Objectives

Define a wireless personal area network

List the technologies of a wireless metropolitan
area network
Describe the features of a wireless wide area
network
Discuss the future of wireless networking

Prof. Bhagirathi V

Wireless Personal Area Networks

Wireless networks classified into four broad
categories:
Wireless personal area network (WPAN): Handheld and portable devices; slow to moderate
transmission speeds
Wireless local area network (WLAN): i.e., IEEE
802.11a/b/g
Wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN):
Range up to 50 kilometers
Wireless wide area network (WWAN): Connects
networks in different geographical areas
Prof. Bhagirathi V

Wireless Personal Area Networks

(continued)

Figure 12-1: Wireless network distances

Prof. Bhagirathi V

Wireless Personal Area Networks

(continued)

Figure 12-2: Point-to-point transmission

Prof. Bhagirathi V

Wireless Personal Area Networks

(continued)

Figure 12-3: Point-to-multipoint transmission

Prof. Bhagirathi V

Wireless Personal Area Networks

(continued)
WPANs encompass technology designed for
portable devices
PDAs, cell phones, tablet or laptop computers
Low transmission speeds

Three main categories:

IEEE 802.15 standards
Radio frequency ID (RFID)
IrDA

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth)

Bluetooth uses short-range RF transmissions
Users can connect wirelessly to wide range of
computing and telecommunications devices
Rapid and ad hoc connections between devices

802.15.1 adapted and expanded from Bluetooth

Designed for area of about 10 meters
Rate of transmission below 1 Mbps

Two types of 802.15.1 network topologies

Piconet
Scatternet
Prof. Bhagirathi V

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (continued)

Piconet: When two 802.15.1 devices come within
range, automatically connect
Master: Controls wireless traffic
Slave: Takes commands from master
Piconet has one master and at least one slave

Active slave: Connected to piconet and sending

transmissions
Parked slave: Connected but not actively
participating

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (continued)

Figure 12-4: Piconet

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (continued)

Figure 12-5: Slave device detected by a master device

Prof. Bhagirathi V

10

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (continued)

Devices in piconet can be in one of five modes:
Standby: Waiting to join a piconet
Inquire: Device looking for devices to connect to
Page: Master device asking to connect to specific
slave
Connected: Active slave or master
Park/Hold: Part of piconet but in low-power state

Scatternet: Group of piconets in which

connections exist between different piconets
802.15.1 uses FHSS
Prof. Bhagirathi V

11

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (continued)

Figure 12-6: Scatternet

Prof. Bhagirathi V

12

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.1 (continued)

Table 12-1: Comparison of 802.15.1 speed

Prof. Bhagirathi V

13

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.3

Created in response to limitations of 802.15.1
High-rate WPANs

Two main applications:

Video and audio distribution for home entertainment
systems
High-speed digital video transfer
High-density MPEG2 transfer between video
players/gateways and multiple HD displays
Home theater
PC to LCD projector
Interactive video gaming

High speed data transfer

Prof. Bhagirathi V

14

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.3 (continued)

Differences between 802.15.3 and 802.15.1

Quality of Service (QoS)

Security
High data rates
Spectrum utilization
Coexistence

Table 12-2: IEEE 802.15.3 security modes

Prof. Bhagirathi V

15

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.3 (continued)

802.15.3a: Will support data transfers up to 110
Mbps between max of 245 devices at 10 meters
Ultrawideband (UWB)
Intended to compete with USB 2.0 and FireWire

IEEE 802.15.3b task group working on improving

implementation and interoperability of 802.15.3
IEEE 802.15.3c task group developing alternative
physical layer standard that could increase speeds
up to 2 Gbps

Prof. Bhagirathi V

16

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.4

Sometimes preferable to have low-speed, lowpower wireless devices
Size can be dramatically reduced

IEEE 802.15.4 standard addresses requirements

for RF transmissions requiring low power
consumption and cost

Table 12-3: IEEE 802.15.4 data rates and frequencies

Prof. Bhagirathi V

17

WPANs: IEEE 802.15.4 (continued)

ZigBee Alliance: Industry consortium that
promotes 802.15.4 standard

Figure 12-7: ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4

Prof. Bhagirathi V

18

WPANs: Radio Frequency ID (RFID)

Figure 12-8: RFID tag

Prof. Bhagirathi V

19

WPANs: Radio Frequency ID

(continued)
Passive RFID tags: No power supply
Can be very small
Limited amount of information transmitted

Active RFID tags: Must have power source

Longer ranges/larger memories than passive tags

Table 12-4: RFID tags

Prof. Bhagirathi V

20

WPANs: IrDA
Infrared Data Association
IrDA specifications include standards for physical
devices and network protocols they use to
communicate
Devices communicate using infrared light-emitting
diodes
Recessed into device
Many design considerations affect IrDA performance

Prof. Bhagirathi V

21

WPANs: IrDA (continued)

Figure 12-9: IrDA diodes in device

Prof. Bhagirathi V

22

WPANs: IrDA (continued)

IrDA drawbacks:
Designed to work like standard serial port on a
personal computer, which is seldom used today
Cannot send and receive simultaneously
Strong ambient light can negatively impact
transmissions
Angle and distance limitation between
communicating devices

Prof. Bhagirathi V

23

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks

Cover an area of up to 50 kilometers (31 miles)
Used for two primary reasons:
Alternative to an organizations wired backhaul
connection
i.e., T1, T3, T4 lines
Fiber Optics
Very expensive to install backhaul connections
Often less expensive to use a WMAN to link remote
sites

Prof. Bhagirathi V

24

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks

(continued)
Used for two primary reasons (continued):
Overcome last mile connection
Connection that begins at a fast Internet service
provider, goes through local neighborhood, and ends
at the home or office
Slower-speed connection
Bottleneck

Prof. Bhagirathi V

25

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

Free Space Optics
Optical, wireless, point-to-point, line-of-sight
wireless technology
Able to transmit at speed comparable to Fiber Optics
Transmissions sent by low-powered IR beams

Advantages compared to fiber optic and RF:

Lower installation costs

Faster installation
Scaling transmission speed
Good security

Atmospheric conditions can affect transmission

Prof. Bhagirathi V

26

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

Local Multipoint Distribution Service
(LMDS)
LMDS provides wide variety of wireless services
High-frequency, low-powered RF waves have limited
range
Point-to-multipoint signal transmission
Signals transmitted back are point-to-point

Voice, data, Internet, and video traffic

Local carrier determines services offered

LMDS network is composed of cells

Cell size affected by line of site, antenna height,
overlapping cells, and rainfall
Prof. Bhagirathi V

27

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

LMDS (continued)

Figure 12-11: LMDS cell

Prof. Bhagirathi V

28

Prof. Bhagirathi V

29

Metropolitan Area Networks

Figure 1-8. A metropolitan area network based on cable

TV.
30
Prof. Bhagirathi V

MAN

1*

a
2
3

b
4

Metropolitan network A
consists of access
subnetworks a, b, c, d.

Hierarchical Network Topology

A

Copyright 2000 The

McGraw Hill
Companies

Leon-Garcia & Widjaja:

Communication
Networks

National network
consists of regional
subnetworks .
Metropolitan network
A is part of regional
subnetwork .

Figure
1.8

31
Prof. Bhagirathi V

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

Multichannel Multipoint Distribution
Service (MMDS)
Many similarities to LMDS
Differs in area of transmission
Higher downstream transmission, lower upstream
transmission, greater range

In homes, alternative to cable modems and DSL

service
For businesses, alternative to T1 or fiber optic
connections
MMDS hub typically located at a very high point
On top of building, towers, mountains
Prof. Bhagirathi V

32

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

MMDS (continued)
Hub uses point-to-multipoint architecture
Multiplexes communications to multiple users
Tower has backhaul connection

MMDS uses cells

Single MMDS cell as large as 100 LDMS cells

Receiving end uses pizza box antenna

Advantages:
Transmission range, cell size, low vulnerability to
poor weather conditions

Still requires line-of-site, not encrypted

Prof. Bhagirathi V

33

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX)
High potential
Can connect IEEE 802.11 hotspots to Internet
Can provide alternative to cable and DSL for last
mile connection
Up to 50 kilometers of linear service area range
Does not require direct line of sight
Provides shared data rates up to 70 Mbps

Uses scheduling system

Device competes once for initial network entry

Prof. Bhagirathi V

34

Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks:

IEEE 802.16 (continued)
Currently addresses only devices in fixed positions
802.16e will add mobile devices to the standard

IEEE 802.20 standard: Sets standards for mobility

over large areas
Will permit users to roam at high speeds

WiMAX base stations installed by a wireless

Internet service provider (wireless ISP) can send
high-speed Internet connections to homes and
businesses in a radius of up to 50 km (31 miles)

Prof. Bhagirathi V

35

 The acronym WiMAX stands for Worldwide

Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is
based on IEEE 802.16 standard.
IEEE 802.16 is the IEEE standard for Wireless
Metropolitan Area Network (Wireless MAN).
It specifies the air interface for fixed, portable,
and mobile broadband wireless access (BWA)
systems supporting multimedia services.

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

36

 WiMAX aims to provide wireless broadband

services with a target range of up to 31 miles at
a transmission rate exceeding 100 Mbps.
It is also to provide a wireless alternative to
cable, DSL and T1/E1 for last mile access.
The term IEEE 802.16 and WIMAX are used
interchangeably.
WiMAX is to IEEE 802.16 what Wi-Fi is to IEEE
802.11

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

37

Overview of the IEEE 802.16 Standard

Designed for point-to-point (PTP) and point-tomultipoint (PTM) topologies but mainly deployed
for point to multipoint topologies. It also support
mesh topologies.
In PTM a base station (BS) services many
subscriber stations (SS) which are mounted
outdoors.
IEEE 802.16 has three major versions; 802.162001, 802.16-2004 and IEEE 802.16-2005.

38

Prof. Bhagirathi V
WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

IEEE 802.16-2001
Addresses fixed line of sight connections and
operates in the licensed frequency range
between 10 GHz and 66 GHz.
At these high frequency range there are more
available bandwidth and reduced risk of
interference.
Has a maximum coverage of 5km.

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

39

IEEE 802.16-2004 (802.16d)

Designed to operate in lower frequency range;
2-11 GHz.
Support Non-line of sight (NLOS) operation.
Operates in both licensed (3.5 GHz) and
unlicensed (5.8 GHz).
Operates with a range of up to 50km and data
rates of up to 75Mbps.
It is the most supported version of the standard
by vendors.

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

40

IEEE 802.16-2005(802.16e)
Support mobility and will standardize networking
between fixed base stations and mobile devices.
Would enable high-speed signal handoffs
necessary for communications with users
moving at vehicular speeds which is below
100km/h.
It will provide a symmetric (up and down) bit
rates of 70Mbps.
operate in the frequency range between 2-6
GHz.

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

41

Applications
To provide a wireless alternative to cable, DSL and
T1/E1 for last mile access especially in areas where wire
broadband access are absent.
Serves as E1/T1 replacements for small and medium
size businesses.
Provide residential wireless DSL for broadband Internet
at home.
It can be used as wireless backhaul for Wi-Fi hotspot
and cellular companies.
Operators/carriers can use it as a backup backbone.
It can be used in disaster recovery scenes where the
wired networks have broken down.
Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

42

Applications

Prof. Bhagirathi V

Figure 1: WiMAX Applications [2]

WiMAX (IEE 802.16)

43

Applications

Figure 2: WiMAX Applications [5]

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

44

Physical layer

IEEE 802.16-2001

Designed for line-of-sight propagation because the

frequency range is between 10-66 GHz.
single-carrier modulation is used and the air interface is
called WirelessMAN-SC.
In PTM architecture, the BS transmits a TDM signal, with
individual subscriber stations allocated time slots serially.
While access in the uplink direction is by Time-division
Multiple Access (TDMA).
uses both time division duplexing (TDD) and frequencydivision duplexing (FDD).

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

45

Physical layer
IEEE 802.16-2004 (802.16d)
Design for the 2-11 GHz range and is more
complex because of interference.
Three air interfaces are specified for this range,
which are;
Wireless MAN-SC uses single carrier modulation
Wireless MAN-OFDM uses a 256-carrier FDM.
Provides multiple access to different stations through
TDMA. (Most adopted by vendors)
Wireless MAN-OFDMA uses a 2,048-carrier OFDM
scheme. Provides multiple access by assigning a
subset of the carriers to an individual receiver

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

46

Physical layer

Table 1: Physical Layer Features [5]

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

47

Physical layer
IEEE 802.16-2005 (802.16e)
The main technologies used for its physical layer are
OFDMA and an improved version called Scalable
OFDMA (SOFDMA).
OFDMA is required in the implementation of 802.16e and
also for the certification of 802.16e devices.
SOFDMA scales the number of sub-carriers in a channel
with possible values of 128, 512, 1024, and 2,048.
OFDMA and SOFDMA also benefit fixed broadband
service because carriers can allocate spectrum more
efficiently and reduce interference.

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

48

MAC Layer
It is connection oriented and supports quality of service.
It uses a slotted TDMA protocol scheduled by the base
terminal station to allocate capacity to subscribers.
Supports both Time Division Duplex (TDD) and
Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and, also Half DuplexFDD.
supports quality of service (QoS) for stations through
adaptive allocation of the uplink and downlink traffic.
It also supports different transport technologies such as
IPv4, IPv6, Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) and any future protocol not yet developed.

Prof. Bhagirathi V

WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

49

MAC Layer

Table 2: MAC Layer Features [5]

50

Prof. Bhagirathi V
WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

WIMAX versus Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.16

versus 802.11)
WiMAX was designed to replace the last-mile wired-broadband
access networks while Wi-Fi was created for providing services
into LAN networks.
At the PHY layer, WiMAX channel sizes ranges from 1.75 MHz to
20 MHz while Wi-Fi based products require at least 20 MHz for
each channel.
Wi-Fi uses the CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance) which is not an efficient protocol. The MAC
layer in WiMAX has been designed to scale from one to up 100s
users within one RF channel.
In WiMAX, the base station assigns a QoS class to each
connection. In 802.11, QoS was not considered in the early stage
of its implementation.
WiMAX supports many transport technologies, such as ATM, IPv4,
and IPv6 which are not supported by Wi-Fi.
WiMAX has the ability to support longer range transmission from 2
to 40 kilometers. While 802.11 was designed for low power
consumption which limit the coverage to hundreds of meters.
51

Prof. Bhagirathi V
WiMAX (IEEE 802.16)

Wireless Wide Area Networks

(WWANS)
Wireless networks extending beyond 50 kilometers
(31 miles)
Two primary technologies:
Digital cellular telephony
Satellites

Prof. Bhagirathi V

52

Digital Cellular Telephony

Two keys to cellular telephone networks:
Coverage area divided into cells

Cell transmitter at center

Mobile devices communicate with cell center via RF
Transmitters connected to base station,
Each base station connected to a mobile
telecommunications switching office (MTSO)
Link between cellular and wired telephone network

All transmitters and cell phones operate at low

power
Enables frequency reuse
Prof. Bhagirathi V

53

Digital Cellular Telephony (continued)

Figure 12-13: Frequency reuse

Prof. Bhagirathi V

54

Satellites
Satellite use falls into three broad categories:
Acquire scientific data, perform research
Examine Earth
Military and weather satellites

Reflectors
Relay signals
Communications, navigation, broadcast

Prof. Bhagirathi V

55

Satellites (continued)
Satellite systems classified by type of orbit:
Low earth orbiting (LEO): Small area of earth
coverage
Over 225 satellites needed for total coverage of earth
Must travel very fast

Medium earth orbiting (MEO): Larger area of

coverage than LEO
Do not need to travel as fast

Geosynchronous earth orbiting (GEO): orbit

matches earths rotation
Fixed position
Very large coverage area
Prof. Bhagirathi V

56

Satellites (continued)

Figure 12-14: LEO coverage area

Prof. Bhagirathi V

57

Prof. Bhagirathi V

58

Network Communications Standards

WiMAX

Prof. Bhagirathi V

59

Communications Software
Communications software consists of programs that:
Help users
Manage
Provide
an
theestablish
interface
transmission
afor
connection
users
of data,
to communicate
instructions,
to another computer
and
withinformation
oneoranother
network

Prof. Bhagirathi V

60

Communications Over
the Telephone Network
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the
worldwide telephone system

Prof. Bhagirathi V

61

Communications Over
the Telephone Network
DSL
ATM
Dial-up lines
Dedicated
ISDN
T-carrier
FTTP
line
line

Prof. Bhagirathi V

62

Communications Over
the Telephone Network

Prof. Bhagirathi V

63

Communications Devices
A communications device is any type of hardware
capable of transmitting data, instructions, and
information between a sending device and a receiving
device
A dial-up modem converts signals between analog and
digital

Prof. Bhagirathi V

64

Communications Devices
A digital modem sends and receives data and
information to and from a digital line
ISDNmodem
DSL
Cable
modem
modem

Prof. Bhagirathi V

65

Communications Devices

Prof. Bhagirathi V

66

Communications Devices
A wireless modem uses the cell phone network to
connect to the Internet wirelessly from a notebook
computer, a smart phone, or other mobile device

Prof. Bhagirathi V

67

Communications Devices
A network card
enables a computer
or device to access a
network
Available in a variety
of styles
Wireless network
cards often have an
antenna
Prof. Bhagirathi V

68

Communications Devices
A wireless access point is a
central communications
device that allows computers
and devices to transfer data
wirelessly among themselves
or to a wired network
A router connects multiple
computers or other routers
together and transmits data
to its correct destination on a
network
Many are protected by a
hardware firewall
Prof. Bhagirathi V

69

Home Networks
Home networks provide computers with the following
capabilities:
Access
Share
Play
Connect
Subscribe
multiplayer
aperipherals
files
single
totothe
game
and
and
high-speed
consoles
Internet
programs
games
use VoIP
attothe
Internet
the
on same
other
Internet
connection
time
computers

Prof. Bhagirathi V

70

Home Networks

Prof. Bhagirathi V

71

Communications Channel
The amount of data that
can travel over a
communications
channel sometimes is
called the bandwidth
Transmission media
carries one or more
signals
Broadband media
transmit multiple signals
simultaneously
Prof. Bhagirathi V

72

Physical Transmission Media

Twisted-pair cable
Fiber-optic cable

Coaxial cable

Prof. Bhagirathi V

73

The Future of Wireless Networks

IEEE 802.11 subcommittees currently at work:
802.11d: Supplementary to 802.11 MAC layer
Promote worldwide use of 802.11 WLANs

802.11f: Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP)

Will assist with faster handoff from one AP to another

802.11h: Supplement to MAC layer to comply with

European regulations for 5 GHz WLANs
802.11j: Incorporates Japanese regulatory
extensions to 802.11a standard
802.11s: Defines a mesh wireless network
Devices configure themselves and are intelligent
Prof. Bhagirathi V

74

Summary
WPANs encompass technology that is designed for
portable devices, typically PDAs, cell phones, and
tablet or laptop computers at transmission speeds
lower than the other types of networks
The IEEE 802.15 standards address wireless
personal area networks
RFID is not a standard but is a technology that
uses RF tags to transmit information
IrDA technology uses infrared transmissions to
transmit data at speeds from 9,600 bps to 16 Mbps
Prof. Bhagirathi V

75

Summary (continued)
FSO is an optical, wireless, point-to-point wireless
metropolitan area network technology
LMDS can provide a wide variety of wireless
services, including high-speed Internet access,
real-time multimedia file transfer, remote access to
local area networks, interactive video, video-ondemand, video conferencing, and telephone
MMDS has many of similarities to LMDS, yet has a
longer distance range

Prof. Bhagirathi V

76

Summary (continued)
The IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) standard holds great
promise for providing higher throughput rates for
fixed location and mobile users
Wireless wide area network (WWAN) technology
encompasses digital cellular telephony and satellite
The future of wireless networks is hard to predict,
but most experts agree that wireless networks will
be faster, more global, and easier to use in the
years ahead

Prof. Bhagirathi V

77