FA)
host in the current foreign network of the MN, typically a router
Maintains
a visitor list which contains information about the mobile nodes
currently visiting that n/w. Each entry in the visitor list is identified by the tuple
<permanent home address, home agent address, media address of the mobile
node, association lifetime>.
forwards tunneled packets to the MN, typically the default router for MN
Care-of Address (COA)
address of the current tunnel end-point for the MN (at FA or MN)
actual location of the MN from an IP point of view

107

108

Data transfer to the mobile

systemHA 2
home network
Internet

receiver

3
FA

CN
sender

MN

foreign
network

1. Sender sends to the IP addr of MN,

HA intercepts packet (proxy ARP)
2. HA tunnels packet to COA, here FA,
by encapsulation
3. FA forwards the packet to the MN

109

Source: Schiller

Data transfer from the mobile

systemHA
1

home network

MN

sender
Internet

FA

foreign
network

1. Sender sends to the IP address

of the receiver as usual,
FA works as default router

CN
receiver

110

Source: Schiller

Mobile IP: Basic

Operation

Agent Discovery

Advertisement
Agent Solicitation

MN Registration
IN-Service (Packet Tunneling)
Deregistration
111

Mobile IP: Basic Operation

The basic Mobile IP protocol has four distinct stages . These are:
Agent Discovery: Agent Discovery consists of the following steps:

A.
1.

2.

3.

Mobility agents advertise their presence by periodically

broadcasting Agent Advertisement messages. An Agent
Advertisement message lists one or more care-of addresses and a
flag indicating whether it is a home agent or a foreign agent.
The mobile node receiving the Agent Advertisement message
observes whether the message is from its own home agent and
determines whether it is on the home network or a foreign network.
If a mobile node does not wish to wait for the periodic
advertisement, it can send out Agent Solicitation messages that will
be responded by a mobility agent.
Registration: Registration consists of the following steps:

B.
1.

2.

If a mobile node discovers that it is on the home network, it

operates without any mobility services.
If the mobile node is on a new network, it registers with the foreign
agent by sending a Registration Request message which includes
the permanent IP address of the mobile host and the IP address of
its home agent.

112

Agent advertisement

HA/FA periodically send advertisement messages into their physical subnets

MN listens to these messages and detects, if it is in home/foreign network
MN reads a COA from the FA advertisement messages

7 8

15 16

23 24
type
code
checksum
#addresses addr. size
lifetime
router address 1
preference level 1
router address 2
preference level 2
...

31

type
length
sequence number
registration lifetime R B H F M G V reserved
COA 1
COA 2
...
113

Packet Format Agent

advertisement

Type: set to 9- if the agent also routes traffic from non-mobiles, set to 16- if it does not route
anything other than mobile traffic.
Length: 8 bit Define the total length of the extension message.
Sequence Number: Define the Total no. of advertisement sent since initialization .
Life Time : 16 bit Maximum lifetime in seconds that the agent will accept the request or node an
request during registration.
Care of Address: A list of address available for uses as Care of Address (COA): This field will be
used by foreign agent.

The mobile host can choose one of these addresses.

The selection of this COA is announced in the registration request message.

Code: 8 bit- see the table ahead.

The following bits specify the characteristics of an agent:
R- Registration Required. No co located COA

B - Agent is busy and doesnt accept registration at this moment

H Agent act as a home agent

F Agent act as a foreign agent

M Agent uses minimal encapsulation

G Agent uses generic routing encapsulation (GRE)

R Agent supports header compression

T - Reverse Tunneling

114

Mobile IP: Basic Operation

3.

4.

5.

6.

The foreign agent in turn performs the registration

process on behalf of the mobile host by sending a
Registration Request containing the permanent IP
address of the mobile node and the IP address of the
foreign agent to home agent
When the home agent receives the Registration
Request, it updates the mobility binding by associating
the care-of address of the mobile node with its home
address.
The home agent then sends an acknowledgement to
the foreign agent.
The foreign agent in turn updates its visitor list by
inserting the entry for the mobile node and relays the
reply to the mobile node.
115

Registration Process in
Mobile IP
Foreign Network

Foreign Agent
1. Registration
Request

Mobile Node

Visitor List

4. Registration
Reply

2. Registration
Request

3. Registration
Reply
Home Agent
Mobility Binding
Table

116

Mobile IP: Basic Operation

C.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

In Service: This stage can be subdivided into the following steps:

When a correspondent node wants to communicate with the mobile
node, it sends an IP packet addressed to the permanent IP address of
the mobile node.
The home agent intercepts this packet and consults the mobility
binding table to find out if the mobile node is currently visiting any
other network.
The home agent finds out the mobile nodes care-of address and
constructs a new IP header that contains the mobile nodes care-of
address as the destination IP address. The original IP packet is put
into the payload of this IP packet. It then sends the packet. This
process of encapsulating one IP packet into payload of another is
known as IP-within-IP encapsulation , or tunneling.
When the encapsulated packet reaches the mobile nodes current
network, the foreign agent decapsulates the packet and finds out the
mobile nodes home address. It then consults the visitor list to see if it
has an entry for that mobile node.
If there is an entry for the mobile node on the visitor list, the foreign
agent retrieves the corresponding media address and relays it to the
mobile node.

117

Mobile IP: Basic Operation

6.

7.

D.

When the mobile node wants to send a message to a

correspondent node, it forwards the packet to the foreign
agent, which in turn relays the packet to the
correspondent node using normal IP routing.
The foreign agent continues serving the mobile node until
the granted lifetime expires. If the mobile node wants to
continue the service, it has to reissue the Registration
Request.
Deregistration: If a mobile node wants to drop its care-of
address, it has to deregister with its home agent. It achieves
this by sending a Registration Request with the lifetime set to
zero. There is no need for deregistering with the foreign agent
as registration automatically expires when lifetime becomes
zero. However if the mobile node visits a new network, the old
foreign network does not know the new care-of address of the
mobile node. Thus datagrams already forwarded by the home
agent to the old foreign agent of the mobile node are lost.

118

Tunneling Operation in Mobile

Correspondent
IPSrc Dest
Node
CN

MN

Payload

(CN)

Header
Original IP Packet
Header
Home Agent (HA)

Payload

HA COA

Original IP Packet
Encapsulated IP Packet

TUNNEL
Foreign Agent (FA)
Src
Mobile
Node
(MN)

Dest

CN MN
Header

Payload
Original IP Packet
( decapsulated )

119

Encapsulation
original IP header

new IP header

outer header

original data

new data

inner header

original data

120

Triangle Routing
Correspondent Node

Home Agent

Foreign Agent

Mobile Node

121

Mobile IP: Other Issues

Reverse Tunneling
firewalls permit only topological correct
addresses
Optimizations

Triangular Routing: HA informs sender the current

location of MN
Change of FA: new FA informs old FA to avoid
packet loss

122

Reverse tunneling (RFC

3024)HA
2

MN

home network
Internet

sender

1
FA

CN
receiver

foreign
network

1. MN sends to FA
2. FA tunnels packets to HA
by encapsulation
3. HA forwards the packet to the
receiver (standard case)
123

Mobile IP: Reverse

tunneling

Router accept often only topological correct addresses

(firewall!)

a packet from the MN encapsulated by the FA is now topological

correct
furthermore multicast and TTL problems solved (TTL in the home
network correct, but MN is too far away from the receiver)

Reverse tunneling does not solve

problems with firewalls, the reverse tunnel can be abused to

circumvent security mechanisms (tunnel hijacking)
optimization of data paths, i.e. packets will be forwarded through
the tunnel via the HA to a sender (double triangular routing)

124

Optimization of
forwarding
Triangular Routing

sender sends all packets via HA to MN

higher latency and network load
Solutions
sender learns the current location of MN
direct tunneling to this location
HA informs a sender about the location of MN
Binding request:
Binding Update:
Binding Acknowledgement
Binding Warning

125

Problems with mobile IP

Security
authentication with FA problematic, for the FA
typically belongs to another organization
no
protocol for key management and key
distribution has been standardized in the Internet
patent and export restrictions
Firewalls
typically mobile IP cannot be used together with
firewalls, special set-ups are needed (such as
reverse tunneling)
QoS
many new reservations in case of RSVP
tunneling makes it hard to give a flow of packets a
special treatment needed for the QoS
126

MOBILE IP & IPv6

Mobile IP was developed for IPv4, but IPv6 simplifies

the protocols

security is integrated and not an add-on, authentication of

registration is included
COA can be assigned via auto-configuration (DHCPv6 is one
candidate), every node has address auto-configuration
no need for a separate FA, all routers perform router advertisement
which can be used instead of the special agent advertisement
MN can signal a sender directly the COA, sending via HA not
needed in this case (automatic path optimization)
soft hand-over, i.e. without packet loss, between two subnets is
supported
MN sends the new COA to its old router, the old router
encapsulates all incoming packets for the MN and forwards them
to the new COA.
authentication is always granted

127

IPv6 Vs IPv4
IPv6 is 128 bits, can support up to 2128 IPv4 is 32 bits IP address
addresses to fulfill future needs with better and can support up to 232
security and network related features
addresses
IPv6 can handle different speed of networks, IPv4 is not so scalable.
from Extra Low Frequency networks to very high
speed of 500Gbits/s.
IPv6 provide a security layer that places IPv4 does not provide
"options" in separate extension headers
IPv6 has an anycast address that allows nodes IPv4 does not provide
to control the path which their traffic flows
IPv6 connects to global internet using a while
IPv4
manually
combination of it's global prefixes,
renumbers to connect to
the
internet.
IPv6
renumbers automatically

128

Motivation
Wireless Application Protocol

HTTP/HTML have not been designed for mobile devices and applications.
Because of fundamental limitations of power and form-factor, mass-market handheld devices tend
to have:

Less powerful CPUs, Less memory (ROM and RAM), Restricted power consumption,
Smaller displays, Different input devices (eg, a phone keypad).
Similarly, wireless data networks present a more constrained communication environment
compared to wired networks.
Because of fundamental limitations of power, available spectrum, and mobility, wireless data
networks tend to have:

Less bandwidth, More latency, Less connection stability, Less predictable availability.
Mobile networks are growing in complexity and the cost of all aspects for provisioning of more
value added services is increasing.
In order to meet the requirements of mobile network operators, solutions must be:

Interoperable terminals from different manufacturers communicate with services in the

mobile network;

Scaleable mobile network operators are able to scale services to customer needs;

Efficient provides quality of service suited to the behaviour and characteristics of the mobile
network;

Reliable provides a consistent and predictable platform for deploying services; and

Secure enables services to be extended over potentially unprotected mobile networks while
still preserving the integrity of user data; protects the devices and services from security
problems such as loss of confidentiality.

129

Motivation
Wireless Application Protocol

integrity of user data; protects the devices and services from security problems such as
loss of confidentiality.
HTTP causes many problems already in fixed networks, but even more in wireless
networks.
1. Bandwidth and delay
2. Caching
3. POSTing
The problems with HTTP/HTML are well known and have encouraged many different
proprietary and standardized solutions such as

Image scaling, Content transformation, Content extraction / semantic

compression

Special Languages and protocols, Push technologies.

WAP empowers mobile users with wireless devices to easily access and interact with
information and services.
A standard created by wireless and Internet companies to enable Internet access from
a cellular phone.
Wireless networks and phones have specific needs and requirements & not addressed
by existing Internet technologies
WAP enables any data transport

TCP/IP, UDP/IP, GUTS (IS-135/6), SMS, or USSD.

Optimizes the content and air-link protocols

Utilizes plain Web HTTP 1.1 servers & utilizes standard Internet markup
language technology (XML)

130

WAP
The point of this standard was to show internet contents on wireless
clients, like mobile phones. The WAP protocol is the leading standard
for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile
phones.

WAP is an application communication protocol

WAP is used to access services and information

WAP is inherited from Internet standards

WAP is for handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones, pagers,

two-way radios, smartphones and communicators

WAP is a protocol designed for micro browsers

WAP enables the creating of web applications for mobile devices.

WAP uses the mark-up language WML (not HTML). WML is defined
as an XML 1.0 application

The WAP standard is based on Internet standards (HTML, XML and

TCP/IP). It consists of a WML language specification, a WMLScript
specification, and a Wireless Telephony Application Interface (WTAI)
specification.

WAP is published by the WAP Forum, founded in 1997 by Ericsson,

Motorola, Nokia, and Unwired Planet. Forum members now represent
over 90% of the global handset market, as well as leading
infrastructure providers, software developers and other organizations.

131

WAP

WAP supports most wireless networks. These include CDPD, CDMA,

GSM, PDC, PHS, TDMA, FLEX, ReFLEX, iDEN, TETRA, DECT,
DataTAC, and Mobitex.
WAP is supported by all operating systems. Ones specifically
engineered for handheld devices include PalmOS, EPOC, Windows
CE, FLEXOS, OS/9, and JavaOS
WAPs that use displays and access the Internet run what are called
microbrowsers--browsers with small file sizes that can accommodate
the low memory constraints of handheld devices and the lowbandwidth constraints of a wireless-handheld network.
Although WAP supports HTML and XML, the WML language (an XML
application) is specifically devised for small screens and one-hand
navigation without a keyboard. WML is scalable from two-line text
displays up through graphic screens found on items such as smart
phones and communicators.
WAP also supports WMLScript. It is similar to JavaScript, but makes
minimal demands on memory and CPU power because it does not
contain many of the unnecessary functions found in other scripting
languages.

132

WAP
WAP Micro Browsers: To fit into a small wireless terminal, WAP uses a Micro
Browser. A Micro Browser is a small piece of software that makes minimal
demands on hardware, memory and CPU. It can display information written in a
restricted mark-up language called WML. The Micro Browser can also interpret a
reduced version of JavaScript called WMLScript.

What is WML? :WML stands for Wireless Markup Language. It is a mark-up

language inherited from HTML, but WML is based on XML, so it is much stricter
than HTML. WML is used to create pages that can be displayed in a WAP
browser. Pages in WML are called DECKS. Decks are constructed as a set of
CARDS.

What is WMLScript :WML uses WMLScript to run simple code on the client.
WMLScript is a light JavaScript language. However, WML scripts are not
embedded in the WML pages. WML pages only contains references to script
URLs. WML scripts need to be compiled into byte code on a server before they
can run in a WAP browser.

Examples of WAP use

1. Checking train table information
2. Ticket purchase
3. Flight check in 4. Viewing traffic information
5. Checking weather conditions
6. Looking up stock values
7. Looking up phone numbers
8. Looking up addresses
9. Looking up sport results

133

Why is HTTP/HTML not

enough?
Big pipe - small pipe syndrome
Internet
HTTP/HTML

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>NNN Interactive</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="1800,
URL=/index.html">
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
BACKGROUND="/images/9607/bgbar5.gif"
LINK="#0A3990" ALINK="#FF0000" VLINK="#FF0000"
TEXT="000000" ONLOAD="if(parent.frames.length!
=0)top.location='http://nnn.com';">
<A NAME="#top"></A>
<TABLE WIDTH=599 BORDER="0">
<TR ALIGN=LEFT>
<TD WIDTH=117 VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=LEFT>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE
>NNN
Intera
ctive<
/TITLE
>
<META
HTTPEQUIV=
"Refre
sh"
CONTEN
T="180
0,
URL=/i
ndex.h
tml">

Wireless network
WAP

<WML>
<CARD>
<DO TYPE="ACCEPT">
<GO URL="/submit?Name=$N"/>
</DO>
Enter name:
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" KEY="N"/>
</CARD>
</WML>

Content encoding
010011
010011
110110
010011
011011
011101
010010
011010

134

WAP: Main Features

Browser
Micro browser, similar to existing web browsers
Markup/Script language

Gateway

Wap/Origin server, similar to existing web servers

Protocol layers

Transition from wireless to wired world

Server

Similar to HTML/Javascript, adapted to mobile devices

Transport layer, security layer, session layer etc.

Telephony application interface

Access to telephony functions
135

The WAP Communications

Model

WML, WMLScript, and WBMP content usually reside on

WWW servers on the Internet. A WAP gateway is placed
between the mobile network and the Internet content
servers. The WAP gateway receives WAP requests using
the binary WAP communications protocols. The WAP
gateway translates these requests from the WAP binary
protocols to the text based World Wide Web protocols and
forwards the translated requests to the content servers
using the TCP/IP network protocol.
The WAP gateway waits for the WWW text protocol
response to the original request, receives the response via
TCP/IP and then reformats it back to the binary WAP
protocols. The WAP gateway sends the reformatted
response to the WAP client via WDP.
136

Architectural Goals
The goals of the WAP Forum architecture

The goals of the WAP Forum architecture are as follows.

Provide a web-centric application model for wireless data services that
utilises the telephony, mobility, and other unique functions of wireless
devices and networks and allows maximum flexibility and ability for
vendors to enhance the user experience.
Enable the personalisation and customisation of the device, the content
delivered to it, and the presentation of the content.
Provide support for secure and private applications and communication
in a manner that is consistent and interoperable with Internet security
models.
Enable wireless devices and networks that are currently or in the near
future being deployed, including a wide variety of bearers from narrowband to wide-band.
Provide secure access to local handset functionality.
Facilitate network-operator and third party service provisioning.
Define a layered, scaleable and extensible architecture.
Leverage existing standards where possible, especially existing and
evolving Internet standards.

137

The WAP Communications

Model (WAP architecture)

WAP Gateway

WML
WMLScript
WTAI
Etc.

Web Server

WML Encoder

WSP/WTP

WMLScript
Compiler
Protocol Adapters

HTTP

CGI
Scripts
etc.

Content

WML Decks
with WML-Script

Client

138

WAP application server

Client
WML
WMLScript
WTAI

WML Encoder

WSP/WTP

WMLScript
Compiler
Protocol Adapters

Application
Logic
Content

WML Decks
with WML-Script

WAP Application Server

Etc.

139

Source: WAP Forum

WAP specifies

Wireless Application Environment

WML Microbrowser
WMLScript Virtual Machine
WMLScript Standard Library
Wireless Telephony Application Interface (WTAI)
WAP content types

Wireless Protocol Stack

Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)

Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS)
Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP)
Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP)
Wireless network interface definitions

140

WAP: reference model

Internet
HTML, Java

A-SAP

WAP

Application Layer (WAE)

S-SAP

additional services
and applications

Session Layer (WSP)

HTTP

TR-SAP
Transaction Layer (WTP)
SEC-SAP

SSL/TLS

Security Layer (WTLS)

T-SAP

TCP/IP,
UDP/IP,
media

Transport Layer (WDP)

WCMP

Bearers (GSM, CDPD, ...)

WAE comprises WML (Wireless Markup Language), WML Script, WTAI etc.

141

Source: Schiller

Service, Protocol, Bearer:

Example
WAP Over GSM Short Message Service

WAP
Proxy/Server

Mobile
WAE

WAE
Apps on
other servers
WSP

WSP

SMSC

WTP
WDP
SMS

WTP
WDP

SMS

WDP Tunnel
Protocol

WDP Tunnel
Protocol

Subnetwork

Subnetwork

142

Source: WAP Forum

WAP
stack
WAE (Wireless Application Environment):

Architecture: application model, browser, gateway, server

WSP (Wireless Session Protocol):

Provides reliable message transfer mechanisms

Based on ideas from TCP/RPC

WTLS (Wireless Transport Layer Security):

Provides HTTP 1.1 functionality

Supports session management, security, etc.

WTP (Wireless Transaction Protocol):

WML: XML-Syntax, based on card stacks, variables, ...

WTA: telephone services, such as call control, phone book etc.

Provides data integrity, privacy, authentication functions

Based on ideas from TLS/SSL

WDP (Wireless Datagram Protocol):

Provides transport layer functions

Based on ideas from UDP

Content encoding, optimized for low-bandwidth channels, simple devices

143

WDP: Wireless Datagram

Protocol

Transport layer protocol within the WAP architecture

The WAP Datagram Protocol, WDP, is a datagram oriented, network
layer protocol modeled after the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) used on
the Internet.
The WDP allows WAP to be bearer-independent by adapting the
transport layer of the underlying bearer. The WDP presents a consistent
data format to the higher layers of the WAP protocol stack, thereby
offering the advantage of bearer independence to application
developers.
uses transport mechanisms of different bearer technologies
offers a common interface for higher layer protocols
allows for transparent communication despite different technologies
addressing uses port numbers
WDP over IP is UDP/IP
WDP makes no attempt to confirm delivery, resend lost packets, or
correct errors in transmission. This is left to the higher layer protocols.

144

WDP: Wireless Datagram

Protocol

If any errors happen when WDP datagrams are sent from

one WDP entry to another (e.g. the destination is
unreachable, no application is listening to the specified
destination port etc.), Wireless Control Protocol (WCMP)
provides error handling mechanisms for WDP therefore be
implement. WCMP contains control messages that resemble
the ICMP (Internet Control Message) Protocol messages
and can also be used for diagnostic and informational
purposes. It can be used by WDP nodes and gateways to
report errors. WCMP messages are destination
unreachable, parameter problem, message too big,
reassembly failure, echo request/ reply.
T-SAP(Transport layer Service Access Point) is the
common interface to be used by the higher layers
independent of the underlying n/w
145

WTLS:Wireless Transport Layer

Security

WTLS incorporates security features that are based upon the

established Transport Layer Security (TLS/SSL) protocol
standard. It includes data integrity checks, privacy, service
denial, and authentication services.

optimized for low-bandwidth communication channels

provides
privacy (encryption)
data integrity (MACs)
authentication (public-key and symmetric)

Employs special adapted mechanisms for wireless usage

Long lived secure sessions
Optimised handshake procedures
provides
SEC-SAP(Security layer Service Access Point) is the common
interface to be used by the higher layers independent of the
underlying n/w
146

WTP: Wireless Transaction

Protocol
Designed to run on very thin clients such as mobile phones.
Advantages over different transaction services that enable applications to
provide improved reliability over datagrams services, improved
efficiency over connection-oriented services and support for transactionoriented services such as web browsing.
used to provide a simplified protocol suitable for low bandwidth wireless
stations.
low memory requirements, suited to simple devices
efficiency for wireless transmission
supports peer-to-peer, client/server and multicast applications
WTP classes of Transactions service
class 0: unreliable message transfer
class 1: reliable message transfer without result message
class 2: reliable message transfer with exactly one reliable result message
147

WSP - Wireless Session

Protocol
provides shared state between client and server, optimizes content transfer
session management (establish, release, suspend, resume)
efficient capability negotiation
key management, authentication, Internet security services
content encoding
WSP is a general-purpose session protocol, WAP has specified the
wireless session protocol/ browsing (WSP/B) which comprises protocols
and services suited for browsing-type applications. WSP/B offers
following features adapted to web browsing:
HTTP/1.1
Exchange of Session Headers
Push and Pull data transfer services
Asynchronous Requests

148

Wireless Application
Environment

Goals
To create a general-purpose application environment based mainly
on existing technologies of WWW.
To allow service providers, software manufacturers, or hardware
vendors to integrate their applications so they can reach a wide
variety of different wireless platforms in an efficient manner.
device and network independent application environment
for low-bandwidth, wireless devices
considerations of slow links, limited memory, low computing
power, small display, simple user interface (compared to
desktops), special security and access control features.
integrated Internet / WWW programming model
high interoperability
To minimize over-the-air traffic and resources consumption on the
handheld device.

149

WAE components

Architecture

User Agents

WML/WTA/Others
content formats: vCard, WML..

WML/Script

Application model, Microbrowser, Gateway, Server

XML-Syntax, based on card stacks, variables, ...

WTA

telephone services, such as call control, text

messages, phone book,
150

WAE: logical model

Origin Servers
web
server

other content
server

Client

Gateway
response
with
content

Method proxy

encoded
response
with
content

Push proxy
push
content

request

encoders
&
decoders

encoded
push
content

encoded
request

WTA
user agent

WML
user agent

other
WAE
user agents

151

WAP Push Architecture with proxy

gateway
Client
User Agents

Push OTA
Protocol

Push Proxy
Gateway
Coding
Checking

Push Access
Protocol

Push Initiator
Server
Application

In a push context the server initiates the message transfer, not the client. The
server is called push initiator (PI) and transfer content via a push proxy gateway
(PPG) to a client.. The push access protocol (PAP) controls communication
between PI and PPG. The push over the air (OTA) protocol is used between PPG
and the client. If the PI is able to use the push OTA protocol, it can directly
communicate with the client too. Example usage scenarios for push messages are
news, road conditions, e-mail indication etc.
Push Proxy gateway: The PPG provides many functions to transform protocol
messages and content exchanged between server and client. The PPG accepts
push messages from a PI and checks if this message can be forwarded to the
client. Checking comprises mapping of a client addresses onto a format valid in the
mobile network. A PPG can also multicast messages to a group of receivers.

152

WAP Push Architecture with

proxy gateway

Push Access Protocol: The PAP transfers content from PI

to the PPG. Although PAP was developed independently
from the underlying transport service, PAP over HTTP is the
first implementation. PAP offers the following operations :

Push submission
Result notification:
Push Cancellation
Status Query:
Client Capabilities Query:

Push OTA Protocol: It is a very simple protocol used on top

of WSP. The protocol offers delivery of push messages,
selection of transport services for push messages and
authentication of PIs. The standard bearer for push
messages in GSM is SMS as this is typically the only way to
reach a mobile phone from within a network.
153

WAP Applications

Some of the interesting applications of WAP (already existing or being worked on)
are:
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Nokia are working with a Finnish
fashion retailer who plans to send clothing offers direct to mobile telephones
using a combination of cursors, touch screen technology and WAP to allow wouldbe shoppers to hot-link to order-entry pages on the web.
In Finland, children already play new versions of competitive games such as
"Battleships", via the cellular networks. In the music world, Virgin Mobile in the
UK offers to download the latest pop hits to customers in a daily offering.
Scala has developed several WAP products for small to medium-sized companies
which would allow, for example, a field sales force to access customer order
information and stock availability details via a WAP handset.
A key growth area for the technology will be business-to-workforce, with companies
using WAP applications to reach employees at any time. Scala is currently
working on time-sheet applications and techniques for entering and filing expense
claims via the mobile phone.
Nokia says applications that will benefit from WAP include customer care and
provisioning, message notification and call management, e-mail, mapping
and location services, weather and traffic alerts, sports and financial
services, address book and directory services and corporate intranet
applications.

154

WAP Applications

As brought out by and the examples above WAP services are

currently limited to simple information services, but as higher speeds
become available and some of the technical issues specific to WAP
are resolved, several new service types will emerge, including:
Infotainment : They could include weather forecasts, stock quotes,
horoscopes and news
Messaging : services such as e-mail, voicemail and unified
messaging
Personal information management : services such as call
management and personal directories, which enable the
modification of personal information
Financial services : mobile banking and mobile e-commerce
services
Location-based services : services that are dependent on location
include mapping and vehicle location information

155

WAP Applications
Operator/country

Examples of the current services offered

France Telecom

Cinema information, share prices and some

banking services

KPN Telecom, The

Netherlands

Movie information, hotel information and news

Omnitel, Italy

News, flight information, lottery information and

movie listings

Optus, Australia

Share prices, news, weather forecasts and e-mail

Orange, UK

Cinema information, last minute offers (via

lastminute.com), news and business directories

SmarTone, Hong
Kong

News, e-mail, SmarTone WAP portal, language

translation and directories

Sonera, Finland

Information services, e-mail, directories and

financial data

Sprint, US

News, share prices, mapping, weather forecasts,

directories and e-mail

Telefonica Moviles,
Spain

News, traffic updates, some banking transactions,

directories and e-mail

156

The Problem Areas

One of the problem, basically to do with infrastructure (and not WAP) is that
as the mobile Internet access, thanks to WAP, increases it is likely to put ever
greater demands on existing technology infrastructures as it encourages
higher m-commerce volumes. A live example is I-mode services in Japan,
where the mobile data access has seen a unprecedented rate of growth. So,
unless the infrastructure is geared up to expect unexpected volumes, this can
have significant impact on these data services since most of these systems
are simply inadequate for big volumes. So there is a possibility of
unsatisfactory performances observed by mobile data users.
Another problem area is that the delay in the delivery of long-promised
terminals and service launches are narrowing the window of opportunity for
WAP, while the proposed developments in faster mobile networks and more
sophisticated terminals come closer. Further developments in WAP are still
required and in the meantime, other solutions will emerge.
Also as with many other technologies what matters most and what guides the
development of a technology is the emergence of killer applications. So,
unless some killer applications hit the market, which influence the mood of the
end user, WAP just like other technologies has a difficult path ahead. Already
due to lots of hype WAP proponents find them selves in a little tight position.
So, this presents a big opportunity for the developer community to develop
new and innovative applications that can realize the advantage of WAP. There
is going to be big appetite for WAP applications in the very near future

157

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