Wireless Networks

Dr. RABIA RIAZ

14th Nov 2018
Reference Books
 Textbooks:
1. Wireless Communication and Networks, 2nd Ed., W. Stalling.
2. Wireless Communications: Principles and Practices, 2nd Ed.,
T. S. Rappaport.

 Latest Research Papers

Introduction to Wireless
Communication
The Wireless vision
 What is wireless communication?
 What are the driving factors?
 An explosive increase in demand of tetherless
connectivity.
 Dramatic progress in VLSI technology
 Implementation of efficient signal processing
algorithms.
 New Coding techniques
 Success of 2G wireless standards (GSM)

4
Wired Vs. Wireless Communication

Wired Wireless
Each cable is a different channel One media (cable) shared by all
Signal attenuation is low High signal attenuation

No interference High interference

noise; co-channel interference; adjacent
channel interference

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Co-channel interference occurs when 2 or more AP's are using the same
channel. It causes unnecessary contention as all AP's and clients will be
forced to defer transmissions until the medium is clear. 802.11 is designed to
cope with this situation but it can cause a loss of throughput.

Adjacent channel interference is more serious and occurs when 2 or more

AP's are on overlapping channels, for example channel 1 + 4 on the 2.4Ghz
band. ACI creates overlap in the frequency space causing corrupted data
and layer 2 re-transmissions
 History of wireless communication
 Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless telegraph in
1896
 Communication by encoding alphanumeric characters in
analog signal
 Sent telegraphic signals across the Atlantic Ocean
 1914 – first voice communication over radio waves
 Communications satellites launched in 1960s
 Advances in wireless technology
 Radio, television, mobile telephone, communication satellites
 More recently
 Satellite communications, wireless networking, cellular
technology
What is Wireless Communication ?
 Transmitting voice and data using electromagnetic
waves in open space (atmosphere)
 Electromagnetic waves
 Travel at speed of light (c = 3x108 m/s)
 Has a frequency (f) and wavelength (l)
 c=fxl
 Higher frequency means higher energy photons
 The higher the energy photon the more penetrating is the
radiation
 Advantages and disadvantages of
wireless communication
 advantages:
 mobility
 a wireless communication network is a solution in areas where
cables are impossible to install (e.g. hazardous areas, long
distances etc.)
 easier to maintain
 disadvantages:
 has security vulnerabilities
 high costs for setting the infrastructure
 unlike wired comm., wireless comm. is influenced by physical
obstructions, climatic conditions, interference from other
wireless devices
Types of wireless communication

celullar wireless computer network radio service

Electromagnetic radiation spectrum
 EM Spectrum
ISM band
902 – 928 Mhz
2.4 – 2.4835 Ghz
5.725 – 5.785 Ghz

LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF


30kHz 300kHz 3MHz 30MHz 300MHz 3GHz 30GHz 300GHz

10km 1km 100m 10m 1m 10cm 1cm 100mm l

X rays
Gamma rays
 infrared visible UV
1 kHz 1 MHz 1 GHz 1 THz 1 PHz 1 EHz

Propagation characteristics are different in each frequency band

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Wavelength of Some Technologies
 GSM Phones:
 frequency ~= 900 Mhz
 wavelength ~= 33cm
 PCS Phones
 frequency ~= 1.8 Ghz
 wavelength ~= 17.5 cm
 Bluetooth:
 frequency ~= 2.4Gz
 wavelength ~= 12.5cm
 Types of electromagnetic carriers
 when the distance between the sender and receiver is
short (e.g. TV box and a remote control) infrared
waves are used
 for long range distances between sender and receiver
(e.g. TV broadcasting and cellular service) both
microwaves and radio waves are used
 radio waves are ideal when large areas need to be coverd and
obstacles exist in the transmission path
 microwaves are good when large areas need to be coverd and
no obstacles exist in the transmission path
Wireless applications (services)
Frequency Carries/Channels
 The information from sender to receiver is carrier
over a well defined frequency band.
 This is called a channel
 Each channel has a fixed frequency bandwidth (in
KHz) and Capacity (bit-rate)
 Different frequency bands (channels) can be used to
transmit information in parallel and independently.
 Example
 Assume a spectrum of 90KHz is allocated over a base frequency b
for communication between stations A and B
 Assume each channel occupies 30KHz.
 There are 3 channels
 Each channel is simplex (Transmission occurs in one way)
 For full duplex communication:
 Use two different channels (front and reverse channels)
 Use time division in a channel

Channel 1 (b - b+30)
Station A Channel 2 (b+30 - b+60) Station B

Channel 3 (b+60 - b+90)

Radio waves generation
 when a high-frequency alternating current (AC) passes
through a copper conductor it generates radio waves
which are propagated into the air using an antena

 radio waves have frequencies between:

 3 Hz – 300 KHz - low frequency
 300 KHz – 30 MHz – high frequency
 30 MHz – 300 MHz – very high frequency
 300 MHz – 300 GHz – ultra high frequency
Radio propagation
Radio propagation (2)

 radio waves are generated by an antenna and they

propagate in all directions as a straight line
 radio waves travel at a velocity of 186.000 miles per
second
 radio waves become weaker as they travel a long
distance
Radio propagation (3)
 there are 3 modes of propagation:
 surface mode – for low frequency waves
 direct mode – for high frequency waves
 ionospheric mode – long distance high frequency waves
Electromagnetic Signal
 Function of time
 Can also be expressed as a function of
frequency
 Signal consists of components of different
frequencies

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Time-Domain Concepts
 Analog signal - signal intensity varies in a smooth
fashion over time
 No breaks or discontinuities in the signal
 Digital signal - signal intensity maintains a constant
level for some period of time and then changes to
another constant level
 Periodic signal - analog or digital signal pattern that
repeats over time
 s(t +T ) = s(t ) - ∞< t < + ∞
 where T is the period of the signal
 Aperiodic signal - analog or digital signal pattern that
doesn't repeat over time

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Time-Domain Concepts
 Peak amplitude (A) - maximum value or
strength of the signal over time; typically
measured in volts
 Frequency (f )
 Rate, in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz) at
which the signal repeats
 Period (T ) - amount of time it takes for one
repetition of the signal
 T = 1/f
 Phase () - measure of the relative position in
time within a single period of a signal
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Time-Domain Concepts
 Wavelength (l) - distance occupied by a single cycle
of the signal
 Or, the distance between two points of corresponding phase
of two consecutive cycles
l = vT
Sine wave Square wave

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Time-Domain Concepts
 General sine wave
 s(t ) = A sin(2ft + )
 Figure shows the effect of varying each of the
three parameters
 (a) A = 1, f = 1 Hz,  = 0; thus T = 1s
 (b) Reduced peak amplitude; A=0.5
 (c) Increased frequency; f = 2, thus T = ½
 (d) Phase shift;  = /4 radians (45 degrees)
 note: 2 radians = 360° = 1 period

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Sine Wave Parameters

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Frequency-Domain Concepts
 Fundamental frequency - when all frequency
components of a signal are integer multiples
of one frequency, it’s referred to as the
fundamental frequency
 Spectrum - range of frequencies that a signal
contains
 Absolute bandwidth - width of the spectrum of
a signal
 Effective bandwidth (or just bandwidth) -
narrow band of frequencies that most of the
signal’s energy is contained in
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Frequency-Domain Concepts
 Any electromagnetic signal can be shown to
consist of a collection of periodic analog
signals (sine waves) at different amplitudes,
frequencies, and phases
 The period of the total signal is equal to the
period of the fundamental frequency

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Relationship between Data Rate and Bandwidth

 The greater the bandwidth, the higher the

information-carrying capacity
 Conclusions
 Any digital waveform will have infinite
bandwidth
 BUT the transmission system will limit the
bandwidth that can be transmitted
 AND, for any given medium, the greater the
bandwidth transmitted, the greater the cost
 HOWEVER, limiting the bandwidth creates
distortions
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Data Communication Terms

 Data - entities that convey meaning, or

information
 Signals - electric or electromagnetic
representations of data
 Transmission - communication of data by
the propagation and processing of signals
Examples of Analog and Digital
Data
 Analog
 Video
 Audio
 Digital
 Text
 Integers
Analog Signals
 A continuously varying electromagnetic wave that
may be propagated over a variety of media,
depending on frequency
 Examples of media:
 Copper wire media (twisted pair and coaxial cable)
 Fiber optic cable
 Atmosphere or space propagation
 Analog signals can propagate analog and digital
data
Digital Signals

 A sequence of voltage pulses that may be

transmitted over a copper wire medium
 Generally cheaper than analog signaling
 Less susceptible to noise interference
 Suffer more from attenuation
 Digital signals can propagate analog and
digital data
Analog Signaling
Digital Signaling
Reasons for Choosing Data and
Signal Combinations
 Digital data, digital signal
 Equipment for encoding is less expensive than digital-
to-analog equipment
 Analog data, digital signal
 Conversion permits use of modern digital transmission
and switching equipment
 Digital data, analog signal
 Some transmission media will only propagate analog
signals
 Examples include optical fiber and satellite
 Analog data, analog signal
 Analog data easily converted to analog signal
Analog Transmission
 Transmit analog signals without regard to
content
 Attenuation limits length of transmission
link
 Cascaded amplifiers boost signal’s energy
for longer distances but cause distortion
 Analog data can tolerate distortion
 Introduces errors in digital data
Digital Transmission
 Concerned with the content of the signal
 Attenuation endangers integrity of data
 Digital Signal
 Repeaters achieve greater distance
 Repeaters recover the signal and retransmit
 Analog signal carrying digital data
 Retransmission device recovers the digital data from
analog signal
 Generates new, clean analog signal
About Channel Capacity
 Impairments, such as noise, limit data rate
that can be achieved
 For digital data, to what extent do
impairments limit data rate?
 Channel Capacity – the maximum rate at
which data can be transmitted over a given
communication path, or channel, under given
conditions

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Concepts Related to Channel Capacity
 Data rate - rate at which data can be communicated
(bps)
 Bandwidth - the bandwidth of the transmitted signal
as constrained by the transmitter and the nature of
the transmission medium (Hertz)
 Noise - average level of noise over the
communications path
 Error rate - rate at which errors occur
 Error = transmit 1 and receive 0; transmit 0 and receive 1

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Nyquist Bandwidth
 For binary signals (two voltage levels)
 C = 2B
 With multilevel signaling
 C = 2B log2 M
 M = number of discrete signal or voltage levels

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Signal-to-Noise Ratio
 Ratio of the power in a signal to the power contained
in the noise that’s present at a particular point in the
transmission
 Typically measured at a receiver
 Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR, or S/N)

signal power
( SNR) dB  10 log 10
noise power
 A high SNR means a high-quality signal, lower
number of required intermediate repeaters
 SNR sets upper bound on achievable data rate

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Shannon Capacity Formula
 Equation:

C  B log 2 1  SNR

 Represents theoretical maximum that can be

achieved
 In practice, only much lower rates achieved
 Formula assumes white noise (thermal noise)
 Impulse noise is not accounted for
 Attenuation distortion or delay distortion not accounted for

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Example of Nyquist and Shannon
Formulations
 Spectrum of a channel between 3 MHz and
4 MHz ; SNRdB = 24 dB
B
4MHz
3MHz1
MHz
SNR
dB24
dB
10 
log 
SNR
10


SNR
251
 Using Shannon’s formula


C
10 
log
1
2 

6
251

10
88
M 6
Example of Nyquist and Shannon
Formulations
 How many signaling levels are required?

C2Blog
2M
6
 
810210log
2M
6

4log
2M

M16
Modulation
 modulation = adding information (e.g. voice) to a
carrier electromagnetic (radio) signal
Frequency Modulation (FM).
Amplitude Modulation (AM)
Radio frequency interference
Radio signal attenuation (path loss)