Wireless Networks:

MAN, LAN & PAN

Lecture 4

Dr. Roz Wyatt-Millington

 Learning Outcomes

• By end of lecture you should:

– Understand differences between wireless MANs,
LANs and PANs:
• Uses
• Ranges
– Describe how different networks basically work.
– Explain the differences between different IEEE
802.11 physical layer implementations.
– State advantages and disadvantages of different
types of wireless networks.
 Overview of the Development
cellular phones satellites cordless phones wireless LAN wireless PAN
1980:
1981: CT0
NMT 450
1982:
1983: 1984:
Inmarsat-A
AMPS CT1
1985:
1986: TACS 1987:
NMT 900
CT1+
1988:
Inmarsat-C 1989:
CT 2
1991:
1991: 1991: 1991: 199x:
CDMA 1992:
D-AMPS GSM DECT proprietary
IS-95 Inmarsat-B
1993: Inmarsat-M
PDC 1994: 1997:
DCS 1800 IEEE 802.11

1999: 1999:
IEEE 802.11b Bluetooth v1.0
Late 90’s:
2000: LEO
2001: 2000: 2000:
GPRS systems
GMR IEEE 802.11a Bluetooth v1.1

2002:
IMT-2000 2003: 2003:
IEEE 802.11g Bluetooth v1.2

2004:
200?: Bluetooth v2.0
Fourth Generation
(Internet based)
 Wireless Networks

• IEEE Project 802 (LAN/MAN Standards

Committee) defines three types of wireless
network:
– Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMAN) –
WiMax: 802.16 working group
• Broadband wireless access services to buildings
– Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) – WiFi: 802.11
working group
• Users roaming within buildings
– Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) –
Bluetooth: 802.15 working group
• Short range links between computers, mobiles etc.
 Wireless Networks

(MAN) Connects devices up to an

IEEE 802.16
Metropolitan Area Network approx. 30 mile radius

(LAN) Connects devices up to an

IEEE 802.11
Local Area Network approx. 300m radius

(PAN) Connects devices up to an

IEEE 802.15 approx. 10m radius
Personal Area Network
 Wireless MAN

WiMax: IEEE 802.16

W-MAN
 W-MAN

• WiMax basics:
– Wireless extension to cable and DSL for last
mile broadband access.
• Complements WiFi rather than conflicting with it.
• Can connect WiFi hotspots to Internet.
– Up to 50 km (31 miles) line of sight operation.
– Up to 70 Mbit/s.
– Use same Logical Link Controller (LLC) as
other 802 LANs & WANs
• Can be bridged to other networks – ethernet,
token-ring etc.
 W-MAN

• WiMax basics:
– 2 to 11 GHz (unlicensed) or 10 to 66 GHz (licensed)
– Uses scheduled medium access control (MAC)
• User competes for access initially.
• Assigned timeslot for use which is reserved for subscriber.
– MAC supports multiple physical layers
– Not true global roaming
• IEEE 802.20 – Mobile Broadband Wireless Access
• Current standard: IEEE 802.16-2004
– Mobile Wireless MAN: IEEE 802.11e approved
standard 7/12/05
 Comparison of Mobile Internet
Access Methods
Standard Family Primary Radio Tech DL UL Notes
Use (Mbps) (Mbps)
802.16e WiMAX Mobile MIMO-SOFDMA 70 70 Quoted speeds only achievable at very short
Internet ranges, more practically 10 Mbps at 10 km.
HIPERMAN HIPERMA Mobile OFDM 56.9 56.9
N Internet
WiBro WiBro Mobile OFDMA 50 50 Mobile range (900 m)
Internet
iBurst iBurst Mobile HC-SDMA 64 64 3-12 km
802.20 Internet
UMTS W-CDMA UMTS/ Mobile CDMA/FDD .384 .384 HSDPA downlink widely deployed. Roadmap
HSDPA+HSUPA 3GSM phone 3.6 5.76 shows HSDPA up to 28.8 Mbps downstream in
the future. Currently, users can expect typical
download speeds of 1-2 Mbps but around 200
kbps uplink speeds.
UMTS-TDD UMTS/ Mobile CDMA/TDD 16 16 Reported speeds according to IPWireless using
3GSM Internet 16QAM modulation similar to HSDPA+HSUPA
LTE UMTS UMTS/ General 4G OFDMA/MIMO/ >100 >50 Still in development
4GSM SC-
FDMA HSOPA)
1xRTT CDMA2000 Mobile CDMA 0.144 0.144 Obsoleted by EV-DO
phone
EV-DO 1x Rev. 0 CDMA2000 Mobile CDMA/FDD 2.45 0.15 Rev B note: N is the number of 1.25 MHz chunks
EV-DO 1x Rev.A Internet 3.1 1.8 of spectrum used. Not yet deployed.
EV-DO Rev.B 4.9xN 1.8xN
Wireless LAN

WiFi: IEEE 802.11

 W-LAN

• Wireless LANs enable suitably configured

devices to gain access to the Internet
• W-LANs tend to be situated in hot-spot
areas, such as airports, hotels, train
stations
• W-LAN standards are being driven by the
IEEE 802.11 family of standards
Characteristics of wireless LANs

• Advantages
– very flexible within the reception area
– Ad-hoc networks without previous planning
possible
– (almost) no wiring difficulties (e.g. historic
buildings, firewalls)
– more robust against disasters like, e.g.,
earthquakes, fire - or users pulling a plug...
Characteristics of wireless LANs

• Disadvantages
– typically very low bandwidth compared to
wired networks (1 – 54 Mbps)
– products have to follow many national
restrictions if working wireless, it takes a vary
long time to establish global solutions like,
e.g., IMT-2000
 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
 Design goals for wireless LANs

• 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, but also location
awareness if necessary
 Comparison:
infrastructure vs. ad-hoc networks
infrastructure
network
AP: Access Point
AP

AP wired network
AP

ad-hoc network
 IEEE standard 802.11
fixed
terminal
mobile terminal

infrastructure
network

access point
application application
TCP TCP
IP IP
LLC LLC LLC
802.11 MAC 802.11 MAC 802.3 MAC 802.3 MAC
802.11 PHY 802.11 PHY 802.3 PHY 802.3 PHY
 IEEE 802.11: Protocol Architecture

Logical link control (LLC)

Contention-free
Contention
service
algorithm

Point co-ordination function

(PCF)
MAC
Layer
Distributed co-ordination function (DCF)

802.11 802.11 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n 802.11n

Physical 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 5 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 5 GHz
Layer FHSS DSSS OFDM DSSS DSSS, OFDM, OFDM,
OFDM MIMO MIMO
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
DSSS Direct-Spread Spread Spectrum
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
 IEEE 802.11
Physical layer
• OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplex)
– Up to 54 Mbps (802.11a/g)
– Multicarrier modulation
• Spreads data bits across sub-channels at different
frequencies
• MIMO (multiple input multiple output)
– Multiple antennas at transmitter & receiver
• Transmit individual streams of data (spatial multiplexing)
• Transmit multiple copies of same stream (space time coding)
– Uses space-time coding & spatial multiplexing
techniques to exploit multipath effect
• Increases data throughput
 IEEE 802.11
MAC Layer
• Media Access Control specified by 802.11
comprises of two techniques
– PCF (optional) and DCF (mandatory)
• DCF uses Ethernet-style contention algorithm
– Receivers send an ACK if they successfully receive a
packet, otherwise the transmitter resends
– Period during which terminal operates in DCF mode
is termed the Contention Period (CP)
 IEEE 802.11
MAC Layer
• PCF is based on a polling technique
– Requires one Station to act as the Point Coordinator
(PC)
– Stations are polled in turn by the PC
– Station with a packet pending sends out the packet
upon being polled
– Period during which terminal operates in PCF mode is
termed the Contention Free Period (CFP)
• A superframe is defines as the sum of the CP
and CFP
 Comparison of IEEE 802.11

Frequency Data Rate Data Rate Transmission Range Range

Protocol Date
bands (Typ) (Max) Scheme (Indoor) (Outdoor)

802.11a 1999 5 GHz 25 Mbit/s 54 Mbit/s OFDM ~35 m ~120 m

802.11b 1999 2.4 GHz 6.5 Mbit/s 11 Mbit/s DSSS ~38 m ~ 140 m

DSSS
802.11g 2003 2.4 GHz 25 Mbit/s 54 Mbit/s ~38 m ~ 140 m
OFDM

2007 2.4 GHz or 5 OFDM

802.11n 74 Mbit/s 600 Mbit/s ~70 m ~250 m
(draft) GHz MIMO

802.11y 2008 3.7 GHz 23 Mbit/s 53 Mbit/s OFDM ~50 m ~5000m