TE481: Wireless Data Communication Networks

Lecture1: Fundamentals of Wireless Communications

 Lecture Objectives
• Explain what a wireless system is
• Discuss electromagnetic spectrum and signals used as
means to transmit information
• Discuss wireless propagation
• Explain the concepts of data, signal and wireless
transmission
• Explain medium access techniques
 Wireless

• The term wireless refers to

– telecommunication technology, in which
• radio waves
• infrared waves
• microwaves
instead of cables or wires, are used to carry
• a signal to connect communication devices
 Electromagnetic waves
• Electromagnetic waves are
– created by the movement of electrons and have the ability to
propagate through space

• Wireless communications use

– electromagnetic waves that travel through space
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
• The range of
– electromagnetic radiation is called the spectrum
• Parts of the spectrum are known as band
 Frequency range for wireless systems
• In wireless systems
– three general ranges of frequency are of interest
1. Microwave frequencies
– 1GHz to 100GHz
» at these frequencies, highly directional beams are
possible, and microwave is suitable for point-to-point
transmission
2. Radio range
– 30MHz to 1GHz
» frequencies in this range are suitable for omnidirectional
applications
3. infrared range
– 300GHz to 200000GHz
» suitable for local point to point and multipoint applications
within confined areas such as a single room
 Antennas
• In wireless systems
– transmission and reception are achieved by means of an
• antenna
• An antenna can be defined as an
– electrical conductor or system of conductors used either for
radiating or for collecting electromagnetic energy
• For transmission of a signal
– radio-frequency electrical energy from the transmitter is
• converted into electromagnetic energy by the antenna and radiated
into the surrounding environment
• For reception of a signal
– electromagnetic energy impinging on the antenna is
• converted into radio-frequency electrical energy and fed into the
receiver
 Configurations for wireless transmission

• There are two types of configurations for wireless

transmission:
1. Directional
• the transmitting antenna puts out a focused electromagnetic beam
• the transmitting and receiving antennas must be carefully aligned
2. Omnidirectional
• The transmitted signal spreads out in all directions and can be
received by many antennas
 Wireless propagation
• A signal radiated from an antenna travels one of three
routes
– Ground wave (below 2 MHz)
– Sky wave (2 to 30 MHz)
– Line of sight (above 30MHz)
 Ground wave propagation
• Electromagnetic waves of
– frequencies about 2 MHz follows the contour of the Earth
• and can propagate considerable distances
– the best known example of ground wave communication is AM
radio
 Sky wave propagation
• With sky wave propagation
– a signal from an earth-based antenna is reflected from the
• ionized layer of the upper atmosphere back down to Earth
• Sky wave propagation is
– used for amateur radio and international broadcasts such as
BBC and Voice of America
 Line-of-sight propagation
• Above 30 MHz
– neither ground wave nor sky wave propagation modes operate
• communication must be by line of sight
• For ground-based communication
– the transmitting and receiving antennas must be within an
effective line of sight of each other
 Wireless channel
• The wireless channel places
– fundamental limitations on the performance of
• wireless communication systems
• The transmission path between
– The transmitter and receiver can vary from
• Simple line-of-sight to one that is severely obstructed by buildings,
mountains etc
• wireless channels are
– extremely random and do not offer easy analysis
• Modeling the wireless channel has
– historically been one of the most difficult parts of wireless system
design
 Propagation models
• Propagation models have
– traditionally focused on predicting the
• average received signal strength at a given distance from the
transmitter
• variability of the signal strength in close spatial proximity to a
particular location
Small-scale and large-scale fading
 Large-scale propagation models
• Propagation models that
– predict the mean signal strength for an arbitrary transmitter-
receiver (T - R) separation distances are called
• large-scale propagation models
– useful in estimating the radio coverage area of a transmitter
 Free-space propagation model
• The free- space propagation model is used to
– predict received signal strength when the transmitter and
receiver
• have a clear unobstructed line-of-sight radio links
• The free-space model
– predicts that received power decay as a function of the T – R
separation distance raised to some power

– use handwritten notes

Okumura’s model
Doppler effect
 Multi-path Propagation
• Electromagnetic waves
– bounce off of conductive (metal) objects
• Reflected waves received along with direct wave
 Concept of data, signal and transmission

• Data is defined as
– entities that convey meaning or information
• Signals are
– Electric or electromagnetic representation of data
• Transmission is the
– Communication (transfer) of data by the propagation and
processing of signals
 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)
• Channel Capacity
– the maximum rate at which data can be transmitted over a
given communication path, or channel, under given
conditions
• Error rate
– rate at which errors occur
 Channel capacity
• The channel capacity is computed using
 S
C  B log 2 1  
 N
where
C = the channel capacity (in bps)
B = the RF bandwidth
S/N = the signal-to-noise ratio
 Channel capacity
• Example:
– If the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a wireless communication
link is 20 dB and the RF bandwidth is 30 kHz, determine the
maximum theoretical data rate that can be transmitted.
 Channel capacity
• Solution
– Given S/N = 20 dB = 100
– RF Bandwidth B = 30000 Hz
– Using Shannon’s channel capacity formula, the maximum
possible data rate

 S
C  B log 2 1    30000 log 2 1 100 199.5 kbps
 N
 Modulation
• Modulation is the
– process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency
periodic waveform (carrier signal)
• with a modulating signal which typically contains information
to be transmitted
• Modulation allows the
– carrier signal to carry information by adjusting its properties in a
time varying way
• Amplitude
• Frequency
• Phase
 Spread Spectrum
• Spread spectrum is an important form of
– encoding for wireless communications
• The basic idea of spread spectrum is to
– spread the information signal over a wider frequency band
(bandwidth) to
• make jamming and interception more difficult and provides improved
reception
• The input data is
– fed into a channel encoder that produces an analog signal with
relatively narrow bandwidth around some center frequency.
• this signal is further modulated using a sequence of digits known as a
spreading code.
– The effect of this modulation is to increase significantly the
bandwidth (spread of the spectrum) of the signal to be transmitted
 Spread Spectrum
• Frequency-hopping spread spectrum:
– is a form of spread spectrum in which the signal is
• broadcast over a seemingly random series of radio frequencies,
hopping from frequency to frequency at fixed intervals
• Direct sequence spread spectrum:
– is a form of spread spectrum in which each bit in the original
signal is
• represented by multiple bits in the transmitted signal, using a
spreading code
 Multiple Access Techniques
– Enable many mobile users to share simultaneously
radio spectrum

– Provide for the sharing of channel capacity between a

number of transmitters at different locations

– Aim to share a channel between two or more signals

in such way that each signal can be received without
interference from another
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

• Each transmitter is allocated a channel with a particular

bandwidth

• All transmitters are able to transmit simultaneously

 FDMA
• Allocation of separate channels to FDMA signals
 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

• Transmitters share a common channel

• Only one transmitter is allowed to transmit at a time

– Synchronous TDMA: access to the channel is restricted to
regular
– Asynchronous TDMA: a station may transmit at any time that the
channel is free
 TDMA
• Allocation of time slot in TDMA
 CDMA: Code division multiple access
• used in several wireless broadcast channels (cellular,
satellite, etc) standards
• unique “code” assigned to each user; i.e., code set
partitioning
• all users share same frequency, but each user has own
code to encode data
• encoded signal = (original data) XOR (code)
• allows multiple users to “coexist” and transmit
simultaneously with minimal interference (if codes are
“orthogonal”)