Wireless LANs: Characteristics

Types
Infrastructure based Adhoc

Advantages
Flexible deployment Minimal wiring difficulties More robust against disasters (earthquake etc) Historic buildings, conferences, trade shows,

Disadvantages
Low bandwidth compared to wired networks (1-10 Mbit/s) Proprietary solutions 1 Need to follow wireless spectrum regulations

Transmission: Infrared vs. Radio

Infrared
uses IR diodes, diffuse light, multiple reflections (walls, furniture etc.)

Radio
typically using the license free ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) band at 2.4 GHz

Advantages
simple, cheap, available in many mobile devices no licenses needed simple shielding possible

Advantages
experience from wireless WAN and mobile phones can be used coverage of larger areas possible (radio can penetrate walls, furniture etc.)

Disadvantages
interference by sunlight, heat sources etc. many things shield or absorb IR light low bandwidth

Disadvantages
very limited license free frequency bands shielding more difficult, interference with other electrical devices

Example
IrDA (Infrared Data Association) interface available everywhere

Example
WiFi, WaveLAN, HIPERLAN, 2 Bluetooth

Wireless LAN
operate in a local area
less than 100 m

provide access to wired LANs and the Internet provide high data rates

Major Standards for WLAN

HIPERLAN
High Performance Radio LAN European standard

IEEE 802.11
US standard today, it holds the entire market Only this standard will be mainly discussed here

Two Modes of IEEE 802.11

Infrastructure Mode
Terminals communicate to an access point.

Ad Hoc Mode
Terminals communicate in a peer-to-peer basis without any access point.

802.11 - Infrastructure Mode

802.11 LAN 802.x LAN

Station (STA)
Wireless terminals

STA1

Basic Service Area (BSA)

BSS1 Access Point Portal

Coverage area of one access point

Basic Service Set (BSS)

group of stations controlled by the same AP

Distribution System ESS BSS2 Access Point

Distribution System (DS)

Fixed infrastructure used to connect several BSS to create an Extended Service Set (ESS)

Portal
STA2 802.11 LAN STA3

bridge to other (wired) networks

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802.11 Ad Hoc mode

802.11 LAN STA1 BSS1 STA3

Terminals communicate in a peer-to-peer basis.

STA2

BSS2 STA5 STA4 802.11 LAN

IEEE 802 Protocol Layers

Protocol Architecture
fixed terminal mobile terminal A typical scenario server Ethernet access point

application TCP IP 802.11 covers only PHY and MAC LLC 802.11 MAC 802.11 PHY 802.3 MAC 802.3 PHY Logical link control

application TCP IP LLC 802.3 MAC 802.3 PHY

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Data Link

LLC 802.11 MAC 802.11 PHY

Functions of Each Layer

Physical Layer
Encoding/decoding of signals Bit transmission/reception

Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer

On transmission, assemble data into a frame for transmission On reception, disassemble frame and perform error detection Coordinate users access to the transmission medium

Logical Link Control (LLC) Layer

Provide an interface to upper layers Perform flow and error control
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Physical Layer
802.11 supports 3 different PHY layers Infrared
simple and cheap requires line of sight (LOS)

Radio (2 types)
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) can cover a larger area (e.g. penetrate walls)
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Main IEEE 802.11 Standards

Standard Spectrum Bit Rate Transmission Compatibility

802.11 (1997)

wavelength between 850 and 950 nm; 2.4 GHz 5.0 GHz

1/2 Mbps

Infrared / FHSS / DSSS

N/A

802.11a (1999)

54 Mbps

OFDM

None

802.11b (Wi-Fi) 2.4 GHz (1999) 802.11g (June, 2003) 2.4 GHz

11 Mbps (ARS) 54 Mbps

DSSS

802.11

OFDM

802.11 / 802.11b

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How to join a network?

Infrastructure Mode

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Steps to Join a Network

1. Discover available network
i.e. basic service set (BSS)

2. Select a BSS 3. Authentication 4. Association

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1. Discovering Available Network

Passive Scanning
Each AP broadcasts periodically a Beacon frame, which includes:
APs MAC address, Network name (also known as Service Set Identifier, SSID), etc.

Active Scanning
Station sends a Probe Request frame AP responses with a Probe Response frame, which includes
APs MAC address, SSID, etc.

A method (Active or passive) is chosen according to the power consumption/performance trade-off. 15

2. Choosing a Network
The user selects from available networks Common criteria for selecting a network are:
User choice Strongest signal Most recently used

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3. Authentication
Authentication
A station proves its identity to the AP.

Two Mechanisms
Open System Authentication Shared Key Authentication

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Open System Authentication

The default authentication protocol for 802.11. Authenticates anyone who requests authentication. NULL authentication (i.e. no authentication at all)

Authentication Request (open system) Authentication Response

Station

Access Point

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Shared Key Authentication

It is assumed that the station and the AP somehow agrees on a shared secret key via a channel independent of IEEE 802.11.
Authentication Request (shared key) 128-byte Challenge text string, generated randomly Challenge text string, encrypted with shared key Station Note: Challenge is encrypted by WEP algorithm. Positive or negative response based on decryption result
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Access Point

4. Association
The station needs to register to the AP.
Association Request

Association Response Station Access Point

During this process, the wireless devices make transitions from one state to others. These states are: (1). Unauthenticated and Unassociated. (2). Authenticated and unassociated and (3). Authenticated and associated
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