Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Wireless LANs
• Evolution and Technology
• IEEE 802.11
• Bluetooth
• Zigbee and IEEE 802.15
Evolution
• Early experiences (1970-72): IBM, HP, Motorola
– Abandoned due to limited performance and unavailability of
frequency bands
• Early challenges:
– Complexity and cost
– Bandwidth
– Coverage
– Interference
– Frequency administration
• Emergence of unlicensed bands
– Release of Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands in 1985
• Applications: military, home and enterprise networks,
mobile networks, teetherless access
Media Access
• Media in wireless networks is shared and is
scarce – access must be controlled
• Observations:
– Contention is at the receiver, not at the sender –
makes the carrier sense approach inappropriate
– Unlike Ethernet, congestion is location-dependent
– The media access protocol should propagate
congestion information explicitly rather than having
each device learn about congestion independently
– Media access protocol should propagate
synchronization information about contention periods,
so that all devices can contend effectively
IEEE 802.11
• Standardization group formed in 1990, first
standards completed in 1997
• IEEE 802.11 is the first WLAN standard; only
one to secure a market
• 802.11b: PHY layer supports 11 Mbps using
CKK (complementary code keying) technology
• 802.11a: PHY layer supports 54 Mbps using
OFDM
• Uses CSMA/CA for contention data
• Supports both infrastructure as well as ad hoc
modes
Requirements
• Single MAC to support multiple PHY
layers
• Mechanism to support multiple
overlapping network
• Provisions to handle interference
• Mechanism to handle hidden terminals
• Privacy and access control
IEEE 802.11 Protocol Architecture
Logical link control
Contention-
free service
Contention
service
BSS
BSS
Layered Protocol Architecture
• MAC sublayer is responsible for access mechanisms
and fragmentation/reassembly
• MAC management is responsible for roaming in
Extended Service Set (ESS), power management,
association/dissociation/reassociation/ process for
registration connection management
• PHY management: decides on channel tuning
– Physical Layer convergence protocol (PLCP): carrier sensing
and forming packets
– Physical Medium Dependent (PMD): modulation and coding
techniques for signaling
• Station management: coordination of interaction between
MAC and PHY layers
Low Layer Protocol Stack
LLC
Station Management
MAC
MAC Management
PLCP
PHY
Physical Layer Management
PMD
B
Node X finds that the medium
A X is free, and transmits a packet
B B
A X
A
Y X
X OK to transmit X not OK to transmit
Any node that hears this RTS will defer medium access.
RTS/CTS Dialog
CTS = Clear to Send
Defe Defe
RTS
r r
CTS
Any node that hears this CTS will defer medium access.
RTS/CTS Dialog
Defe Defe
Data
r r
ACK
Access Control
• Distributed Coordination Function (DCF)
• Point Coordinated Function (PCF)
Centralized
Distributed Coordination Function
(DCF)
• DCF sublayer makes use of a simple
CSMA algorithm
• Collision detection (CD) is not included
because of its impracticability in wireless
networks
• DCF includes a set of delays called
interframe space (IFS) to provision priority
IEEE 802.11 Medium
Wait for frame to
transmit
Medium No
Access Control Logic
idle?
Yes
Wait IFS
Yes
Wait IFS
Transmit frame
Still No
idle?
Yes
Exponential
backoff while
medium idle
Transmit frame
IEEE 802.11 DCF
• Uses RTS-CTS exchange to avoid hidden terminal
problem
– Any node overhearing a CTS cannot transmit for the duration
of the transfer
– Any node receiving the RTS cannot transmit for the duration
of the transfer
• To prevent collision with ACK when it arrives at the sender
DIFS DIFS
B2=9 B2=4
Channel Busy
NAV
Channel Idle
Channel Idle
RTS
S2
SIFS
S1 RTS DATA
B1=5 SIFS SIFS B1=7
R CTS ACK
X
NAV
cw = 15
DIFS: DCF Inter-Frame Space SIFS: Short Inter-Frame Space
Point Coordination Function (PCF)
• PCF is implemented on top of DCF
• The time sensitive traffic are controlled by the PCF and
the remaining traffic contend for access using CSMA/CA
• The centralized polling master (point coordinator) issues
polls using PIFS
• The poll responses use SIFS
• The point coordinator could issue polls in a round robin
fashion
• Seizing of the medium by the PCF is avoided by using
superframes where the point coordinator is allowed to
poll for a fixed duration and then idle for the rest of the
superframe period to allow the asynchronous traffic to
contend for the medium.
MAC Frame Format
FC D/I Address Address Address SC Address Frame Body CRC
2 2 6 6 6 2 6 0-2312 4
7.
Re
as
Beacon Periodically AP1 AP3 so
e 6. ci a
r ob se R ea
tio
n
P n
4. spo Re ssoc Re
sp
Re qu iat on
e s i on se
3. Probe Request t
1. Strong Signal
5. Choose AP
with strongest response
2. Weak Signal;
start scanning for handoff
Power Management
• How to power-off during idle periods?
• IEEE 802.11 buffers data at the AP, and sends
the data when the MS is awakened
• Using TSF, all MSs are synchronized – they
wake up at the same time to listen to beacon
• With every beacon a TIM is sent that has a list of
stations having buffered data
• An MS learns that it has buffered data by
checking beacon and TIM
Security
• There are provisions for authentication and
privacy in IEEE 802.11
• Open system authentication (default)
– Request frame sends the authentication algorithm id
– the response frame sends the result
• Shared key authentication
– Request frame sends the authentication frame id for
the shared key that is shared between itself and the
AP
– The second station sends a challenge text
– The first station sends the encrypted challenge as the
response
– The second station sends the authentication result