IT6601 – MOBILE COMPUTING

UNIT – I
INTRODUCTION

Mobile Computing – Mobile Computing Vs Wireless Networking – Mobile

Computing Applications – Characteristics of Mobile Computing – Structure of
Mobile Computing Application. MAC Protocols – Wireless MAC Issues – Fixed
Assignment Schemes – Random Assignment Schemes – Reservation Based Schemes

Part - A

1. What is Mobile Computing? List the advantages of Mobile Computing?(Reg.2013)

Mobile Computing is defined as the ability to compute remotely while on the move. It
is a fast and emerging field that enables people to access information from anywhere at
any time. Mobile computing is also known as Ubiquitous computing (or) Nomadic
Computing.
Advantages of Mobile Computing:
 Tremendous flexibility to users.
 User and device mobility
 Wireless communication
 Ubiquitous
 Portable computing platform
 Provide innovative services.

2.Differentiate Wireless computing and Mobile Computing. (Reg.2013)

Mobile computing - Denotes accessing information and remote computational
services on the move.
Wireless Networking - It provides the basic communication infrastructure for
remote communication on the move.

3. What is MAC Protocol? List its objectives. (Reg.2013)

MAC protocol is a medium access arbitration scheme to regulate the user access to a
shared medium / channel. It resolves the connection among the nodes/ users when they try
to transmit data on the same shared channel at the same time.
Objectives:
 Maximization of utilization of channel
 Minimization of average latency of transmission.

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4. What are the desirable properties of MAC protocol? (Reg.2013)

 It should implement some mechanism to regulate traffic and user access when
they contend for a shared channel.
 It should help to maximize the utilization of the channel.
Channel allocation must be fair. No node has to wait for a long time for the
transmission.
 It should be capable of supporting several types of traffic having different
maximum and average bit rates.
 It should be robust in the face of equipment failures and changing network
conditions.

5. What is MACA protocol? (Reg.2013)

MACA stands for Multiple Access Collision Avoidance. MACA solves the
hidden/exposed terminal problems by regulating the transmitter power. A node running
MACA requests to use the medium by sending an RTS to the receiver. Since radio signals
propagate omni-directionally, every terminal within the sender’s radio range will hear this
and then refrain from transmitting. As soon as the receiver is ready to receive data, it responds
with a CTS.

6. What are the different access mechanisms?(Dec 2012)

 FDMA – Frequency Division Multiple Access
 CDMA – Code Division Multiple Access
 TDMA – Time Division Multiple Access
 SDMA – Space Division Multiple Access

7. What is the motivation for a specialized MAC? (May 2012)

Collision detection is very difficult in wireless scenarios as the transmission power in
the area of the transmitting antenna is several magnitudes higher than the receiving
power. In this scheme, a sender senses the medium (a wire or coaxial cable) to see if it is
free. If the medium is busy, the sender waits until it is free. If the medium is free, the
sender starts transmitting data and continues to listen into the medium. If the sender
detects a collision while sending, it stops at once and sends a jamming signal.
But this scheme does not work well with wireless networks because
 Signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance
 The sender would apply CS and CD, but the collisions happen at the receiver
 It might be a case that a sender cannot “hear” the collision, i.e., CD does not work
 Furthermore, CS might not work, if for e.g., a terminal is “hidden”

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8. Prove that Barker code has good correlation. (Dec 2012)

A code for a certain user should have good auto correlation (i.e., the absolute value of
the inner product of a vector multiplied with itself should be larger. The Barker code (+1,-
1,+1,+1,-1,+1,+1,+1,-1,-1,-1) has good auto correlation because the inner product with
itself is large , the result is 11

9. Differentiate TDMA and FDMA. (Dec 2014)

FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
a. It assign a certain frequency to a transmission channel between a sender and a
receiver
b. It is permanent (e.g., radio broadcast), slow hopping (e.g., GSM), fast hopping
(FHSS, Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum)

TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)

a. It Assign the fixed sending frequency to a transmission channel between a sender

and a receiver for a certain amount of time

10. Which TDMA is suitable for satellite systems? (June 2014)

DAMA - Demand Assigned Multiple Access (typical scheme for satellite links)
a. Reservation can increase efficiency to 80%
b. a sender reserves a future time-slot
c. sending within this reserved time-slot is possible without collision reservation also
causes higher delays

11. What do you mean by hidden and exposed terminal problem? (Dec 2012(MP))
Hidden and Exposed Terminals: Consider the scenario with three mobile phones as
shown below. The transmission range of A reaches B, but not C (the detection range does
not reach C either). The transmission range of C reaches B, but not A. Finally, the
transmission range of B reaches A and C, i.e., A cannot detect C and vice versa.

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Hidden terminals
 A sends to B, C cannot hear A
 C wants to send to B, C senses a “free” medium (CS fails) and starts transmitting
 Collision at B occurs, A cannot detect this collision (CD fails) and continues with
its transmission to B
 A is “hidden” from C and vice versa
Exposed terminals
 B sends to A, C wants to send to another terminal (not A or B) outside the range
 C senses the carrier and detects that the carrier is busy.
 C postpones its transmission until it detects the medium as being idle again
 but A is outside radio range of C, waiting is not necessary
 C is “exposed” to B
Hidden terminals cause collisions, where as Exposed terminals causes’
unnecessary delay.

12. Why is detection difficult in wireless scenario? (Dec 2013) (Or)

Why CSMA/CD does not work well in wireless network?
 Signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance
 The sender would apply Carrier Sense and Collision Detection , but the
collisions happen at the receiver
 It might be the case that a sender cannot “hear” the collision, i.e., Collision
Detection does not work
 Carrier Sense might not work if, e.g., a terminal is “hidden”

13. Why is the physical layer in IEEE 802.11 subdivided? (Nov 2015)
 Depending on transmission technology, bandwidth, etc, different physical
layers exist.
 They all share a common MAC.
 In order to adapt the different lower parts of the physical layer a sub layer
offers common function required by MAC, eg. Carrier sensing.

14. Define Piconets and Scatternets. (Nov. 2015(MP))

A piconet is a computer network which links a wireless user group of devices using
Bluetooth technology protocols. A piconet consists of two or more devices occupying the
same physical channel. A piconet can support up to eight devices.
A scatternet is a number of interconnected piconets that supports communication
between more than 8 devices. Scatternets can be formed when a member of one
piconet elects to participate as a slave in a second, separate piconet.

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15. How does near/far effect influence TDMA Systems? (Nov 2015)
As long as a station can receive a signal and the signal arrives at the right time to hit
the right time-slot it does not matter in TDMA systems if terminals are far or near.

-o0o – o0o –o0o

Part - B
University Questions
Mobile Computing
1. Discuss in detail about Mobile Computing and its characteristics and also illustrate the
structure of mobile computing applications. (16) (Reg. 2013)
2. Discuss in detail about Mobile computing and compare mobile computing with wireless
computing. (8) (Reg. 2013)

MAC Protocols
3. i) Compare the characteristic features of FDMA, CDMA and TDMA mechanisms. (8)
(May 2013) (12) (Dec 2013)
ii) Compare and Contrast SDMA, FDMA, TDMA and CDMA. (10) (Nov 2012)
iii) Compare the mechanisms of SDMA, FDMA, TDMA and CDMA with their functions
(8) (May 2013)
iv) Explain with an example the behavior of CDMA with the spreading using orthogonal
codes. (8) (May 2014) (16) (Dec 2014)
v) Explain the various TDMA techniques. (16) (May 2015)

MAC Issues
4. i) Explain in detail Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance Scheme. Also explain the
advantage of the same. (12) (Dec 2013)
ii) What is Hidden and Exposed Terminal problem? Explain how MACA (Multiple Access
with Collision Avoidance) scheme avoids hidden and Exposed terminal problem? (16)
(May 2014)

-o0o – o0o –o0o

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Part – B
1. Discuss in detail about Mobile Computing and its characteristics and also illustrate the
structure of mobile computing applications. (16) (REG 2013)

(a) Mobile Computing and its characteristics:

Mobile Computing: Mobile computing is defined as the ability to compute remotely while on
the move. Mobile computing includes two concepts: Mobility and Computing.

Mobility: It is the capability to change location while communicating to invoke computing

services at some remote computers.

There are two kinds of mobility:

1. User mobility 2. Device mobility

Computing:
The process of utilizing computer technology to complete a task. Computing involve
computer hardware and/or software.

Advantages of Mobile Computing:

 Tremendous flexibility to the users.
 User and device mobility
 Wireless communication
 Ubiquitous
 Access information anywhere, any time
 Portable computing platform
 Provide innovative platform

Characteristics of mobile computing

A computing environment is said to be “mobile”, when either the sender or the receiver of
information can be on the move while transmitting or receiving information. The following are
some of the important characteristics of a mobile computing environment.

Ubiquity

The meaning of ubiquity is present everywhere. Ubiquity means the ability of a user to
perform computations from anywhere and at anytime.

For example, a business executive can receive business notifications and issue business
transactions as long he is in the wireless coverage area. Ubiquity is the state of being
everywhere all the time. Some ubiquity is real and some only seems real.

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Location awareness

A hand-held device equipped with global positioning system (GPS) can provide
information about the current location of a user to a tracking station. Many applications
require or get value additions by location based services

For example, a person travelling by road in a car, may need to find out a petrol bulk that
may be available nearby. He can easily locate it through mobile computing where an
application may show the nearby petrol bulk. Other applications include traffic control, fleet
management and emergency services.

In a traffic control application, the density of traffic along various roads can be dynamically
monitored, and traffic can be directed appropriately to reduce congestions. Location awareness
can also make emergency services more effective by automatically directing the emergency
service vehicles to the site of the call.

Adaptation

Adaptation in mobile computing means the ability an application or algorithm has to output
different valid results, depending on the characteristics of the environment where the mobile
device is located. This is not common in fixed systems, where the conditions are practically
stable. In mobile systems, however, the environment is highly variable, which leads to this
solution

Adaptation in the context of mobile computing implies the ability of a system to adjust to
bandwidth fluctuation without inconveniencing the user. In a mobile computing environment,
adaptation is crucial because of intermittent disconnections and bandwidth fluctuations that
can arise due to a number of factors such as handoff, obstacles, environmental noise, etc.

Broadcast

Due to the broadcast nature of the underlying communication network of a mobile

computing environment, efficient delivery of data can be made simultaneously to hundreds of
mobile users. Also periodically it broadcasts all the data items. Periodic broadcast is a simple
way to push data to the clients. The server selects the data items to be disseminated, defines an
order on them and sends them in this order periodically over the data channel.

For example, all users at a specific location, such as those near a railway station, may be
sent advertising information by a taxi service operator.

Personalization

Services in a mobile environment can be easily personalized according to a user’s profile.

This is required to let the users easily avail information with their hand-held devices. For

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example, a mobile user may need only a certain type of information from specific sources.
This can be easily done through personalization.

Applications of Mobile Computing:

 Vehicle communication
 Emergencies
 Business
 Infotainment
 Location dependent services
Follow on services (Email)
Location aware services (Printing)
Privacy
Information Services(Maps)
Support services(Caching)

(b) Structure of Mobile Computing Application

A mobile computing application is usually structured in terms of the functionalities

implemented. The simple three-tier structure of a mobile computing application is shown
below:

Presentation (Tier-1)

Application (Tier-2)

Data (Tier-3)

Fig 1.1 . The three tier structure of a mobile computing application

Tiered Architecture:

Three-tier architecture is a client-server architecture in which the functional process

logic, data access, computer data storage and user interface are developed and maintained as
independent modules on separate platforms.

Three-tier architecture is a software design pattern and a well-established software

architecture. Functionalities are provided by each tier structure of a mobile computing
application.

It also maintains an effective networked client server design. It also provides increased
performance, flexibility, maintainability, reusability and scalability while hiding the
complexity of distributed processing from the user.
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Three-tier architecture allows any one of the three tiers to be upgraded or replaced
independently. The user interface is implemented on a desktop PC and uses a standard
graphical user interface with different modules running on the application server. The
relational database management system on the database server contains the computer data
storage logic. The middle tiers are usually multi tiered.

The figure 1.1 shows the types of functionalities provided by each tier. The three tiers
are named Presentation tier, Application tier and Data tier.

Presentation tier
The topmost level of a mobile computing application concerns the user interface. The
presentation layer ensures that the communications passing through are in the appropriate
form for the recipient. For example, a presentation layer program may format a file transfer
request in binary code to ensure a successful file transfer.

Another example of a program that generally adheres to the presentation layer of OSI
is the program that manages the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This program,
sometimes called the HTTP daemon, usually comes included as part of an operating system.
It forwards user requests passed to the Web browser on to a Web server elsewhere in the
network.

It receives a message back from the Web server that includes a Multi-Purpose Internet
Mail Extensions (MIME) header. The MIME header indicates the kind of file (text, video,
audio, and so forth) that has been received so that an appropriate player utility can be used to
present the file to the user. Major browsers also possess incremental find features to search
within a web page.

User Interface

Most major web browsers have these user interface elements in common are as follows:

 Back and forward buttons to go back to the previous resource and forward
respectively.
 A refresh or reload button to reload the current resource.
 A stop button to cancel loading the resource. In some browsers, the stop button is
merged with the reload button.
 A home button to return to the user's home page.
 An address bar to input the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the desired resource
and display it.
 A search bar to input terms into a search engine. In some browsers, the search bar is
merged with the address bar.
 A status bar to display progress in loading the resource and also the URI of links when
the cursor hovers over them, and page zooming capability.

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 The viewport, the visible area of the webpage within the browser window.
 The ability to view the HTML source for a page.

A good user interface facilitates the users to issue requests and to present the results to them
meaningfully. Obviously, the programs at this layer run on the client’s computer. This layer
usually includes web browsers and customized client programs for dissemination of
information and for collection of data from the user.

Find the sales Five total sales Tier 1

total

Find the list of sales made in last year sum of all sales

Sales 1
Query
Sales 2 Tier 2

Sales 3

Sales 4

Tier 3
Database Storage
Fig. 1.2 Functionalities provided by each tier structure of a mobile computing
application

A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is a software application for

retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An
information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI/URL) and may be a
web page, image, video or other piece of content. The major web browsers are Firefox,
Internet Explorer/Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari. The most recent major
entrant to the browser market is Chrome.

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The primary purpose of a web browser is to bring information resources to the user allowing
them to view the information and then access other information This process begins when the
user inputs a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The prefix of the URL, the Uniform
Resource Identifier or URI, determines how the URL will be interpreted. The most
commonly used kind of URI starts with http: and identifies a resource to be retrieved over the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Application tier

This layer has the vital responsibility of making logical decisions and performing
calculations. It also moves and processes data between the presentation and data layers. It
performs the processing of user input, obtaining information and then making decisions. This
layer is implemented using technology like Java, .NET services, cold fusion, etc.

The application layer is a layer in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) seven-layer model
and in the TCP/IP protocol suite. It consists of protocols that focus on process-to-process
communication across an IP network and provides a firm communication interface and end-
user services.

The implementation of this layer and the functionality provided by this layer should be
database independent. This layer of functionalities is usually implemented on a fixed server.
An application layer is an abstraction layer that specifies the shared protocols and interface
methods used by hosts in a communications network.

Data tier

This layer is also called as Database management or data tier. The data tier is
responsible for providing the basic facilities of data storage, access, and manipulation. Often
this layer contains a database. The information is stored and retrieved from this database. But,
when only small amounts of data need to be stored, a file system can be used. This layer is
also implemented on a fixed server.

2. Discuss in detail about various MAC protocol schemes. (16) (Reg. 2013)

MAC protocols

The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is used to provide the data link layer of
the Ethernet LAN system. The MAC sub layer provides addressing and channel access
control mechanisms that make it possible for several terminals or network nodes to
communicate within a multiple access network that incorporates a shared medium, e.g. an
Ethernet network. The hardware that implements the MAC is referred to as a media access
controller. MAC schemes are essentially multiplexing schemes.

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The MAC sub layer acts as an interface between the logical link control (LLC) sub
layer and the network’s physical layer. The MAC layer emulates a full-duplex logical
communication channel in a multi-point network. This channel may provide unicast,
multicast or broadcast communication service. A large number of MAC protocols have been
proposed. These MAC protocols can be broadly classified into the following categories.

Borrowing channel allocation(2 marks) (Dec 2013)

Borrowing Channel allocation uses FCA as a normal assignment condition. When
all the fixed channels are occupied then cells borrow channels from the neighbouring
cells.

1. Fixed assignment schemes

2. Random assignment schemes
3. Reservation based schemes

1. Fixed assignment schemes

A few important categories of fixed assignment MAC protocols are as follows:

 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)

Frequency Division Multiple Access or FDMA is a channel access method used in

multiple-access protocols as a channelization protocol. FDMA permits multiple users to
simultaneously access a transmission system, FDD describes the way the radio channel is
shared between the downlink and uplink. FDMA is also different from Frequency-division
multiplexing (FDM). FDM refers to a physical layer method that blends and transmits low-
bandwidth channels via a high-bandwidth channel.

FDMA gives users an individual allocation of one or several frequency bands, or

channels. It is particularly commonplace in satellite communication. In FDMA, the available
bandwidth (frequency range) is divided into many narrower frequency bands called channels.
Early cellular telephony mostly used FDMA analogue transmission. Walkie talkies and
mobile networks for closed user groups often use FDMA. More advanced systems time-share
frequencies among different user groups. This concept is called “trunking”.

Another example of FDMA is AM or FM radio broadcasting, where each station has

its own channel. FDMA also supports demand assignment in addition to fixed assignment.

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Demand assignment allows all users apparently continuous access of the radio spectrum by
assigning carrier frequencies on a temporary basis using a statistical assignment process.

There are two main techniques:

 Multi-channel per-carrier (MCPC)

 Single-channel per-carrier (SCPC)

Features

 In FDMA, every user shares the frequency channel or satellite transponder

simultaneously, every user transmits at single frequency.
 FDMA is compatible with both digital and analog signals.
 FDMA demands highly efficient filters in the radio hardware, contrary to CDMA and
TDMA.
 FDMA is devoid of timing issues that exist in TDMA.
 As a result of the frequency filtering, FDMA is not prone to the near-far problem that
exists in CDMA.
 All users transmit and receive at different frequencies because every user receives an
individual frequency slot.

Fig 1.3 Channels in Frequency division multiple access (FDMA) scheme.

The above figure shows a division of the existing bandwidth into many channels
(shown as Ch 1, Ch 2, etc.). For full duplex communication to take place, each user is
allocated a forward link (channel) for communicating from it (mobile handset) to the base
station (BS), and a reverse channel for communicating from the BS to it.

Thus, each user making a call is allocated two unique frequency bands (channels), one
for transmitting and the other for receiving signals during the call. Obviously, when a call is
underway, no other user would be allocated the same frequency band to make a call. Unused
transmission time in a frequency band that occurs when the allocated caller pauses between
transmissions, or when no user is allocated a band, goes idle and is wasted. FDMA, therefore,
does not achieve high channel utilization.
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Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)

Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a channel access method for shared medium
networks. It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal
into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each
using its own time slot. DMA (time division multiple access) is a technology used in digital
cellular telephone communication that divides each cellular channel into three time slots in
order to increase the amount of data that can be carried.

TDMA is an access method in which multiple nodes are allotted different time slots to
access the same physical channel. That is, the timeline is divided into fixed-sized time slots
and these are divided among multiple nodes who can transmit. Here all sources use the same
channel, but take turns in transmitting. In TDMA , each user of the channel owns the channel
for exclusive use for one timeslot at a time in a round robin fashion

Fig 1.4 Channels in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme.

The above figure shows the situation where time slots are allocated to users in a round
robin manner, with each user being assigned one time slot per frame. Obviously, unused time
slots go idle, leading to low channel utilization.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

In CDMA, multiple users are allotted different codes that consist of sequences of 0
and 1 to access the same channel. As shown below, a special coding scheme is used that
allows signals from multiple users to be multiplexed over the same physical channel. As
shown in the figure, three different users who have been assigned separate codes are
multiplexed on the same physical channel.

Fig. 1.5 Schematic of operation of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

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In CDMA, multiple users use the same frequency at the same time and no time
scheduling is applied. All the senders send signals simultaneously through a common
medium. The bandwidth of this medium is much larger than the space that would be allocated
to each packet transmission during FDMA and the signals can be distinguished from each
other by means of a special coding scheme that is used. This is done with the help of a
frequency spreading code known as the m-bit pseudo-noise (PN) code sequence.

Using m bits, 2m – 1 different codes can be obtained. From these codes, each user will
use only one code. It is possible to distinguish transmissions from different nodes by ensuring
some properties on the codes. A code for a user should be orthogonal (that is, non-interfering)
to the codes assigned to other nodes. The term “orthogonal” means that the vector inner
product is zero, and good autocorrelation uses the bipolar notation where a code sequence of
binary 0 is represented as –1 and binary 1 is represented as +1. On the receiving end, only the
same PN sequence is able to demodulate the signal to successfully convert the input data.

For simplicity, we assume that all nodes transmit on the same frequency at the same
time using the entire bandwidth of the transmission channel. Each sender has a unique
random number key, and the sender XORs the signal with this random number key. The
receiver can “tune” into this signal if it knows the pseudorandom number.

Consider an example, where X, Y are the transmitters and Z is a receiver. Sender

X_data = 1 and X_Key = (010011). Its autocorrelation representation is (–1, +1, –1, –1, +1,
+1). The signal to be calculated at sender X is Xs = X_data * X_key = +1* X_key = (–1, +1,
–1, –1, +1, +1). Similarly, sender Y_data = 0 and Y_key = (110101) and the signal to be sent
at Y is Ys = –1* Y_key = –1*(+1, +1, –1, +1, –1, +1) = (–1, –1, +1, –1, +1, –1). The signal
received by receiver Z is Xs + Ys = (–1, +1, –1, –1, +1, +1) + (–1, –1, +1, –1, +1, –1) = (–2,
0, 0, –2, +2, 0).

At the receiver, in order to receive the data sent by sender X, the signal Z is dispread.
So now if Z wants to get information of sender X data, then Z*X_key = (–2, 0, 0, –2, +2,
0)*(–1, +1, –1, –1, +1, +1) = 2 + 0 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 0 = 6 > 0 (positive), that is the original bit
was a 1. Similarly, the information of sender Y data may be obtained as Z*Y_key = (–2, 0, 0,
–2, +2, 0)*(+ 1, +1, –1, +1, –1, +1) = –2 + 0 + 0 – 2 – 2 + 0 = – 6 < 0 (negative). So the Y
data original bit was a 0.

2. Random Assignment Schemes

There are a number of random assignment schemes that are used in MAC protocols. A few
important ones are the following:

• ALOHA
• Slotted ALOHA
• CSMA

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• CSMA/CD
• CSMA/CA

ALOHA Scheme
It is a simple communication scheme that was developed at the university of Hawaii.
The basic (also called pure) ALOHA scheme, is a simple protocol. If a node has data to send,
it begins to transmit. The first step implies that Pure ALOHA does not check whether the
channel is busy before transmitting. If the frame successfully reaches the destination
(receiver), the next frame is sent. If the frame fails to be received at the destination, it is sent
again. The simple ALOHA scheme works acceptably, when the chances of contention are
small (i.e., when a small number of senders send data infrequently). However, the collisions
can become unacceptably high if the number of contenders for transmission is high.

An improvement over the pure ALOHA scheme is the slotted ALOHA. In the slotted
ALOHA scheme, the chances of collisions are attempted to be reduced by enforcing the
following restrictions. The time is divided into equal-sized slots in which a packet can be
sent. Thus, the size of the packet is restricted. A node wanting to send a packet, can start to do
so only at the beginning of a slot. The slotted ALOHA system employs beacon signals that
are sent at precise intervals that mark the beginning of a slot, at which point the nodes having
data to send can start to transmit.

The CSMA Scheme

A popular MAC arbitration technique is the Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA). In
this technique, a node senses the medium before starting to transmit. If it senses that some
transmission is already underway, it defers its transmission. Two popular extensions of the
basic CSMA technique are the collision detection (CSMA/CD) and the collision avoidance
(CSMA/CA) techniques.

Unlike that in a wired network, in a wireless network the CSMA/CD technique does
not work very well. In the CSMA/CD technique, the sender starts to transmit if it senses the
channel to be free. But, even if it senses the channel to be free, there can be a collision during
transmission. In a wired network, the implementation of a collision detection scheme is
simple.

In a wireless network it is very difficult for a transmitting node to detect a collision,

since any received signal from other nodes would be too feeble compared to its own signal
and can easily be masked by noise. As a result, a transmitting node would continue to
transmit the frame, and only the destination node would notice the corrupted frame after it
computes the checksum. This leads to retransmissions and severe wastage of channel
utilization. In contrast, in a wired network when a node detects a collision, it immediately
stops transmitting, thereby minimizing channel wastage.

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In a wireless network, a collision avoidance scheme works much better compared to a

collision detection-based scheme. A collision avoidance scheme is based on the idea that it is
necessary to prevent collisions at the moment they are most likely to occur, that is, when the
bus is released after a packet transmission.

During the time a node is transmitting on the channel, several nodes might be wanted
to transmit. These nodes would be monitoring the channel and waiting for it to become free.
The moment the transmitting node completes its transmission, these waiting nodes would
sense the channel to be free, and would all start transmitting at the same time.

To overcome such collisions, in the collision avoidance scheme, all nodes are forced to
wait for a random time and then sense the medium again, before starting their transmission. If
the medium is sensed to be busy, a node waiting to transmit waits for a further random
amount of time and so on. Thus, the chance of two nodes starting to transmit at the same time
would be greatly reduced.

3. Reservation Schemes

A basic form of the reservation scheme is the RTS/CTS scheme. In an RTS/CTS

scheme, a sender transmits an RTS (Ready to Send) packet to the receiver before the actual
data transmission. On receiving this, the receiver sends a CTS (Clear to Send) packet, and the
actual data transfer commences only after that. When the other nodes sharing the medium
sense the CTS packet, they wait for transmitting until the transmission from the sending node
is complete.

In a contention-based MAC protocol, a node wanting to send a message first reserves

the medium by using an appropriate control message. For example, reservation of the
medium can be achieved by transmitting a “Ready To Send” (RTS) message and the
corresponding destination node accepting this request answers with a “Clear To Send” (CTS)
message.

Every node that hears the RTS and CTS messages defers its transmission during the
specified time period in order to avoid a collision. A few examples of RTS-CTS based MAC
protocols are MACA, MACAW, MACA-BI, PAMAS, DBTMA, MARCH, S-MAC protocols
which have specifically been designed for sensor networks.

MACA

MACA stands for Multiple Access Collision Avoidance. MACA solves the
hidden/exposed terminal problems by regulating the transmitter power. A node running
MACA requests to use the medium by sending an RTS to the receiver. Since radio signals
propagate omni-directionally, every terminal within the sender’s radio range will hear this

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and then wait for transmitting. As soon as the receiver is ready to receive data, it responds
with CTS.

The figure 1.6 below shows how MACA avoids the hidden terminal problem. Before
the start of its transmission, it sends a Request to Send (RTS). B receives the RTS that
contains the sender’s name and the receiver’s name, as well as the length of the future
transmission. In response to the RTS, an acknowledgment from B is triggered indicating
Clear To Send (CTS). The CTS contains the names of the sender and receiver, and the length
of the planned transmission. This CTS is heard by C and the medium is reserved for use by A
for the duration of the transmission.

Fig. 1.6 Hidden terminal solution in MACA.

On receipt of a CTS from B, C waits for transmitting anything for the time indicated in the
CTS. Thus a collision cannot occur at B during data transmission, and the hidden terminal
problem is solved.

Though this is a collision avoidance protocol, a collision can occur during the sending
of an RTS. Both A and C could send an RTS at same time. But an RTS occurs over a very
small duration compared to the duration of data transmission. Thus the probability of
collision remains much less. B resolves this contention problem by acknowledging only one
station in the CTS. No transmission occurs without an appropriate CTS.

Fig. 1.7 Exposed terminal solution in MACA.

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The above figure shows how the exposed terminal problem is solved in MACA.
Assume that B needs to transmit to A. B has to transmit an RTS first. The RTS would contain
the names of the receiver (A) and the sender (B). C does not act in response to this message
as it is not the receiver, but A responds with a CTS. C does not receive this CTS and
concludes that A is outside the detection range. Thus C can start its transmission assuming
that no collision would occur at A.

3. Explain the properties that are required of MAC protocols and explain the issues
related with wireless MAC protocols. (8) (REG 2013) What is hidden and exposed
terminal problem? (8) (May 2014)

Properties required of MAC Protocols

Medium Access Control (MAC) The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol is used
to provide the data link layer of the Ethernet LAN system. The Medium Access Control
(MAC) protocol is used to provide the data link layer of the Ethernet LAN system. The MAC
protocol encapsulates a SDU (payload data) by adding a 14 byte header (Protocol Control
Information (PCI)) before the data and appending an integrity checksum,

The checksum is a 4-byte 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) after the data. The
entire frame is preceded by a small idle period (the minimum inter-frame gap, 9.6
microsecond (µS)) and a 8 byte preamble (including the start of frame delimiter).The design
of a MAC protocol depends upon the specific environment in which it would be used and the
specific design requirements to be met.

In general a good MAC protocol needs to possess the following features:

 It should implement some rules that help to enforce discipline when multiple nodes
contend for a shared channel.
 It should help maximize the utilization of the channel.
 Channel allocation needs to be fair. No node should be discriminated against at any
time and made to wait for an unduly long time for transmission.
 It should be capable of supporting several types of traffic having different maximum
and average bit rates.
 It should be robust in the face of equipment failures and changing network
conditions.

Many MAC layer protocols for wireless networks have already been proposed,
standardized, and are in use. Also, many other protocols that work with improved efficiency
or overcome some problems in specific wireless environments, are being proposed by
researchers and practitioners. At present, IEEE 802.11 has emerged as a popular and standard
MAC protocol for wireless networks. IEEE 802.11-based network cards and routers are

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available in the market that can be used to inexpensively and easily set up wireless LANs
(commonly referred to as Wi-Fi hotspots).

Wireless networks can be divided into categories:

 Infrastructure based wireless networks that include WLANs

 Infrastructure less wireless networks that include mobile ad hoc networks(MANETs)

MAC protocols for infrastructure less networks are much more complex as they have
to address certain additional problems that arise in the infrastructure less environments.
Though the MAC protocols for these two environments have many things in common, MAC
protocols for infra structure-less networks are surprisingly much more complex as they have
to address certain additional problems that arise in the infrastructure less environments.

Issues related with wireless MAC protocols

MAC protocol in a wireless medium is much more complex than its wired parts. First,a
collision detection scheme is difficult to implement in a wireless environment. Since the
collisions are found to be difficult in detecting by the sense of transmitting nodes. In case of
infrastructure less networks the issue of hidden and exposed terminals will make a MAC
protocol which is extremely inefficient.

Bandwidth Efficiency

BW available is very limited.MAC should be designed such that the scarce bandwidth
is utilized in an efficient manner

The Hidden and Exposed Terminal problems in an infrastructure less networks

An ad hoc network is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that are capable of forming
a co-operative agreement (network) between them-selves without requiring any centralized
control function. Due to their non-reliance infrastructure, ad hoc networks are gaining
popularity in several networking applications including, military, rescue operations and
meetings and conventions.

Generally, protocols used at medium access and physical layers of ad hoc net-works
are similar to those used in infrastructure based wireless networks. The hidden terminal
problem means about that the wireless transmission is usually short range. Even if the
medium is free near the transmitter, it may not be free near the intended receiver. In case of
exposed terminal problem, even if the medium is busy near the transmitter, it may be free
near the intended receiver.

In infrastructure based wireless networks, we use pre-data exchange of control

information to eliminate the hidden terminal" problem. The hidden node problem or hidden

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terminal problem occurs when a node is visible from a wireless access point (AP), but not
from other nodes communicating with that AP. This leads to difficulties in media access
control sub layer.

In wireless networks, the exposed node problem occurs when a node is prevented from
sending packets to other nodes due to a neighboring transmitter. Consider an example of 4
nodes labeled R1, S1, S2, and R2, where the two receivers (R1, R2) are out of range of each
other, yet the two transmitters (S1, S2) in the middle are in range of each other. Here, if a
transmission between S1 and R1 is taking place, node S2 is prevented from transmitting to
R2 as it concludes after carrier sense that it will interfere with the transmission by its
neighbour S1.

However R2 could still receive the transmission of S2 without interference because it

is out of range of S1. IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS mechanism helps to solve this problem only if
the nodes are synchronized and packet sizes and data rates are the same for both the
transmitting nodes. When a node hears an RTS from a neighbouring node, but not the
corresponding CTS, that node can deduce that it is an exposed node and is permitted to
transmit to other neighboring nodes.

Hidden nodes in a wireless network are nodes that are out of range of other nodes or a
collection of nodes. Each node is within communication range of the AP, but the nodes
cannot communicate with each other, as they do not have a physical connection to each other.
In a wireless network, it is likely that the node at the far edge of the access point's range,
which is known as A, can see the access point, but it is unlikely that the same node can see a
node on the opposite end of the access point's range, C.

Radio range of A Radio range of C

A B C

Fig.1.8 Hidden Terminal

These nodes are known as hidden. The problem is when nodes A and C start to send packets
simultaneously to the access point B. Because the nodes A and C are out of range of each
other and so cannot detect a collision while transmitting,
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A related problem called exposed terminal could arise in a scenario.MAC protocols

usually inhibit transmission when transmission from another terminal is detected. As a result,
node A will not be able to transmit to any node when B is transmitting to C.

On the other hand, A transmitted to D, it would have been received correctly by D and
B’s transmission would have also been correctly received at C. The problem arose only
because A and B are within each other’s transmission range, though the destination nodes are
in the transmission range of only one of the nodes. In other words, the problem occurs
because A is exposed to B’s transmission. The overall effect of this problem is that it leads to
inefficient spectrum usage as well as unnecessary transmission delays unless these are
carefully addressed by a wireless MAC protocol.

Fig. 1.9 Exposed terminal

4. Compare Mobile computing with Wireless computing. (8) (REG 2013)

Mobile computing

Mobile Computing is a technology that allows transmission of data, voice and video via a
computer or any other wireless enabled device without having to be connected to a fixed
physical link.

Mobile computing refers to the computational tasks performed by mobile users using their
handsets. Since the handsets have very limited processing power and memory, these devices
by themselves do not have the capability to carry out any significant and meaningful
computations and can only serve as the front-end for invoking remote applications.

Mobile computation involves the invocation of applications running on remote servers. In

other words, mobile computation is usually achieved by the interaction of a front-end
application running on the mobile handset with a server, seamlessly, through the medium of
wireless communication.

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Therefore, a study of mobile computation involves the study of the invocation

mechanisms at the client end, the underlying wireless communication, and the corresponding
server-side technologies. It uses small size portable computers, handhelds, MNC and other
small wearable devices.

Mobile computing is as set of distributed computing systems or service providers

servers participate connect and synchronize through mobile communication protocols. It also
describes the ability to use the technology to wirelessly connect to and use centrally located
information and application software through the application of small, portable and wireless
computing and communication devices.

It Provides decentralized (distributed) computations on diversified devices, systems,

and networks, which are mobile, synchronized, and interconnected via mobile
communication standards and protocols. Mobile device does not restrict itself to just one
application, such as, voice communication. It offers mobility with computing power
facilitates a large number of applications on a single device.

Ubiquitous computing

It refers to the blending of computing devices with environmental objects. It describes

integration of computers into practically all objects in our everyday environment, endowing
them with computing abilities. Also called pervasive computing when a set of computing
devices, systems, or networks have the characteristics of transparency, application-aware
adaptation, and have an environment sensing ability.

Smartphone feature example

A mobile phone with additional computing functions so as to enable multiple

applications.SMS (short message service), MMS (multimedia messaging service), phone, e-
mail, address book, web browsing, calendar, task-to-do list, pad for memos. It is
compatibility with popular Personal Information Management (PIM) software

Wireless Computing

Networks are everywhere in today's world. Nearly every computer connects to some
type of network, whether it is a direct link to the Internet or a local LAN composed of many
different devices. In any case, communication is the key. The foundation of any network is
some sort of pathway for digital data (bits) to move back and forth between connected agents.
Cables, ranging from coaxial to optical, have long dominated this realm. However, the radio
so called wireless solution is increasingly emerging as a viable alternative to direct physical
connection.

Wireless has several advantages over traditional physically connected networks. More
importantly, wireless seeks to address two issues that are becoming increasingly critical:
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portability and mobility. Portability refers to the ability to easily move from one fixed
location to another. Many workers with laptops,

Wireless has the potential to make this easy, eliminating the need for pre-planned jacks
and extra cables. Mobility is the concept of being able to maintain a connection even while on
the moving stage.

Mobile Computing vs wireless computing

The terms "mobile" and "wireless" are often used interchangeably but in reality, they
are two very different concepts applied to modern computing and technology.

Mobile is a word that is commonly used to describe portable devices.

A mobile device is one that is made to be taken anywhere. Therefore, it needs an

internal battery for power, and must be connected to a modern mobile network that can help it
to send and receive data without attaching to a hardware infrastructure.

Wireless does not mean mobile. Traditional computers or other non-mobile devices
can access wireless networks.

One very common example is the use of a localized browser product in a local area
network (LAN), where the router takes what used to be a cabled interaction and makes it
wireless. Other kinds of wireless networks called wide area networks (WAN) can even use
components of 3G or 4G wireless systems made specifically for mobile devices,

Mobile and wireless systems really accomplish two very different things. While a
wireless system provides a fixed or portable endpoint with access to a distributed network, a
mobile system offers all of the resources of that distributed network to something that can go
anywhere.

A Wi-Fi hotspot is typically a resource for someone who has a relatively fixed device,
such as a laptop computer that doesn’t have its own internal Internet access built in. By
contrast, mobile devices already have inherent access to the Internet or other wireless systems
through those cell tower networks that ISPs and telecom companies built specifically for
them.

Mobile computing also requires the applications themselves - their design and
development, and the hardware at the client and server sides. Wireless networking is
increasingly replacing traditional networks because of the low setup time and low initial
investment required to set up the wireless network. Wireless networks appear in various
forms such as WLANs (Wireless LANs), mobile cellular networks; personal area networks
(PANs) and ad hoc networks, etc.

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Types of Wireless Networks:

Wireless networks can be classified into two basic types.

 One is an extension of wired networks. It uses fixed infrastructures such as base

stations to provide essentially single hop wireless communication with a wired network or a
two-hop wireless cellular communication with another mobile.
 The other type of wireless network is an ad hoc network. An ad hoc network does not
use any fixed infrastructure and is based on multi-hop wireless communication

One popular example of a fixed infrastructure wireless network is a Wireless LAN (WLAN)
that implements the IEEE 802.11 protocol. An access point (AP) provides the last hop
connectivity of the mobile nodes to a wired network.

All communication goes through APs which perform bridging† between the wireless and the
wired mediums. A station must be recognized by an AP to be able to connect to the network.
The AP may require authentication and this in turn is used as the basic means to keep out the
unauthorized users.

In an infra structure less network, the communication between hosts occurs directly or via a
few intermediate nodes that form the hops.

Blue tooth: (2 Marks) (Nov / Dec 2012)

A recent development in this context, is wireless networking of various types of devices using
the Bluetooth technology. The Bluetooth technology can also be used to establish direct
wireless connection of cell phones with devices such as printers, cameras, scanners, laptop
and desk computers. Bluetooth is gradually replacing cables and infrared as the dominant
way of exchanging information between devices.

Fig.1.10 Wireless network based on fixed infrastructure

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Fig. 1.11Wireless network having no fixed infrastructure

One of the objectives of the bluetooth technology is to enable users to easily connect to
a wide range of personal computing and telecommunication devices, without the need to buy,
carry, or lay out cables. In fact, the Bluetooth technology enables setting up of personal area
networks (PANs) known as piconets and ad hoc networks known as scatternets.

It provides opportunities for rapid deployment of ad hoc connections, and the

possibility of automatic, transparent connections between devices. It promises to eliminate
the need to purchase additional or proprietary cabling and configuration exercises needed to
connect the individual devices.

An ad hoc network is also known as a Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). It is a

collection of mobile nodes that form a network on the fly without requiring the support of any
fixed infrastructure. Wireless sensor networks are a special type of wireless ad hoc networks.

Information exchange in a network of mobile and wireless nodes is without any

infrastructural support. Such networks are often called ad hoc networks to emphasize that
they do not depend on infrastructural support. A mobile ad-hoc network is a mobile, multi-
hop wireless network which is capable of autonomous operation. The purpose of an ad hoc
network is to set up (possibly) a short-lived network for a collection of nodes.

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5. Compare the different access mechanisms.

FDMA TDMA CDMA SDMA

FDMA-Frequency Division TDMA-Time division In CDMA, multiple Space Division Multiple
Multiple Access, here multiple Access is an users are allotted Access (SDMA) is used
entire band of frequencies access method in different codes that for allocating a separated
is divided into multiple RF which multiple nodes consist of sequences space
channels/carriers. Each are allotted different of 0 and 1 to access to users in wireless
carrier is allocated to time slots to access the same channel. networks. A typical
different users. the same physical application involves
channel. assigning an optimal base
station to a mobile phone
user
For full duplex The timeline is A special coding A MAC algorithm could
communication to take place, divided into fixed- scheme is used that now decide which base
each user is allocated a sized time slots and allows signals from station is best, taking into
forward link (channel) for these are divided multiple users to be account which
communicating from it among multiple Multiplexed over the frequencies (FDM), time
(mobile handset) to the base nodes who can same physical slots (TDM) or
station (BS), and a reverse transmit. channel. code (CDM) are still
channel for communicating available (depending on
from the BS to it. the technology).
Each user making a call is The unused time Three different users SDMA is never used in
allocated two unique slots go idle, leading who have been isolation but always in
frequency bands (channels), to low channel assigned separate combination with one or
one for transmitting and the utilization. codes are more other schemes. It is
other for receiving signals multiplexed on the formed by cells and
during the call. same physical sectorized antennas which
channel. constitute the
infrastructure
implementing space
division multiplexing
(SDM)
When a call is underway, no In TDMA, each user In CDMA, multiple A new application of
other user would be allocated of the channel owns users use the same SDMA comes up together
the same frequency band to the channel for frequency at the same with beam-forming
time and no time antenna arrays. Single
make a call. exclusive use for one
scheduling is applied. users are separated in
time slot at a time in a All the senders send space by individual beams.
round robin fashion. signals This can improve the
simultaneously overall capacity of a cell
through a common
medium.

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Approach FDMA TDMA CDMA SDMA

Segment sending
Segment the time into disjoint Spread the spectrum
Segment space into
Idea frequency band into time slots, demand using orthogonal
cells/sectors
disjoint sub bands driven or fixed codes
patterns.

All terminals are All terminal can be

Every terminal has Only one terminal
active for short active at the same
Terminals its own frequency can be active in one
periods of time on place at the same
uninterrupted cell / one sector
the same frequency time uninterrupted

Signal Filtering in the Synchronization in Code Plus special Cell structure

Propagation frequency domain the time domain receivers directed antennas

Flexible, Less Very simple,

Simple, established, Established fully
Advantages planning needed, Increases capacity
Robust digital, very flexible.
Soft handover. per km2

Guard space
Complex receivers,
Inflexible, needed.(Multipath
needs more Inflexible, antennas
Disadvantages Frequencies are a propagation)
complicated power typically fixed.
scarce resource. Synchronization
control for senders.
difficult
Typically combined
Used in many 3G
with Standard in fixed
systems, Higher Only in
TDMA(Frequency networks together
complexity, Lower combination with
Comments Hopping and with FDMA/SDMA
expectations, TDMA,FDMA or
patterns) and used in many mobile
Integrated with CDMA is useful.
SDMA(Frequency networks.
TDMA/FDMA.
reuse)

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UNIT – II
MOBILE INTERNET PROTOCOL AND TRANSPORT LAYER

Overview of Mobile IP – Features of Mobile IP – Key Mechanism in Mobile IP – route Optimization.

Overview of TCP/IP – Architecture of TCP/IP- Adaptation of TCP Window – Improvement in TCP
Performance.

Part – A
1. How do you classify TCPs? (May 2012)
TCP in single hop wireless networks
 Indirect TCP (I-TCP)
 Fast retransmission
 Snooping TCP(S-TCP)
 Mobile TCP(M-TCP)
 Freeze TCP
 TCP in multihop wireless networks

2. What are the possible locations of tunnel end point in mobile IP? (June 2014) (Or)
What are the possible locations for care of Address? (Dec 2013)
Tunnel is a secure path from HA to FA that ensures the successful delivery of packets
to the MN.Care of Address is a termination point of a tunnel toward a MH, for data grams
forwarded to the MH while it is away from home.
1. Foreign agent care-of address: the address of a foreign agent that MH registers with
2. Co-located care-of address: an externally obtained local address that a MH gets.
(or)
What is Care of Address? Differentiate types of Care of Address. (Dec 2012)
Care of Address gives the current location of the mobile Node. There are two types of CoA.
They are:
Foreign agent care-of address (FACoA): The mobile node receives the same CoA as
the foreign agent. All mobile nodes in the foreign network are given the same CoA.
Co-located care-of address (Co-CoA): A mobile node acquires a co-located care-of
address as a local IP address through some external means, which the mobile node then
associates with one of its own network interfaces. The address might be dynamically acquired
as a temporary address by the mobile node, such as through DHCP.

3. What are the four messages supported by mobile IP? When and why binding update
is generated in mobile IP? (May 2015(MP))

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Message Types:

 Binding Request (BR)

 Binding Acknowledgement (BA)
 Binding Update (BU)
 Binding Warning(BW)
Why Binding update?

A binding is the association of the home address with a care-of address. Binding
Update (BU) message is used to notify the respective node about current location (CoA) of the
MN. BU is sent by HA to CN. The message contains the fixed IP address of the mobile node
and the care-of-address.

4. List the requirements for mobile IP. (Dec 2014(MP))

 Compatibility
 Transparency
 Scalability
 Efficiency and
 Security

5. List the advantages in transaction - oriented TCP. (Nov 2015) (June 2012)

RFC1644, T-TCP, describes a TCP version to avoid this overhead.

Connection setup, data transfer and connection release can be combined.
Thus, only 2 or 3 packets are needed.
It is highly efficient.

6. What is Selective retransmission? (Dec 2012)

Selective retransmission allows for acknowledgements of single packets, not only

acknowledgements of in-sequence packet streams without gaps. Sender can now retransmit
only the missing packets

7. Why does I –TCP isolate problems on Wireless Link? (May 2013)

I-TCP splits the connection into two parts – a wired/fixed and a wireless/mobile part.
This isolates problems on the wireless link from the fixed network. However, this also requires
that intermediate systems are able to look into IP packets to split the connection. This prevents
the usage of IPsec – end-to-end security and I-TCP (or proxy solutions in general) does not go
together.

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8. What is Timeout freezing?(May 2013)

Mobile hosts can be disconnected for a longer time - no packet exchange is possible,
e.g., in a tunnel, disconnection due to overloaded cells or mux.
With higher priority traffic TCP disconnects after time-out completely
TCP freezing
MAC layer is often able to detect interruption in advance.
MAC can inform TCP layer of upcoming loss of connection.
TCP stops sending, but does now not assume a congested link.
MAC layer signals again if reconnected.

9. Differentiate Snoopy and mobile TCP.(Nov 2014)

Snoopy TCP Mobile TCP

Foreign agent buffers all packets with Splits the TCP connection into an
destination mobile host and additionally unmodified TCP between the standard
snoops the packet flow in both direction host and supervisory host (SH) and an
that is (MH-FA and FA-CH) optimized TCP between the SH and MH.
SH is responsible for exchanging data
between both parts.

10. Define Triangular routing.(Nov. 2015)

In the mobile IP, packets that are sent to a mobile host by the correspondent host are
first routed to the mobile host's home agent and then forwarded to the mobile host at its
current location by its home agent.

11. Give the advantages and disadvantages of Indirect – TCP. (May 2015)

Advantages of I-TCP:
 I-TCP segments a TCP connection into a fixed and wireless part.
 It does not require any changes in the TCP protocol.
 Transmission errors on wireless link do not propagate into the fixed network.
 Allows the use of a different transport layer protocol between foreign agent and mobile
host.
 Optimizations of new mechanisms are easy.
Disadvantages of I- TCP:
 Increased Handover Latency
 The Foreign agent must be a trusted entity.
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 Loss of end-end semantics of TCP causes problems.

12. What is the use of DHCP? (May 2015)

DHCP is a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) used to simplify the

installation and maintenance of networked computers. If a new computer is connected to the
network, DHCP can provide it with all the necessary information for full system integration
into the network.

13. Differentiate Foreign and Home Agent in Mobile IP technology. (Nov 2012)

Home Agent (HA)

 System in the home network of the MN, typically a router
 Registers the location of the MN, tunnels IP datagrams to the COA

Foreign Agent (FA)

 System in the current foreign network of the MN, typically a router
 Forwards the tunneled datagrams to the MN, typically also the default router for the MN

14. What are the three basic mechanism associated with Mobile IP?

Mobile IP is associated with the following three basic mechanisms:

• Discovering the care-of-address

• Registering the care-of-address
• Tunnelling to the care-of-address

15. Define BOOTP and IP address.

BOOTP (Boot Protocol): The BOOTP protocol is used for booting (starting) a diskless
computer over a network. Since a diskless computer does not store the operating system program
in its permanent memory, the BOOTP protocol helps to download and boot over a network,
using the operating system files stored on a server located in the network

IP Addresses: Each computer must have an IP address before it can be meaningfully

connected to the Internet. A packet gets routed to its destination based on its IP address.

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Part - B
University Questions
Mobile IP
1. a) Explain the Key mechanisms in Mobile IP.(16)
b) Briefly discuss about agent discovery in Mobile IP. (8) (Nov 2013) (Nov 2012)
c) Describe in detail about the registration procedure in Mobile IP.(8) (Nov 2013) (Nov 2012)
d) Explain in detail tunneling and encapsulation in Mobile IP.(8) (May 2015)(May 2013)
2. a) Explain the goals, assumptions, requirements and packet delivery for mobile IP. (16)
(May 2012). (Or)
b) Sketch the schematic of a mobile IP network and explain the packet delivery between the
mobile and corresponding node. (16)(Dec 2015) (Or)
c) Explain how end to end packet delivery is done in mobile IP. (8) (May 2013 /MP)
3. Briefly explain DHCP client initialization procedure. (8) (May 2014) (May 2013) (Nov 2013)
(Nov 2014)
TCP / IP
4. Describe the Architecture of TCP/IP and the structure of TCP segment.(16) (Reg 2013)
5. Explain in detail Snooping TCP and its advantages and disadvantages.(8) (May 2014)
(May 2015) (May 2013) (Dec 2013) (Nov 2012)
6. What is Transaction oriented TCP? Explain. (8) (May 2014) (Nov 2014)
7. Write short notes on (1) Fast/Transmit Recovery (2) Transmission/Timeout freezing. (8) (May
2015) (Nov 2012)
8. List the steps for TCP adaptation. (4) (May 2012)
9. What happens in the case of I-TCP if the mobile is disconnected? Discuss.(6)(May 2013)
10. Explain the following protocols used in mobile transport layer: (16) (Dec 2015)
(1)Indirect TCP (2) Snooping TCP (3) Mobile TCP (4) Transaction Oriented TCP

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Part – B
1. Explain a) Agent discovery, b) Registration, c) Tunneling and d) Encapsulation
mechanisms in Mobile IP. (Or) Explain the Key Mechanisms in Mobile IP. (16)

Mobile IP is associated with three basic mechanisms:

 Discovering the Care – of – Address (Agent Discovery)
 Registering the Care – of – Address (Registration)
 Tunneling the Care – of – Address (Tunneling and Encapsulation)

Registration Discovery Tunelling

User Datagram ICMP (Internet

protocol Control Message
Protocol)

Internet protocol
Fig. 2.1Schematic model of Mobile IP

a) Agent Discovery (Nov 2013) (Nov 2012)

During call establishment, Mobile node determines its foreign agent by agent discovery
process.
A mobile node uses a method known as agent discovery to determine the following
information:
 When the node has moved from one network to another
 Whether the network is the node's home or a foreign network
 What is the foreign agent care-of address offered by each foreign agent on that network

The two discovery methods are: Agent advertisement and Agent solicitation.
Mobility agents transmit agent advertisements to advertise their services on a
network. In the absence of agent advertisements, a mobile node can solicit advertisements.
This is known as agent solicitation.

Agent Advertisement
Generally foreign and home agents advertise their presence through periodic agent
advertisement messages. An agent advertisement message is an Internet Control Message
Protocol (ICMP) router advertisement.
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This message lists one or more CoA’s and a flag indicating whether it is a home agent or
foreign agent. This is the popular method used in agent discovery.
Mobile nodes use agent advertisements to determine their current point of attachment to the
Internet or to an organization's network.
A foreign agent must continue to send agent advertisements. This way, mobile nodes that are
already registered with it will know that they have not moved out of range of the foreign agent
and that the foreign agent has not failed.

Agent Solicitation
If a mobile node (MN) does not receive any CoA, then mobile node should implement
agent solicitation message. (Similar to ICMP router solicitation messages.) The main purpose
of this message sent by Mobile node (MN) is to search for a foreign agent(FA).
The rate at which a mobile node sends solicitations is limited by the mobile node.
These messages should not flood the network. The mobile node can send three initial
solicitations at a maximum rate of one per second while searching for an agent.
For a dynamic wireless network where the MNs move at a greater speed, a number of
messages are sent per second.
After registering with an agent (or) if the response for the message is very slow, then
the rate at which solicitations are sent is reduced, to limit the overhead on the local network.

Discovering the Care of address:

Each mobile node uses a discovery protocol to identify the respective home and foreign
agents. It has four steps:
1) Mobile agents advertise their presence by periodically broadcasting the agent
advertisement messages.
2) The mobile node receiving the agent advertisement messages observes whether the
message is from its own home agent and determines whether it is on the home network or on
a foreign network.
3) If a mobile node does not wish to wait for the periodic advertisement, it can send out agent
solicitation messages that will be responded to by a mobility agent.

The process of agent advertisements involves:

1) Foreign agents send messages to advertise the available CoA
2) Home agents send advertisements to make themselves known.
3) Mobile hosts can issue agent solicitations to seek information.
4) If a mobile hosts has not heard from foreign agent to which its CoA belongs , it takes up
another CoA.

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b) Registration Procedure in Mobile IP: (Nov 2013) (Nov 2012)

Mobile IP registration provides a flexible mechanism for mobile nodes to communicate their
current reachability information to their home agent. It is the method by which mobile nodes
request forwarding services when visiting a foreign network, inform their home agent of their
current care-of address, renew a registration which is due to expire, and/or deregister when
they return home.

Two Types of Registration

Mobile IP defines two different registration procedures,
 one via a foreign agent that relays the registration to the mobile node’s home agent,
 one directly with the mobile node’s home agent (co-located care-of address).

If a mobile node is registering a foreign agent care-of address, the mobile node must register
via that foreign agent.
If a mobile node is using a co-located care-of address, and receives an Agent Advertisement
from a foreign agent on the link on which it is using this care-of address, the mobile node
should register via that foreign agent (or via another foreign agent on this link). If a mobile
node is otherwise using a co-located care-of address, the mobile node must register directly
with its home agent.

Fig. 2.2 Registration

Registering CoA:
If a mobile node discovers that it is on the home network, it operates without mobility
services. If a mobile node obtains a CoA from a foreign agent, then this address should be
registered with the home agent.

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Step 1: If the mobile node is on a new network , it registers with the foreign agent by sending a
registration request message which includes Permanent IP address of MN and IP address of its
home agent.
Step 2: The foreign agent in turn performs the registration process by sending a registration
request with IP of MN and IP of foreign agent to the home agent.
Step 3: When the home agent receives the request , it updates the mobility binding by
associating the CoA of mobile node with its home address.
Step 4: The home agent then sends an acknowledgement to the foreign agent.
Step 5: The foreign agent in turn updates its visitor list by inserting the entry for the mobile
node and relays the reply to the mobile node.

Foreign Network

Step 1:
Foreign Agent
Registration
Request Visitors List
Step 2: Registration
Request
Mobile
Node Step 5:
Registration Reply
Home Agent

Step 3 and 4: Mobility Binding

Registration Reply Table

Fig. 2.3 Registration process in Mobile IP

c) Tunneling and encapsulation in Mobile IP.(8) (May 2015)(May 2013)

Tunnel:
Tunnel is a secure path from HA to FA that ensures the successful delivery of packets to the
MN. Care of Address is a termination point of a tunnel toward a MH, for data grams
forwarded to the MH while it is away from home.

Types of Care of Address (CoA)

1. Foreign agent care-of address: the address of a foreign agent that MH registers with
2. Co-located care-of address: an externally obtained local address that a MH gets.

Tunneling:
Tunneling establishes a virtual pipe for the packets available between a tunnel entry
and an endpoint. Tunneling is the process of sending a packet via tunnel and it is achieved by a
mechanism called encapsulation.

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The packet agent is forwarded by the home agent to the foreign agent. When the packet
comes to the foreign agent (CoA), it delivers the packet to the mobile node.

Two primary functions of tunneling:

 Encapsulation of data packet to reach the tunnel endpoint.
 Decapsulation when packet is delivered at the endpoint.

Steps involved in tunneling:

 When a home agent receives a packet to mobile host, it forwards the packet to the CoA
using IP- in – IP encapsulation.
 Home agent inserts a new IP header in front of the IP header of any datagram.
 Destination address is set to CoA
 Source address is set to the Home Agent’s Address.
 After stripping out the first header, IP processes the packet again.

d) Encapsulation:
Encapsulation refers to arranging a packet header and data in the data part of the new packet.
Encapsulation of one packet into another as payload
e.g. IPv6 in IPv4 (6Bone), Multicast in Unicast (Mbone)
Types : IP-in-IP-encapsulation, minimal encapsulation or GRE (Generic Record
Encapsulation)
i) IP-in-IP-encapsulation (mandatory, RFC 2003)
Tunnel between HA and COA

Version IHL Service Total Length

Identification Flags Fragment / Offset
Time to Leave Protocol4 Header checksum
Source Address / Address of Home Agent (HA)
Destination Address / Care – Of –Address (CoA)
Version 4 IHL Type of Service Total Length
Identification Flags Fragment Offset
Time To Leave Protocol Header Checksum
Source Address / Original Address
Destination Address / Home Address
IP Payload
Fig.2.4 IP Encapsulation in Mobile IP
ii) Minimal encapsulation (optional)
It avoids repetition of identical fieldse.g. TTL, IHL, version, DS (RFC 2474, old: TOS)
It is only applicable for non fragmented packets, no space left for fragment identification

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iii) Generic Encapsulation

It can encapsulate a wide variety of network layer protocols inside virtual point-to-point
links over an Internet Protocol network.

Decapsulation:
It is the process of disassembling the data part of an encapsulated packet.
Whenever a packet is sent from a higher protocol layer to a lower protocol layer, the
operations of encapsulation and decapsulation usually take place.

2. a) Explain the goals, requirements and packet delivery for mobile IP. (16)(May 2012).
(Or)
b) Sketch the schematic of a mobile IP network and explain the packet delivery between
the mobile and corresponding node. (16) (Dec 2015) (Or)
c) Explain how end to end packet delivery is done in mobile IP. (8) (May 2013 /MP)

Mobile IP:
Mobile IP is standard communications protocol that allows mobile device users to move
from one network to another while maintaining their permanent IP address.
Mobile IP extends the Internet Protocol (IP) for forwarding Internet traffic to mobile devices
(known as mobile nodes) when they are not connecting through their home network.
Mobile IP makes the mobility transparent to applications and higher level protocols. It
allows the users to stay connected to Internet from any location without any change in their
IP address.

Goals of Mobile IP:

The main goal of Mobile IP is to have a topologically correct address. The goal
of mobile IP is to enable packet transmission efficiently without any packet loss and
disruptions in the presence of host and/or destination mobility.

“Supporting End System mobility while maintaining scalability, Efficiency and

Compatibility in all respects with existing applications and Internet Protocol”.

Requirements of Mobile IP: [ SETCS ]

 Compatibility - Applications need not be changed to achieve mobility.
 Transparency - Mobility should remain invisible for many higher layer
protocols and applications. Higher layers must continue to work even if the mobile computer
has changed its point of attachment to the network. The node must keep its IP address and if the

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interruption of connectivity is short then it must survive the change of the attachment point.
Only effects of mobility should be higher delay and lower bandwidth.
 Scalability - Mobile IP should be scalable over a large number of
participants.
 Efficiency - Adding mobility should not compromise the efficiency of the
system. It must consider the lower bandwidth of wireless links. Enhancing IP for mobility
must not generate too many new messages flooding the whole network.
 Security - All of the messages related to the management of Mobile
IP should be authenticated. IP layer must guarantee that the IP address of the receiver is
correct.

Packet Delivery in Mobile IP:

When the corresponding node (CN) wants to send an IP packet to a mobile node, CN
sends the packet to the IP address of the mobile node as shown in Fig.
1. The IP address of the MN is the destination address, whereas the address of CN is the
source address.
2. The packet is passed to the Internet that does not have any information about the MN’s
current location. So the Internet routes the packet to the router of the MN’s home network.
3. The home agent examines the packet to determine whether the MN is present in its current
home network or not.
4. In case that MN is not present, then the packet is encapsulated by a new header that is
placed in front of the existing IP header. The encapsulated packet is tunnelled to the COA,
which act as the new destination address and the HA acts as the source address of the packet .
5. The encapsulated packet is routed to the foreign agent which performs decapsulation to
remove the additional header and forwards the decapsulated packet to the MN, which is the
actual destination, as specified by the source node (CN.

HA 3
Home Network FA (Router)
(Router) 2 MN

Internet 4
1
CN Router

Fig. 2.5 IP Packet Delivery

6. The MN after receiving the packet from CN, forwards a reply packet to the CN by
specifying its own IP address along with the address of the CN.

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7. The MN’s IP address acts as the source address and the CN’s IP address acts as the
destination address. The packet is routed to the FA. After receiving the packet, FA forwards
the packet to CN.

Route Optimization:
In the mobile IP protocol, all the data packets to the mobile node go through the home
agent. ecause of this there will be heavy traffic between HA and CN in the network, causing
latency to increase.
Therefore, the following route optimization needs to be carried out to overcome this problem.
 Enable direct notification of the corresponding host
 Direct tunnelling from the corresponding host to the mobile host
 Binding cache maintained at the corresponding host

The association of the home address with the care of address is called binding.

Message Type Description

S.No
If a node wants to know the current location of a mobile
1 Binding Request(BR)
node (MN) it sends a request to the Home agent(HA)
Binding On request the node will return an Acknowledgement
2
Acknowledgement(BA) message after getting the binding update message.
This is a message sent by HA to CN mentioning the
current location of MN. The message contains the fixed
3 Binding Update (BU)
IP address of the mobile node and the Care of Address.
The BU can request for an Acknowledgement
If a node decapsulates a packetfrom the mobile node
but it is not the current foreign agent then this node
4 Binding Warning(BW)
sends a binding warning to the home agent of the
mobile node.
Table. Messages in Mobile IP

3. Briefly explain DHCP client initialization procedure. (8) (May 2014) (May 2013)
(Nov 2013) (Nov 2014)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol: (DHCP)
DHCP was developed based on bootstrap protocol (BOOTP). DHCP provides several
types of information to a user including its IP address. To manage dynamic configuration
information and dynamic IP addresses, IETF standardized an extension to BOOTP known as
dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP).
The DHCP client and server work together to handle the roaming status and to assign
IP address on a new network efficiently. The DHCP server allocates an IP address from a pool
of IP addresses to a client.
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Description:
DHCP provides configuration parameters to Internet hosts. DHCP is based on client
server model. DHCP server hosts allocates nework addresses and deliver configuration
parameters to dynamically configured hosts. Server provides initialization parameters through
DHCP. The client requests initialization parameters from a DHCP server.

DHCP consists of two components :

1) A protocol for delivering host specific configuration parameters from a DHCP
server to a host
2) A Mechanism for allocation of network addresses to hosts.
Applications :
 Simplification of installation and maintenance of networked computers
 Supplies systems with all necessary information, such as IP address, DNS server address,
domain name, subnet mask, default router etc.
 Enables automatic integration of systems into an Intranet or the Internet, can be used to
acquire a COA for Mobile IP

Client/Server-Model
 The client sends via a MAC broadcast a request to the DHCP server (might be via a
DHCP relay)

Server
 Several servers can be configured for DHCP, coordination not yet standardized (i.e.,
manual configuration)

Renewal of configurations
 IP addresses have to be requested periodically, simplified protocol

Disadvantage:
 No authentication of DHCP information specified

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Significance of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol :

For example, if a host is running BOOTP, it can also request configuration (example:
static configuration) from a DHCP server node. The importance of DHCP in a mobile
computing environment is that it provides temporary IP addresses whenever a host moves
from one network to another network.

DHCP Protocol:

Fig 2.6 DHCP Client Initialization

DHCP Protocol mechanism:
DHCP supports the following three important mechanisms for IP address allocation:
Automatic allocation: In automatic allocation, DHCP assigns a permanent IP address to a
particular client.
Dynamic allocation: In dynamic allocation, DHCP assigns IP address to a client for a specific
period of time.
Manual allocation: In manual allocation, a client’s IP address is assigned by the network
administrator, where the DHCP is used to inform the address assigned to clients.

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4. (a) Describe the TCP / IP Protocol Suite and Architecture of TCP/IP. (10)
TCP / IP Protocol Suite:
The TCP/IP protocol suite was developed by DARPA to provide seamless communication
services across an internetwork consisting of a large number of different networks. The
TCP/IP protocol suite is a collection of a large number of protocols. The protocol suite has
been named after the two most important protocols of the protocol suite:

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP).

The TCP/IP protocol stack consists of four layers of protocols. The four layers of the protocol
are: Application layer, Transport layer, Internet layer, and Network interface layer

Fig.2.7 TCP / IP Protocol Stack

Application layer protocols:
The application programmers and end-users are mainly concerned with the application layer
protocols. The application layer protocols, in turn, make use of the services provided by the
lower layer protocols. An application layer protocol requiring to send a message to another
application (that may possibly be running on a different host either in the same local network
or in some remote network) makes use of a transport layer protocol and passes it with the
message to be transmitted.

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Transport Layer:
The specific transport layer protocol converts the message into small parts and attaches certain
information to it. The transport layer protocol first converts a message into segments and
passes these segments to the Internet layer protocol (IP).

IP Layer:
The IP layer protocol attaches certain information to the segments such as the destination host
address to form packets. A TCP segment is carried in one or more IP packets. The IP passes
on the packets to the network interface layer protocol.

Network Access Layer:

It converts the IP Packets to frames by adding certain additional information to the packets
such as checksum and then transmits them on the network.

Packet transfer in TCP/IP:

The reverse operation takes place when a frame arrives at a host. The network interface layer
protocol removes the information added by the corresponding network interface layer protocol
at the sender-end and passes on the packet to the IP layer.
The IP layer protocol at the destination removes the information added by the IP layer at the
sender’s end and gets back the segments and passes these to the transport layer protocol.
The transport layer protocol at the receiver strips the information added by the transport layer
protocol at the sender, reconstructs the message and sends it to the application layer.

The application layer deals with messages; the transport layer deals with segments; the
internet layer deals with packets; and the data link layer deals with frames.

Architecture of TCP / IP:

The TCP/IP protocol consists of four layers. These layers are: Application layer, Transport
layer, Internet layer, and Network access layer.

Fig. 2.8 TCP / IP Architecture

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Application layer:
The protocols at this layer are used by applications to establish communication with other
applications which may possibly be running on separate hosts. Examples of application layer
protocols are http, ftp, and telnet.

Transport layer:
It provides reliable end-to-end data transfer services. The term end-to-end means that
the end points of a communication link are applications or processes. Therefore, sometimes
protocols at this layer are also referred to as host-to-host protocols. Several applications or
processes run on a host.

Thus, to identify the end point, it is not only the computer that needs to be identified,
but also the exact process or application that would receive the message needs to be identified.
This is efficiently accomplished by using the concept of a port number.

An application or a process specifies a port number on which it would receive a

message. Once a message reaches a host, it is demultiplexed using the port number at the
transport layer for delivery to the appropriate application.

The transport layer provides its services by making use of the services of its lower
layer protocols. This layer includes both connection-oriented (TCP) and connectionless (UDP)
protocols.

Internet layer:
The Internet layer packs data into data packets that are technically known as IP
datagrams. Each IP datagram contains source and destination address (also called IP address)
information that is used to forward the datagrams between hosts and across networks.
The Internet layer is also responsible for routing of IP datagrams. In a nutshell, this
layer manages addressing of packets and delivery of packets between networks using the IP
address.
The main protocols included at the Internet layer are IP (Internet Protocol), ICMP
(Internet Control Message Protocol), ARP (Address Resolution Protocol), RARP (Reverse
Address Resolution Protocol) and IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol).

Network access layer:

The functions of this protocol layer include encoding data and transmitting at the
signaling determined by the physical layer. It also provides error detection and packet framing
functionalities.

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The functionalities of this layer actually consist of the functionalities of the two
lowermost layers of the ISO/ OSI protocol suite, namely data link and physical layers.

Data link Layer : The data link layer protocols help deliver data packets by making use of
physical layer protocols. A few popular data link layer protocols are Ethernet, Token Ring,
FDDI, and X.25. Ethernet is possibly the most common data link layer protocol

Physical Layer:. The physical layer defines how data is physically sent through the network,
including how bits are electrically or optically signalled by hardware devices that interface
with a network medium, such as coaxial cable, optical fibre, or twisted pair of copper wires.

4. b) Explain the structure of TCP segment and IP Datagram. (8) (Reg. 2013)
The message in the form of a block of data is passed to TCP by the sending
application. The TCP breaks it into many small parts and attaches certain control information
(called TCP header) to each small part. Each small part of the data along with the TCP header
is called a segment
The TCP header includes several items of information including the following:
(i) Destination Port
(ii) Checksum
(iii) Sequence number

Fig. 2.9 Structure of TCP segment

IP datagram
An IP packet is also called a datagram. A datagram is of variable length which can be
up to 65,536 bytes. It has two fields, namely header and data. The structure of an IP datagram
is schematically shown in Fig. below

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Fig. 2.10 Structure of IP Datagram

Version (Ver): The IP version number is defined in this field, e.g. IPV4 or IPV6.
Header length (Hlen): It defines the header length as multiples of four bytes.
Service type: It has bits that define the priority of the datagram itself.
Total length: This field is allotted 16 bits to define the length of IPdatagram.
Identification: It is mainly used to identify fragmentation that belongs todifferent networks.
16 bits are allotted for this job.
Flags: It deals with fragmentation of the data.
Fragmentation offset: It is a pointer to the offset of the data in the originaldatagram.
Time to live: This field is used to define the total number of hops that adatagram has to travel
before discarding the operation.
Protocol: This field has 16-bits. It defines which upper layer protocol data is encapsulated at
that time, say, for example TCP or UDP or ICMP, etc.
Header checksum: It has a 16-bit field to check the integrity of the packets.
Source address: It is a four byte (4 8 = 32) internet address to define the original source.
Destination address: It is a four byte (4 8 = 32) internet address to
identify the destination of datagram.
The IP datagrams are sent to the link layer and become ready for transmission to the first sub-
network in the path to its destination. The IP datagrams are also called packets.

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5. a) Discuss in detail about classical TCP improvements (or) TCP Enhancements.

(May 2014) (May 2015) (May 2013) (Dec 2013) (Nov 2012)
Classical TCP improvements
Indirect TCP / I – TCP :
Two reasons that led to the development of indirect TCP are (I-TCP)
 One is that TCP performs poorly together with wireless links;
 The other is that TCP within the fixed network cannot be changed.

I-TCP segments a TCP connection into a fixed part and a wireless part. Figure below
shows an example with a mobile host connected via a wireless link and an access point to
the ‘wired’ internet where the correspondent host resides. The correspondent node could also
use wireless access.

The following would then also be applied to the access link of the correspondent host.
 Standard TCP is used between the fixed computer and the access point. No computer in
the internet recognizes any changes to TCP. Instead of the mobile host, the access point now
terminates the standard TCP connection, acting as a proxy. This means that the access point is
now seen as the mobile host for the fixed host and as the fixed host for the mobile host.
Between the access point and the mobile host, a special TCP, adapted to wireless links, is used.

Foreign Agent:
 A good place for segmenting the connection between mobile host and correspondent host
is at the foreign agent of mobile IP. The foreign agent controls the mobility of the mobile host
anyway and can also hand over the connection to the next foreign agent when the mobile host
Indirect TCP segments a TCP connection into two parts moves on.
 The correspondent host in the fixed network does not notice the wireless link or the
segmentation of the connection.
 The foreign agent acts as a proxy and relays all data in both directions.

Mechanisms

 If the correspondent host sends a packet, the foreign agent acknowledges this packet and
tries to forward the packet to the mobile host. If the mobile host receives the packet, it
acknowledges the packet. However, this acknowledgement is only used by the foreign agent.
 If a packet is lost on the wireless link due to a transmission error, the correspondent host
would not notice this. In this case, the foreign agent tries to retransmit this packet locally to
maintain reliable data transport.
 Similarly, if the mobile host sends a packet, the foreign agent acknowledges this packet
and tries to forward it to the correspondent host.

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 If the packet is lost on the wireless link, the mobile hosts notice this much faster due to
the lower round trip time and can directly retransmit the packet. Packet loss in the wired
network is now handled by the foreign agent.

Fig. 2.11 Indirect TCP

 I-TCP requires several actions as soon as a handover takes place. As Figure
below demonstrates, not only the packets have to be redirected using, e.g., mobile IP. In
the example shown, the access point acts as a proxy buffering packets for retransmission.
After the handover, the old proxy must forward buffered data to the new proxy because it has
already acknowledged the data.
 After registration with the new foreign agent, this new foreign agent can inform the old
one about its location to enable packet forwarding. Besides buffer content, the sockets of
the proxy, too, must migrate to the new foreign agent located in the access point..

Fig. 2.12 Socket and state migration after handover of a mobile host

Advantages with I-TCP:

 I-TCP does not require any changes in the TCP protocol as used by the hosts in the
fixed network or other hosts in a wireless network that do not use this optimization.
 Due to the strict partitioning into two connections, transmission errors on the wireless link,
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i.e., lost packets cannot propagate into the fixed network.

 Optimizing of these new mechanisms is quite simple because they only cover one single
hop.
 A very fast retransmission of packets is possible, the short delay on the mobile hop is
known.

Disadvantages with I – TCP:

 Loss of end-to-end semantics, an acknowledgement to a sender does now not any longer
mean that a receiver really got a packet, foreign agents might crash
 higher latency possible due to buffering of data within the foreign agent and forwarding to
a new foreign agent

Snooping TCP: (S- TCP)

 One of the drawbacks of I-TCP is the segmentation of the single TCP connection into
two TCP connections. This loses the original end-to-end TCP semantic.
 The TCP enhancement (S-TCP) works completely transparently and leaves the TCP
end-to-end connection intact.
 The main function of the enhancement is to buffer data close to the mobile host to
perform fast local retransmission in case of packet loss.

Snooping:
 S- TCP is a protocol that improves TCP performance by modifying the software at the base
station while preserving the end-to-end TCP semantic. The modified software at the base
station is known as snoop. It monitors every packet that passes through the TCP connection in
both directions,
 A good place for the enhancement of TCP could be the foreign agent in the Mobile IP.
In this approach, the foreign agent buffers all packets with destination mobile host and
additionally ‘snoops’ the packet flow in both directions to recognize acknowledgements. The
reason for buffering packets toward the mobile node is to enable the foreign agent to
perform a local retransmission in case of packet loss on the wireless link. The foreign agent
buffers every packet until it receives an acknowledgement from the mobile host.
 If the foreign agent does not receive an acknowledgement from the mobile host within a
certain amount of time, either the packet or the acknowledgement has been lost.
 Alternatively, the foreign agent could receive a duplicate ACK which also shows the loss
of a packet. Now the foreign agent retransmits the packet directly from the buffer,
performing a much faster retransmission compared to the correspondent host.
 To remain transparent, the foreign agent must not acknowledge data to the correspondent
host. This would make the correspondent host believe that the mobile host had received the
data and would violate the end-to-end semantic in case of a foreign agent failure.
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 However, the foreign agent can filter the duplicate acknowledgements to avoid
unnecessary retransmissions of data from the correspondent host.

Fig 2.13 Snooping TCP

 If the foreign agent now crashes, the time-out of the correspondent host still works and
triggers a retransmission. The foreign agent may discard duplicates of packets already
retransmitted locally and acknowledged by the mobile host. This avoids unnecessary traffic
on the wireless link.
 Data transfer from the mobile host with destination correspondent host works as follows.
The foreign agent snoops into the packet stream to detect gaps in the sequence numbers of
TCP. As soon as the foreign agent detects a missing packet, it returns a negative
acknowledgement (NACK) to the mobile host. The mobile host can now retransmit the
missing packet immediately. Reordering of packets is done automatically at the
correspondent host by TCP.

Advantages of Snooping TCP

 The end-to-end TCP semantic is preserved.

 The correspondent host does not need to be changed; most of the enhancements are in
the foreign agent.
 It does not matter if the next foreign agent uses the enhancement or not. If not, the
approach automatically falls back to the standard solution. This is one of the problems of I-
TCP, since the old foreign agent may have already signaled the correct receipt of data via
acknowledgements to the correspondent host and now has to transfer these packets to the
mobile host via the new foreign agent.

Disadvantages of Snooping TCP:

 Snooping TCP does not isolate the behavior of the wireless link as well as I-TCP.

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 Using negative acknowledgements between the foreign agent and the mobile host
assumes additional mechanisms on the mobile host
 All efforts for snooping and buffering data may be useless if certain encryption
schemes are applied end-to-end between the correspondent host and mobile host.

Mobile TCP
Special handling of lengthy and/or frequent disconnections, M-TCP splits as I-TCP does. In
mobile wireless networks, users would badly suffer from unacceptable delays in TCP
communications and frequent disconnections caused by events such as signal fades, lack of
bandwidth, handoff, unless these are explicitly handled by the protocol. The M-TCP protocol
tries to avoid the sender window from shrinking or reverting to slow-start when bit errors
cause a packet loss.
The TCP connection between the fixed host and the mobile host is segmented into wired
and wireless parts — the wired part connection between the fixed host (FH) and the
supervisory host (SH) and the wireless part connection between the SH and the mobile host
(MH).

Many MHs are connected to SH through several base stations as shown in Fig. . The SH
supervises all the packets transmitted to MH and the acknowledgements sent by MH. It is also
used as an interface between FH and MH and vice versa.

When a packet is sent to FH by MH using SH, the wired part uses the normal unmodified TCP
and the wireless part uses the modified version of TCP known as M-TCP to deliver data to
MH. This packet is acknowledged only when the MH receives the packet.

Fig.2.14 Mobile TCP

Thus, it maintains the TCP semantics, unlike the I-TCP. In case the acknowledgement is not
received by FH, SH decides that MH is disconnected and sets the sender FH window size to
zero. This prevents re-transmission. When SH notices that the MH is connected, it sets the full

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windows size of the sender FH. When MH moves from its current SH region to a new SH
region, a state transfer take places, so that the new SH can maintain TCP connection between
FH and MH.
Advantages
 maintains semantics, supports disconnection, no buffer forwarding

Disadvantages
 loss on wireless link propagated into fixed network
 adapted TCP on wireless link

Transaction oriented TCP

TCP phases
connection setup, data transmission, connection release using 3-way-handshake needs
3 packets for setup and release, respectively. Thus, even short messages need a minimum of 7
packets.
Transaction oriented TCP
RFC1644, T-TCP, describes a TCP version to avoid this overhead
connection setup, data transfer and connection release can be combined
thus, only 2 or 3 packets are needed
Advantage:
Efficiency
Disadvantage:
Requires changed TCP
Mobility not longer transparent

Fast ReTransmit /Recovery

This approach overcomes the delay in transmissions caused due to intermittent
disconnections such as those that occurs when a mobile host (MH) moves to a foreign agent
(FA) during a TCP communication.
TCP transmission behavior after a disruption depends on its duration. The extremely
short disruptions (lasting for a time much less than RTO) would appear as short bursts of
packet losses.
In this case, the TCP retransmits those packets for which the timeout occurs and
recovers them without slow-start. However, for long disruptions (lasting for a time much
greater than RTO), TCP resorts to slow-start. This results in inefficiency.
As soon as a mobile host registers at a foreign agent, it starts sending duplicate
acknowledgements. As is standard with TCP, three consecutive acknowledgements for the
same TCP segment are inferred as a packet loss by the host-end TCP, and it is also inferred
that the connection is live, thereby causing the fast retransmit behaviour of TCP.

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Advantage:
 The advantage of this scheme is that it reduces the time for the MH to get reconnected,
otherwise FH would wait for RTO unnecessarily.

Disadvantages:
 The disadvantage of this approach is that it does not propose a general approach for
TCP communication in mobile wireless networks.
 It does not address the specific error characteristics of the wireless medium.

Transmission / Time out Freezing (Or) Freeze TCP :

The basic idea in this scheme is to “freeze” the TCP senders’ streams, little before a
disconnection is to occur. This is done by artificially sending a “Zero Windows
Advertisement” informing the sender that the receiver cannot receive data at the moment.
When the sender resumes its connectivity, the receiver can unfreeze the sender by sending the
value of its actual receiver window.

Advantages:
 The avoidance of the slow-start period upon re-establishment of connectivity.
 It does not require the involvement of the intermediate nodes and hence it can be used
if the IP payload is encrypted.
 This method offers a promising approach for use in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

Selective retransmission
• Change of foreign agent often results in packet loss
• TCP reacts with slow-start although there is no congestion
• Forced fast retransmit
• as soon as the mobile host has registered with a new foreign agent, the MH sends
duplicated acknowledgements on purpose
• This forces the fast retransmit mode at the communication partners
• Additionally, the TCP on the MH is forced to continue sending with the actual window
size and not to go into slow-start after registration

Advantage
 simple changes result in significant higher performance
Disadvantage
 Further mix of IP and TCP, no transparent approach

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6. a) Discuss in detail about traditional TCP in detail. (8)

b) Explain the adaptation of TCP window. (8)
Traditional TCP
Congestion control
A transport layer protocol such as TCP has been designed for fixed networks with
fixed end-systems. Data transmission takes place using network adapters, fiber optics, copper
wires, special hardware for routers etc. This hardware typically works without introducing
transmission errors. If the software is mature enough, it will not drop packets or flip bits, so if
a packet on its way from a sender to a receiver is lost in a fixed network, it is not because of
hardware or software errors.

The probable reason for a packet loss in a fixed network is a temporary overload
some point in the transmission path, i.e., a state of congestion at a node. Congestion may
appear from time to time even in carefully designed networks. The packet buffers of a router
are filled and the router cannot forward the packets fast enough because the sum of the input
rates of packets destined for one output link is higher than the capacity of the output link. The
only thing a router can do in this situation is to drop packets. A dropped packet is lost for the
transmission, and the receiver notices a gap in the packet stream. Now the receiver does not
directly tell the sender which packet is missing, but continues to acknowledge all in-sequence
packets up to the missing one.

The sender notices the missing acknowledgement for the lost packet and assumes
a packet loss due to congestion. Retransmitting the missing packet and continuing at full
sending rate would increase the congestion. Although it is not guaranteed that all packets of
the TCP connection take the same way through the network, this assumption holds for most of
the packets. To mitigate congestion, TCP slows down the transmission rate dramatically. All
other TCP connections experiencing the same
congestion do exactly the same so the congestion is soon resolved. This cooperation of TCP
connections in the internet is one of the main reasons for its survival as it is today. Using UDP
is not a solution, because the throughput is higher compared to a TCP connection just at the
beginning. As soon as everyone uses UDP, this advantage disappears. After that, congestion is
standard and data transmission quality is unpredictable. Even under heavy load, TCP
guarantees at least sharing of the bandwidth.

Slow start
TCP’s reaction to a missing acknowledgement is quite drastic, but it is necessary
to get rid of congestion quickly. The behavior TCP shows after the detection of congestion is
called slow start. The sender always calculates a congestion window for a receiver. The start
size of the congestion window is one segment (TCP packet). The sender sends one packet and
waits for acknowledgement. If this acknowledgement arrives, the sender increases the

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congestion window by one, now sending two packets (congestion window = 2). After arrival
of the two corresponding acknowledgements,the sender again adds 2 to the congestion
window, one for each of the acknowledgements. Now the congestion window equals 4. This
scheme doubles the congestion window every time the acknowledgements come back, which
takes one round trip time (RTT). This is called the exponential growth of the congestion
window in the slow start mechanism. It is too dangerous to double the congestion window
each time because the steps might become too large. The exponential growth stops at the
congestion threshold.
As soon as the congestion window reaches the congestion threshold, further
increase of the transmission rate is only linear by adding 1 to the congestion window each time
the acknowledgements come back. Linear increase continues until a time-out at the sender
occurs due to a missing acknowledgement, or until the sender detects a gap in transmitted data
because of continuous acknowledgements for the same packet. In either case the sender sets
the congestion threshold to half of the current congestion window. The congestion window
itself is set to one segment and the sender starts sending a single segment. The exponential
growth (as described above) starts once more up to the new congestion threshold, then the
window grows in linear fashion.

Fast retransmit/fast recovery

Two things lead to a reduction of the congestion threshold. One is a sender
receiving continuous acknowledgements for the same packet. This informs the sender of two
things. One is that the receiver got all packets up to the acknowledged packet in sequence. In
TCP, a receiver sends acknowledgements only if it receives any packets from the sender.
Receiving acknowledgements from a receiver also shows that the receiver continuously
receives something from the sender. The gap in the packet stream is not due to severe
congestion, but a simple packet loss due to a transmission error. The sender can now
retransmit the missing packet(s) before the timer expires. This behavior is called Fast
retransmit.

The receipt of acknowledgements shows that there is no congestion to justify a

slow start. The sender can continue with the current congestion window. The sender performs
a fast recovery from the packet loss. This mechanism can improve the efficiency of TCP
dramatically The other reason for activating slow start is a time-out due to a missing
acknowledgement. TCP using fast retransmit/fast recovery interprets this congestion in the
network and activates the slow start mechanism.

Adaptation of TCP Window

The TCP primarily deploys a flow control technique to control congestion in a network. Traffic
congestion occurs when the rate at which data is injected by a host into the network exceeds the
rate at which data can be delivered to the network. A flow control technique helps adapt the rate
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of data transmission by the TCP at the sending host end. The flow control technique helps to
prevent the build-up of congestion in the network and at the same time helps to prevent buffer
overrun at the slow receivers. If data transmissions occur at a much faster rate than what the
network infrastructure can comfortably support, then data packets get built up at the routers.
When the buffers at routers start to overflow, the packets start getting lost.

Additionally, if data transmissions by a sender take place at a much faster rate than what a slower
receiver can handle, then the receiver’s buffer starts to get flooded and hence the packets get lost.
TCP handles both these causes of packet loss by reducing the rate at which data is transmitted at
the sender’s end. Thus, a receiver uses the flow control mechanism to restrict how fast a sender
can transmit. However, to provide an acceptably fast data transmission service, once congestion
disappears the transmission rate at the sender’s end needs to be increased to a suitable value.
Thus we can say that a flow control technique helps TCP dynamically adjust the transmission
rate at the sender’s end, reducing the transmission rate as congestion starts to develop and
increasing it as congestion starts to disappear.

The flow control mechanism deployed by TCP (called the sliding window protocol) is primarily
based on the concepts of congestion window and advertised window. When a sender starts to
send data packets, the receiver indicates an advertised window (or receiver window) to the
sender while sending acknowledgements.

The advertised window is usually set equal to the size of the receive buffer at the receiver. The
sender uses the advertised window size obtained from the receiver to determine the maximum
amount of data that it can transmit to the receiver without causing buffer overflow at the
receiver. In other words, to prevent buffer overflow at the receiver, the data packets transmitted
by a sender without having received acknowledgments for them should not exceed the size of the
buffer available at the receiving end.

For each segment sent, a sending host expects to receive an acknowledgment. A congestion
window indicates the maximum number of segments that can be outstanding without the receipt
of the corresponding acknowledgement before the TCP at the sender’s end pauses transmitting
and waits for an acknowledgement to arrive. The TCP at a sender’s end pauses if the number of
segments for which the acknowledgement is outstanding becomes equal to the congestion
window. A sender sets the congestion window size to 1 and keeps on increasing it until duplicate
acknowledgements are received or until the number of outstanding packets becomes equal to the
size of the advertised window.

Upon receipt of an acknowledgement, TCP detects packet loss using Retransmission timeout
(RTO) and duplicate acknowledgements. After transmitting a segment, a TCP sender sets the
retransmission timer for only one packet. If an acknowledgement for the packet is not received
before the timer goes off, the packet is assumed to be lost. RTO is dynamically calculated.
Timeouts can take too long.

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Again the TCP sender assumes that a packet loss has occurred if it receives three duplicate
acknowledgements consecutively. In TCP, when a receiver does not get a packet that it expects
in a sequence but gets an out of order packet, it considers that the expected packet might have
got lost and it indicates this to the sender by transmitting an acknowledgment for the last packet
that was received in order. Thus, three duplicate acknowledgement are also generated if a packet
is delivered at least three places beyond its in-sequence location.

In wired networks, packet losses primarily occur on account of congestions encountered in the
transmission path. However, in a wireless environment packet losses can also occur due to
mobility and channel errors. In wired networks, bit errors are rare. On the other hand, wireless
networks are vulnerable to noise. Noise can cause intermittent bit errors. Further, there can be
intermittent disconnections due to fading and also due to obstructions that may be encountered
by a mobile host.

The packets may get lost during handoff. An intermittent disconnection may cause the TCP at
the sender’s end to time out for an acknowledgement and cause it to retransmit. This would
cause unnecessary retransmissions to occur, even though the packet may be buffered at a router.
Also, various additional causes of packet loss can result in a high rate of packet loss in a mobile
wireless network. These losses would be interpreted by TCP as symptoms of congestion and
force it to operate in slow start. This would cause the network to operate inefficiently and result
in unacceptable slow data transmission.

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UNIT - III
MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) – General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS) – Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS).

Part – A

1. List the standards similar to GSM. (May 2012)

 UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System)
 TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio)
 DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication)
 IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications)

2. Draw the GPRS transport plane. (May 2012)

GPRS transport Plane

3. What are the advantages of GPRS? (Dec 2012)

The expansion of GPRS is General packet radio service. The advantages are as follows:

 GPRS maintains “always on” characteristic.

 Also, no connection has to be setup prior to data transfer.
 It allows users use the Internet anywhere at any time
 It allows the user to communicate on a world wide scale

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 GPRS can be used on both mobiles and laptops

4. List out the types of handover in GSM.(Nov 2014)

 Intra-BTS handover or Intra Cell Handover
 Inter-BTS Intra BSC handover or Inter Cell Handover
 Inter-BSC handover
 Inter-MSC handover

5. What is the functionality of GGSN? (June 2014)

Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN)
 It act as an interworking unit between GPRS and external packet data networks.(PDN)
 The node contains routing information for GPRS users.
 It performs address conversion and tunnels data to user encapsulation.
 GGSN transfers packets to SGSN through IP based GPRS backbone network.

6. What are the advantages of GSM? (Dec 2014)

 GSM is mature; this maturity means a more stable network with robust features.
 Ability to use repeaters.
 Talk time is generally higher in GSM phones due to the pulse nature of
transmission.
 The availability of Subscriber Identity Modules allows users to switch networks
and handsets.
 GSM covers virtually all parts of the world so international roaming is not a
problem

7. What are the security issues in mobile networking?(June 2013) (Nov 2013)
 Access control/authentication
 Confidentiality
 Anonymity

8. What is mobility management? (June 2013)

Mobility management entails keeping track of the MS while it is on the move. The
mobility management procedures vary across three distinct scenarios, namely:
 MS is turned off
 MS is turned on but is idle
 MS has an active call

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9. State the function of SS7 in GSM architecture. (May 2015)

SS7 uses common channel signalling, in which the path and facility used by the
signalling is separate and distinct from the telecommunications channels that carry the telephone
conversation. With CCS, it becomes possible to exchange signalling without first picking a voice
channel, leading to significant savings and performance increases in both signalling and channel
usage.

SS7 also enables Non-Call-Associated Signalling, which is signalling not directly related
to establishing a telephone call.

10. Why are so many identifiers/addresses needed in GSM? Give reasons. (Nov 2012)
The international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI) uniquely identifies a mobile
station internationally. A mobile station can only be operated if a SIM with a valid IMSI is
inserted into equipment with a valid IMEI. The real telephone number of a mobile station is the
mobile subscriber ISDN number (MSISDN).The Mobile Station Roaming Number (MSRN) is a
temporary location dependent ISDN number. It is assigned by the locally responsible VLR
(Visitor Location Register) to each mobile station in its area.

11. What is Handoff? List out its characteristics. (June 2013)

In a cellular telephone network, handoff is the transition for any given user of signal
transmission from one base station to a geographically adjacent base station as the user moves
around. One of the key elements of a mobile phone or cellular telecommunications system is that
the system is split into many small cells to provide good frequency re-use and coverage.
However as the mobile moves out of one cell to another it must be possible to retain the
connection. The process by which this occurs is known as handover or handoff.

12. What are the four possible handover scenarios in GSM? (Dec 2014 ) (or)
What are the reasons for Handover? (Dec 2013)
Reasons for hand off:
 To avoid call termination: call drops
 When the capacity for connecting new calls of a given cell is used up.
 Interference in the channels.
 When the user behaviors change: Speed and mobility.

13. How UMTS differs from 2G networks?(Reg. 2013)

UMTS networks are different from the 2G networks in the following respects:

 Higher speech quality – It supports the adv the UMTS supports the advanced data and
information services and can be called a true multimedia network.

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 Higher data rate - The UMTS supports 2 Mbps data rate, which is much higher than
that supported by the 2G mobile systems.
 Virtual home environment (VHE) - A user roaming from his network to other UMTS
networks will not feel any discontinuity or service difference, thus giving a “feeling”
of being in the home network.
14. What are the elements of UMTs network? (Reg. 2013)

There are three elements included in UMTs network architecture:

 User Equipment (UE): The User Equipment (UE) is the name by which a cell phone
is referred.
 Radio Network Subsystem (RNS): The RNS is the equivalent of the Base Station
Subsystem (BSS) in GSM. It provides and manages the wireless interface for the
overall network.
 Core Network: The core network is the equivalent of the GSM Network Switching
Subsystem (NSS).

15. List the types of GPRS services.

GPRS offers end to end packet switched data transfer services which can be categorized
into the following two types:

 Point to point service (PTP)

 Point to multipoint service (PTM)

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Part – B
University Questions
GSM
1. Discuss the localization, Calling and handover features of GSM Systems. (16) (Dec 2013)
(June 2013) (Or)
Explain in detail the architecture of GSM. Also explain mobility management and
handover. (16) (June 2014)
Explain how mobility management is done in GSM. (8) (Dec 2014)
Discuss in detail the various handover scenarios in GSM. (6) (June 2013)
2. Write a detailed note on GSM system Architecture with a neat diagram. (16) (Dec 2012) (June
2013) (Nov 2015)(Or)
Explain the reference architecture of GSM. (16) (June 2012) (Dec 2013) (May 2015) (Or)
Explain the functional architecture of GSM (10) (May 2015) (Dec 2014)
Explain the features of GSM radio interfaces (8) (Dec 2012)
3. Explain the functions of Cellular wireless networks. List its advantages. (8) (Dec 2014)
4. Explain the services of GSM networks. (16) (Dec 2013)
5. Explain the security services of GSM. (8) (May 2015) (Dec 2012) (Dec 2013)
6. Explain the Mobile Terminated Call and Mobile Originated Call in GSM. (8) (May 2015)
GPRS:
7. Explain the architecture of GPRS. (8) (May 2015) (Dec 2014) (Or)
Explain the GPRS architecture and data services. (8)(Dec 2012) (Or)
What are the advantages of GPRS and GSM? Also explain the architecture of GPRS. (8)
(Dec 2013) (Or)
Explain the GPRS architecture and GPRS procedures in detail (16) (May 2015) (Or)
What is the goal of GPRS? Explain the network and protocol architecture of GPRS.(16) (Dec
2015)
8. Explain the network services of GPRS and mobility support in GPRS.(16) (June 2012)
9. Describe the reliability and delay classes in GPRS. Also explain the GPRS procedures. (10)
(June 2013) (Dec 2014)
UMTS
10. Explain the UMTS architecture in detail. (Reg 2013)

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Part - B

1. Explain in detail about GSM architecture. (16) (Dec 2012) (June 2013) (Nov 2015)
(June 2012) (Dec 2013) (May 2015)

GSM is a PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network). An important characteristic of the GSM
system is that it provides data services in addition to voice services.GSM networks operate in
four different radio frequencies. Most GSM networks operate either in the 900 MHz or in the
1800 MHz frequency bands.

Functional (or) System architecture

GSM comes with a hierarchical, complex system architecture comprising many entities,
interfaces, and acronyms. A GSM system consists of three subsystems, the radio sub system
(RSS), the network and switching subsystem (NSS), and the operation subsystem
(OSS).Generally, a GSM customer only notices a very small fraction of the whole network –
the mobile stations (MS) and some antenna masts of the base transceiver stations (BTS).

Several providers setup mobile networks following the GSM standard within each country.

Components
 MS (mobile station)
 BS (base station)
 MSC (mobile switching center)
 LR (location register)

Subsystems
 RSS (radio subsystem): covers all radio aspects
 NSS (network and switching subsystem): call forwarding, handover,
switching
 OSS (operation subsystem): management of the network

1. Radio Sub System (RSS)

The Radio Subsystem (RSS) comprises the cellular mobile network up to the switching
centers. The radio subsystem (RSS) comprises all radio specific entities, i.e., the mobile stations
(MS) and the base station subsystem (BSS).

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Radio Interfaces :

The connection between the RSS and the NSS via the A interface (solid lines) and the
connection to the OSS via the O interface (dashed lines). The A interface is typically based on
circuit-switched PCM-30 systems (2.048 M bit/s), carrying up to 30 64 k bit/s connections,
whereas the O interface uses the Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) based on X.25 carrying
management data to/from the RSS.

Fig. 3.1 GSM Architecture

Components

Base station subsystem (BSS): A GSM network comprises many BSSs, each controlled
by a base station controller (BSC). The BSS performs all functions necessary to maintain radio
connections to an MS, coding/decoding of voice, and rate adaptation to/from the wireless
network part. Besides a BSC, the BSS contains several BTSs.

Base transceiver station (BTS): A BTS comprises all radio equipment, i.e., antennas,
signal processing, amplifiers necessary for radio transmission. A BTS can form a radio cell or,
using sectorized antennas, several cells and is connected to MS via the Um interface (ISDN U
interface for mobile use), and to the BSC via the Abis interface. The Um interface contains all

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the mechanisms necessary for wireless transmission (TDMA, FDMA etc.) and will be discussed
in more detail below. The Abis interface consists of 16 or 64 k bit/s connections.

Base Station Controller (BSC): The BSC basically manages the BTSs. It reserves radio
frequencies, handles the handover from one BTS to another within the BSS, and performs paging
of the MS. The BSC also multiplexes the radio channels onto the fixed network connections at
the A interface.

Mobile Station (MS) : The MS comprises all user equipment and software needed for
communication with a GSM network.

An MS consists of user independent hard- and software and of the subscriber identity
module (SIM), which stores all user-specific data that is relevant to GSM.3 While an MS can be
identified via the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI).

The SIM card contains many identifiers and tables, such as card-type, serial number, a list
of subscribed services,

 a personal identity number (PIN),

 a PIN unblocking key (PUK),
 an authentication key Ki, and the international mobile subscriber identity
(IMSI) .
 The PIN is used to unlock the MS.

The MS stores dynamic information while logged onto the GSM system, such as, e.g., the
cipher key Kc and the location information consisting of a temporary mobile subscriber identity
(TMSI) and the location area identification (LAI). MS can also offer other types of interfaces to
users with display, loudspeaker, microphone, and programmable soft keys. Further interfaces
comprise computer modems, IrDA, or Bluetooth.

2. Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS)

The “heart” of the GSM system is formed by the network and switching subsystem
(NSS). The NSS connects the wireless network with standard public networks, performs
handovers between different BSSs, comprises functions for worldwide localization of users and
supports charging, accounting, and roaming of users. The NSS consists of the following switches
and databases:

Mobile Services switching Center (MSC)

MSCs are high-performance digital ISDN switches. They set up connections to other
MSCs and to the BSCs via the A interface, and form the fixed backbone network of a GSM
system. Typically, an MSC manages several BSCs in a geographical region. A gateway MSC
(GMSC) has additional connections to other fixed networks, such as PSTN and ISDN.

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BSC can also connect to public data networks (PDN) such as X.25. An MSC handles all
signaling needed for connection setup, connection release and handover of connections to other
MSCs. The standard signaling system No. 7 (SS7) is used for this purpose.

Home Location Register (HLR)

The HLR is the most important database in a GSM system as it stores all user-relevant
information. This comprises static information, such as the mobile subscriber ISDN number
(MSISDN), subscribed services (e.g., call forwarding, roaming restrictions, GPRS), and the
international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI). Dynamic information is also needed, e.g., the
current location area (LA) of the MS, the mobile subscriber roaming number (MSRN), the
current VLR and MSC

Visitor Location Register (VLR)

The VLR associated to each MSC is a dynamic database which stores all important
information needed for the MS users currently in the LA that is associated to the MSC (e.g.,
IMSI,MSISDN, HLR address). If a new MS comes into an LA the VLR is responsible for, it
copies all relevant information for this user from the HLR. This hierarchy of VLR and HLR
avoids frequent HLR updates and long-distance signaling of user information.

3. Operation Sub System (OSS)

The third part of a GSM system, the operation subsystem (OSS), contains the necessary
functions for network operation and maintenance. The OSS possesses network entities of its own
and accesses other entities via SS7 signaling.

Operation and Maintenance Center (OMC)

The OMC monitors and controls all other network entities via the O interface (SS7 with
X.25). Typical OMC management functions are traffic monitoring, status reports of network
entities, subscriber and security management, or accounting and billing.

Authentication Centre (AuC)

As the radio interface and mobile stations are particularly vulnerable, a separate AuC has
been defined to protect user identity and data transmission. The AuC contains the algorithms for
authentication as well as the keys for encryption and generates the values needed for user
authentication in the HLR.

Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

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The EIR is a database for all IMEIs, i.e., it stores all device identifications registered for
this network. As MSs are mobile, they can be easily stolen. With a valid SIM, anyone could use
the stolen MS. The EIR has a blacklist of stolen (or locked) devices.

2(a) Explain the Bearer services, Tele services and Supplementary services of GSM
network. (NOV 2013) (or) Explain the services of GSM networks. (16) (Dec 2013)

GSM Mobile services

GSM permits the integration of different voice and data services and the interworking
with existing networks. Services make a network interesting for customers.

GSM has defined three different categories of services:

 Bearer Services
 Tele Services
 Supplementary services.

A mobile station MS is connected to the GSM public land mobile network (PLMN)
through Um interface. GSM-PLMN is the infrastructure needed for the GSM network. This
network is connected to transit networks, e.g., integrated services digital network (ISDN) or
traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Bearer services now comprise all services that enable the transparent transmission of
data between the interfaces to the network.In the classical GSM model, bearer services are
connection-oriented and circuit- or packet-switched. These services only need the lower three
layers of the ISO/OSI reference model.

Within the mobile station MS, the mobile termination (MT) performs all network specific
tasks (TDMA, FDMA, coding etc.) and offers an interface for data transmission (S) to the
terminal TE which can then be network independent.

Tele services are application specific and may thus need all seven layers of the ISO/OSI
reference model. These services are specified end-to-end, i.e., from one terminal TE to another.

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Fig. 3.2 GSM Services

Bearer services

GSM specifies different mechanisms for data transmission, the original GSM allowing
for data rates of up to 9600 bit/s for non-voice services. Bearer services permit transparent and
non-transparent, synchronous or asynchronous data transmission.

Transparent bearer services only use the functions of the physical layer (layer 1) to
transmit data. Data transmission has a constant delay and throughput if no transmission errors
occur. The only mechanism to increase transmission quality is the use of forward error correction
(FEC), which codes redundancy into the data stream and helps to reconstruct the original data in
case of transmission errors. Depending on the FEC, data rates of 2.4, 4.8, or 9.6 k bit/s are
possible.

Non-transparent bearer services use protocols of layers two and three to implement
error correction and flow control. These services use the transparent bearer services, adding a
radio link protocol (RLP). This protocol comprises mechanisms of high-level data link control
(HDLC) and special selective-reject mechanisms to trigger retransmission of erroneous data. The
achieved bit error rate is less than 10–7, but now throughput and delay may vary depending on
transmission quality.

Using transparent and non-transparent services, GSM specifies several bearer

services for interworking with PSTN, ISDN, and packet switched public data networks (PSPDN)
like X.25, which is available worldwide. Data transmission can be full-duplex, synchronous with
data rates of 1.2, 2.4, 4.8, and 9.6 k bit/s or full-duplex, asynchronous from 300 to 9,600 bit/s

Tele services

GSM mainly focuses on voice-oriented tele services. These comprise encrypted voice
transmission, message services, and basic data communication with terminals as known from the
PSTN or ISDN (e.g., fax). The main service is telephony.

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The primary goal of GSM was the provision of high-quality digital voice transmission,
offering at least the typical bandwidth of 3.1 kHz of analog phone systems.

VoIP ( 2 Marks) (Nov / Dec 2014)

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of
voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the
Internet. Other terms commonly associated with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony,
broadband telephony, and broadband phone service

Another service offered by GSM is the emergency number. The same number can be
used throughout Europe. This service is mandatory for all providers and free of charge. This
connection also has the highest priority, possibly pre-empting other connections, and will
automatically be set up with the closest emergency center. A useful service for very simple
message transfer is the short message service (SMS), which offers transmission of messages of
up to 160 characters.

The successor of SMS, the enhanced message service (EMS), offers a larger message size
(e.g., 760 characters, concatenating several SMs), formatted text, and the transmission of
animated pictures, small images and ring tones in a standardized way (some vendors offered
similar proprietary features before).EMS never really took off as the multimedia message service
(MMS) was available.MMS offers the transmission of larger pictures (GIF, JPG, WBMP), short
video clips etc. and comes with mobile phones that integrate small cameras.

Another non-voice tele service is group 3 fax, which is available worldwide. In this
service, fax data is transmitted as digital data over the analog telephone network according to the
ITU-T standards T.4 and T.30 using modems. Typically, a transparent fax service is used, i.e.,
fax data and fax signaling is transmitted using a transparent bearer service. Lower transmission
quality causes an automatic adaptation of the bearer service to lower data rates and higher
redundancy for better FEC.

Supplementary services

In addition to tele and bearer services, GSM providers can offer supplementary services.
Similar to ISDN networks, these services offer various enhancements for the standard telephony
service, and may vary from provider to provider. Typical services are user identification, call
redirection, or forwarding of ongoing calls. Standard ISDN features such as closed user groups
and multiparty communication may be available. Closed user groups are of special interest to
companies because they allow, for example, a company-specific GSM sub-network, to which
only members of the group have access.

2(b) Explain in detail about mobility management and handover in GSM. (8)

Mobility Management in GSM:

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Mobility management entails keeping track of the MS while it is on the move. The mobility
management procedures vary across three distinct scenarios, namely:
 MS is turned off
 MS is turned on but is idle
 MS has an active call

In the first scenario, when it cannot be reached by the network because it does not respond to
the paging message, the MS is considered to be in the turned-off state. In this scenario, the MS
obviously fails to provide any updates in relation to changes in Location Area (LA), if any exist.
In this state, the MS is considered detached from the system (IMSI detached).

In the second scenario, the MS is in the ready state to make or receive calls. The system
considers it attached (IMSI attached), and it can be successfully paged. While on the move, the
MS must inform the system about any changes in LA; this is known as location updating.

In the third scenario, the system has active radio channels that are allowed to the MS for
conversation/data flow. The MS is required to change to new radio channels if the quality of
current channels drops below a certain level; this is known as handover. The MSC (sometimes
BSC) makes the decision to handover an analysis of information that is obtained real-time from
the MS and BTS.

All operations revolve around the three scenarios presented above. Also provides paging,
IMSI detach/attach and more complex operations such as location update, call handover, mobile
terminated call, mobile originated call, and mobile-to-mobile call.

Location Update
Location updating is the mechanism that is used to determine the location of an MS in the idle
state. The MS initiates location updating, which can occur when:
 The MS is first switched on
 The MS moves within the same VLR area, but to a new LA
 The MS moves to a new VLR area
 A location updated timer expires

Mobile Terminated Call (MTC)

In the case of an MTC, a subscriber from within the PSTN dials the mobile subscriber's
MSISDN. This generates an ISUP IAM message (it also could potentially be TUP as Level 4)
that contains the MSISDN as the called party number. The ISDN (i.e., PSTN) routes the call to
the GMSC in the PLMN, based on the information contained in the MSISDN (national
destination code and the country code).

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The GMSC then identifies the subscriber's HLR based upon the MSISDN and invokes the
MAP/C operation Send Routing Information (SRI) towards the HLR to locate the MS. The SRI
contains the MSISDN. The HLR uses the MSISDN to obtain the IMSI.

Because of past location updates, the HLR already knows the VLR that currently serves the
subscriber. The HLR queries the VLR using the MAP/D operation Provide Roaming Number
(PRN) to obtain the MSRN. The PRN contains the subscriber's IMSI.

The VLR assigns a temporary number known as the mobile station roaming number (MSRN),
which is selected from a pool, and sends the MSRN back in an MAP/D
MSRN Acknowledgement to the HLR.

The HLR then passes the MSRN back to the GMSC in a MAP/C Routing Information
Acknowledgement message. To the PSTN, the MSRN appears as a dialable number.

Since the GMSC now knows the MSC in which the MS is currently located, it generates an
IAM with the MSRN as the called party number. When the MSC receives the IAM, it
recognizes the MSRN and knows the IMSI for which the MSRN was allocated. The MSC then
returns the MSRN to the pool for future use on another call.

The MSC sends the VLR a MAP/B Send Information message requesting information, including
the called MS's capabilities, services subscribed to, and so on. If the called MS is authorized and
capable of taking the call, the VLR sends a MAP/B Complete Call message back to the MSC.

The MSC uses the LAI and TMSI received in the Complete Call message to route a BSSMAP
Page message to all BSS cells in the LA.

Fig. 3.3 Call Management

In Figure above the sequence of events involved in placing an MTC is as follows:

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1. The calling subscriber uses the MSISDN to dial the mobile subscriber.
2. The MSISDN causes the call to be routed to the mobile network gateway MSC (GMSC).
3. The GMSC uses information in the called number digits to locate the mobile subscriber's
HLR.
4. The HLR has already been informed about the location (VLR address) for the mobile
subscriber; it requests a temporary routing number to allow the call to be routed to the
correct MSC.
5. The MSC/VLR responds with a temporary routing number that is only valid for the
duration of this call.
6. The routing number is returned to the GMSC.
7. The call is made using ISUP (or TUP) signaling between the GMSC and the visited
MSC.

Handover in GSM:
One of the key elements of a mobile phone or cellular telecommunications system is that
the system is split into many small cells to provide good frequency re-use and coverage.
However as the mobile moves out of one cell to another it must be possible to retain the
connection. The process by which this occurs is known as handover or handoff.
Types of handover:
 Intra-BTS handover: This form of GSM handover occurs if it is required to change the
frequency or slot being used by a mobile because of interference, or other reasons. In this
form of GSM handover, the mobile remains attached to the same base station transceiver,
but changes the channel or slot.
 Inter-BTS Intra BSC handover: This form of GSM handover or GSM handoff occurs
when the mobile moves out of the coverage area of one BTS but into another controlled
by the same BSC. In this instance the BSC is able to perform the handover and it assigns
a new channel and slot to the mobile, before releasing the old BTS from communicating
with the mobile.
 Inter-BSC handover: When the mobile moves out of the range of cells controlled by
one BSC, a more involved form of handover has to be performed, handing over not only
from one BTS to another but one BSC to another. For this the handover is controlled by
the MSC.
 Inter-MSC handover: This form of handover occurs when changing between networks.
The two MSCs involved negotiate to control the handover.

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Fig. 3.4 Types of Handover in GSM

3. Explain in detail about GPRS System architecture and protocol architecture.

Introduction

GPRS when integrated with GSM significantly improves and simplifies Internet access. It
transfers data packets from GSM mobile stations to external packet data networks (PDNs).
Packets can be directly routed from the GPRS mobile stations to packet switched networks
making it easy to connect to the Internet.

GSM uses a billing system based on the time (duration) of connection, whereas GPRS uses a
billing system based on the amount of transmitted data rather than the duration of the connection.
So, users can remain continuously connected to the system, and yet get charged only for the
amount of transmitted data.

Goals of GPRS

GPRS should also allow for broadcast, multicast, and unicast service. The overall goal is the
provision of a more efficient and thus cheaper packet transfer service for typical internet
applications that usually rely solely on packet transfer. GPRS does not only represent a software
update to allow for the bundling of channels.

Service Class

Users of GPRS can specify a QoS-profile. This determines the service precedence (high, normal,
low), reliability class and delay class of the transmission and user data throughput. GPRS should
adaptively allocate radio resources to fulfill these user specifications. Delay within a GPRS
network is incurred by channel access delay, coding for error correction, and transfer delays in
the fixed and wireless part of the GPRS network.

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The delay introduced by external fixed networks is out of scope. However, GPRS does not
produce additional delay by buffering packets as store and forward networks do. If possible,
GPRS tries to forward packets as fast as possible. GPRS includes several security services such
as authentication, access control, user identity confidentiality, and user information
confidentiality .Even a completely anonymous service is possible, as, e.g., applied for road toll
systems that only charge a user via the MS independent of the user’s identity.

GPRS Services

GPRS offers end-to-end packet-switched data transfer services which can be categorized into the
following two types:

(i) Point-to-Point (PTP) service

(ii) Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) service.

The PTP service is between two users and can either be connectionless or connection-oriented.
The PTM is a data transfer service from one user to multiple users. Again, there are two types of
PTM services. One is multicast PTM where the data packets are broadcast in a certain area and
the other is group call PTM where the data packets are addressed to a group of users.

GPRS architecture

The GPRS architecture introduces two new network elements,

 Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN) and

 Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) which are in fact routers.

Fig. 3.5 GPRS architecture

All GSNs are integrated into the standard GSM architecture, and many new interfaces have been
defined .The gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) is the interworking unit between the GPRS

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network and external packet data networks (PDN). This node contains routing information for
GPRS users, performs address conversion, and tunnels data to a user via encapsulation.

The GGSN is connected to external networks (e.g., IP or X.25) via the Gi interface and
transfers packets to the SGSN via an IP-based GPRS backbone network (Gn interface).The other
new element is the serving GPRS support node (SGSN) which supports the MS via the Gb
interface. The SGSN, for example, requests user addresses from the GPRS register (GR), keeps
track of the individual MSs’ location, is responsible for collecting billing information (e.g.,
counting bytes), and performs several security functions such as access control.

The SGSN is connected to a BSC via frame relay and is basically on the same hierarchy
level as an MSC. The GR, which is typically a part of the HLR, stores all GPRS-relevant data.
GGSNs and SGSNs can be compared with home and foreign agents, respectively, in a mobile IP
network.

The MSC, which is responsible for data transport in the traditional circuit-switched GSM,
is only used for signaling in the GPRS scenario. Before sending any data over the GPRS
network, an MS must attach to it, following the procedures of the mobility management. The
attachment procedure includes assigning a temporal identifier, called a temporary logical link
identity (TLLI), and a ciphering key sequence number (CKSN) for data encryption.

For each MS, a GPRS context is set up and stored in the MS and in the corresponding
SGSN. This context comprises the status of the MS.
Besides attaching and detaching, mobility management also comprises functions for
authentication, location management, and ciphering (here, the scope of ciphering lies between
MS and SGSN, which is more than in standard GSM).

In idle mode an MS is not reachable and all contexts is deleted. In the standby state only
movement across routing areas is updated to the SGSN but not changes of the cell.

Permanent updating would waste battery power; no updating would require system-wide
paging. The update procedure in standby mode is a compromise. Only in the ready state every
movement of the MS is indicated to the SGSN.

4. Explain in detail about security services in GSM. (8)

 Access control/authentication
i. user  SIM (Subscriber Identity Module): secret PIN (personal
identification number)
ii. SIM  network: challenge response method

 Confidentiality

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i. voice and signaling encrypted on the wireless link (after successful

authentication)

Fig 3.6 Encryption

 Anonymity
i. temporary identity TMSI (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity)
ii. newly assigned at each new location update (LUP)
iii. encrypted transmission
iv. 3 algorithms specified in GSM
1. A3 for authentication (“secret”, open interface)
2. A5 for encryption (standardized)
3. A8 for key generation (“secret”, open interface)

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5. Discuss in detail about Universal Mobile Telecommunication systems. (Reg. 2013)

CDMA 2000 and UMTS were developed separately and are two separate ITU approved
3G standards. In these networks, coverage is provided by a combination of various cell sizes,
ranging from “in building” pico cells to global cells provided by satellites, giving service to the
remote regions of the world.

The UMTS was developed mainly for countries with GSM networks, and it is expected
that all GSM networks will be upgraded to UMTS networks. Because it is a new technology, a
whole new radio access network has to be built. An important advantage of UMTS is that it gives
significantly enhanced capacities to operators.

The UMTS specification has been designed so that the UMTS systems are compatible
with GSM networks. Therefore, the UMTS networks can easily work with any existing
GSM/GPRS network. The UMTS systems use different frequency bands, so the BTSs do not
interfere with each other. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) is a third-
generation (3G) broadband, packet-based transmission of text, digitized voice, video, and
multimedia at data rates up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps).

UMTS offers a consistent set of services to mobile computer and phone users, no matter
where they are located in the world. UMTS is based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM)
communication standard. It is also endorsed by major standards bodies and manufacturers as the
planned standard for mobile users around the world.

Once UMTS is fully available, computer and phone users can be constantly attached to
the Internet wherever they travel and, as they roam, will have the same set of capabilities. Users
will have access through a combination of terrestrial wireless and satellite transmissions. Until
UMTS is fully implemented, users can use multi-mode devices that switch to the currently
available technology (such as GSM 900 and 1800) where UMTS is not yet available.

The UMTS networks are different from the 2G networks in the following respects:

Higher speech quality: In addition to speech traffic, the UMTS supports the advanced data and
information services and can be called a true multimedia network.

Higher data rate: The UMTS supports 2 Mbps data rate, which is much higher than that
supported by the 2G mobile systems.

Virtual home environment (VHE): A user roaming from his network to other UMTS networks
will not feel any discontinuity or service difference, thus giving a “feeling” of being in the home
network. In contrast, in a 2G network, a user is registered to a visitor location and is also charged
a roaming overhead.

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UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network
(UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, or UTRAN), the core network (Mobile Application
Part, or MAP) and the authentication of users via SIM (subscriber identity module) cards. The
technology described in UMTS is sometimes also referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia
Access (FOMA). UMTS should also provide several bearer services, real-time and non real time
services, circuit and packet switched transmission, and many different data rates.

Handover should be possible between UMTS cells, but also between UMTS and GSM or
satellite networks. To reflect the asymmetric bandwidth needs of typical users, UMTS should
provide a variable division of uplink and downlink data rates. Finally, UMTS has to fit into the
IMT-2000 framework. As the global UMTS approach is rather ambitious, a more realistic
alternative for the initial stages would be UMTS cells in cities providing a subset of services.

Features of UMTS

UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 M bit/s. UMTS networks
in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded with High-Speed Downlink
Packet Access (HSDPA), sometimes known as 3.5G. The high data speeds of UMTS are now
most often utilized for Internet access

UMTS system architecture

Fig 3.7 UMTS System

The above diagram shows the very simplified UMTS reference architecture which
applies to both UTRA solutions. The UTRA network (UTRAN) handles cell level mobility and
comprises several radio network subsystems (RNS). The functions of the RNS include radio
channel ciphering and deciphering, handover control, radio resource management etc. UTRAN
communicates with the core network (CN). The CN contains functions for inter-system
handover, gateways to other networks (fixed or wireless), and performs location management if
there is no dedicated connection between UE and UTRAN.

UMTS further subdivides the above simplified architecture into so-called domains The
user equipment domain is assigned to a single user and comprises all the functions that are
needed to access UMTS services. Within this domain are the USIM domain and the mobile
equipment domain. The USIM domain contains the SIM for UMTS which performs functions for
encryption and authentication of users, and stores all the necessary user-related data for UMTS.

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Typically, this USIM belongs to a service provider and contains a micro processor for an
enhanced program execution environment (USAT, UMTS SIM application toolkit). The end
device itself is in the mobile equipment domain. All functions for radio transmission as well as
user interfaces are located here.

The infrastructure domain is shared among all users and offers UMTS services to all
accepted users. This domain consists of the access network domain, which contains the radio
access networks (RAN), and the core network domain, which contains access network
independent functions. The core network domain can be separated into three domains with
specific tasks.

The serving network domain comprises all functions currently used by a user for
accessing UMTS services. All functions related to the home network of a user, e.g., user data
look-up, fall into the home network domain. Finally, the transit network domain may be
necessary if, for example, the serving network cannot directly contact the home network.

The UMTS network architecture can be divided into three main elements:

User Equipment (UE)

The User Equipment (UE) is the name by which a cell phone is referred to. The new
name was chosen because of the considerably greater functionality that the UE incorporates
compared to a cell phone. It can be thought of as both a mobile phone used for talking and a data
terminal attached to a computer with no voice capability.

Fig.3.8 UMTS architecture

Radio Network Subsystem (RNS)

The RNS is the equivalent of the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) in GSM. It provides and
manages the wireless interface for the overall network.

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Core Network

The core network is the equivalent of the GSM Network Switching Subsystem (NSS).
The CN contains functions for inter-system handover, gateways to other networks (fixed or
wireless) and performs location management if there is no dedicated connection between UE and
UTRAN

- o0o – o0o –o0o –

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UNIT – IV
MOBILE AD-HOC NETWORKS
Hoc Basic Concepts – Characteristics – Applications – Design Issues – Routing – Essential of
Traditional Routing Protocols –Popular Routing Protocols – Vehicular Ad Hoc networks
(VANET) – MANET Vs VANET – Security.

Part – A
1. Define MANET. Give examples for MANETs. (May/June 2013)

Mobile Ad hoc network are realized through short lived links among mobile devices,
such temporary or adhoc networks that are established and maintained on the fly and work
without the support of any form of fixed infrastructure such as a base station are known as
Mobile Adhoc networks (MANETS).Examples are: Disaster relief efforts, Military networks.

2. Define Ad hoc network. How is an Ad hoc network set up without the infrastructure
support? (Nov/Dec 2013)

The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre existing infrastructure, such as
routers in wired networks or access points in managed (infrastructure) wireless networks. A
network can be established through cooperation among the devices themselves. In the
simplistic realization of this concept, a mobile device wanting to communicate can forward its
packets to its neighbor and the neighbor nodes in turn can forward those to their neighbours
and so on until the destination is reached.

3. What is the purpose of routing? (Nov/Dec 2012)

Routing is the process of selecting best paths in a network. In the past, the term routing
also meant forwarding network traffic among networks. The purpose of routing is to find the
best path between the source and destination for forwarding packets in any store and forward
network. Also routing is a easy task because the routes to nodes can be uniquely and efficiently
identified based on the subset structure encoded in IP.

4. How routing in MANETS id different from routing in traditional networks? (Reg. 2013)

There are 3 important ways in which MANET routing protocol differs from routing of
packets in a traditional network.

 In a MANET, each node will acts as a router, whereas ordinary nodes in a

traditional wired network do not participate in routing the packets.

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 In MANET the topology is dynamic because of the mobility of the nodes whereas
in traditional networks it is static.
 In the simple IP based addressing scheme deployed in wired networks, the IP
address encapsulated in the subnet structure does not work because of nodes
mobility.

5. What are proactive and reactive protocols? (Nov/Dec 2014, May/June 2013)

Proactive protocols: It is also known as table driven protocols. In this protocol, each
node in a routing table maintains information about routes to every other node in the network.
These tables are periodically updated in the face of random network topology changes.
Example: DSDV (Destination sequence distance vector)

Reactive protocols: It is also known as on demand routing protocol. This protocol nodes
do not maintain up to date routes to different destinations and new routes are discovered only
when required. It uses a flooding technique in order to determine the route.

6. Define VANETs. (Reg. 2013)

A Vehicular Adhoc networks is a special type of MANET in which moving automobiles

form the nodes of the network. VANETs were initially introduced for vehicles of police, fire
brigades and ambulances for safe travelling on the road. In this network, a vehicle
communicates with other vehicles that are within a range of about 100 to 300 meters.

7. List the characteristics of secure ad-hoc network. (Reg. 2013)

A secure adhoc network should have the following characteristics:

 Availability
 Confidentiality
 Integrity
 Authentication
 Non-repudiation

8. What are the contents of link state advertisement message? (Reg. 2013)

The link state advertisement message contains:

 The identity of the router originating the message

 The identity of all its neighbours
 The delays along various links to its neighbours
 A unique sequence number which is formed by increasing the count every
time the router forms a new link state advertisement

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9. List the applications of MANETs. (Reg. 2013)

 Communication among portable computers

 Environmental monitoring
 Military and
 Emergency applications

10. Differentiate Multicast routing protocols of MANET.

Differentiate tree based protocol and mesh based protocol. (Reg. 2013)

Tree based protocol Mesh based protocol.

Tree based schemes establish a single path

Mesh based schemes establish a mesh of paths
between any two nodes in the multicast
that connect the sources and destinations.
group
These schemes require minimum number of
They are more resilient to link failures as well as
copies per packet to be sent along the
to mobility.
branches of the tree
Here multiple copies of the same are
Mobility increases and link failures trigger disseminated through the mesh which results in
the reconfiguration of the entire tree. reduced packet delivery and increased control
overhead under highly mobile conditions.

11. Define user traffic and its types. (Reg. 2013)

The design of a MANET is carried out primarily based on the anticipated node density,
average rate of node movements and the expected traffic. The traffic in a network can be of
various types. A network protocol should leverage the characteristics of specific traffic types
that are expected to improve its performance. The common traffic types are:

 Bursty traffic
 Large packets sent periodically

12. Why is routing in Multi-hop Adhoc networks complicated? (Dec 2012) (May 2015)
Dynamic topology, No Physical Links
Unreliable links
Limited resources (battery, processing power)
Low link bandwidth
No default router available

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13. How does the symmetry of wireless links influence the routing algorithms proposed
in Wireless?

Most algorithms fail if the links are asymmetric (unidirectional links). In DSR – the
algorithm states that the receiver simply sends the packet collecting routers on the way
between source and destination back to the source by choosing the routers in the reverse
order. If reverse links do not exist, then DSR has to find the reverse path again. The path must
reach the other side – without a route is quite difficult.

14. Differentiate wired networks and adhoc wireless networks based on routing. (Nov
2012) (Dec 2013) (or) What is the difference between infrastructure and adhoc
networks? (Dec 2014) (Nov 2015)

Feature Wired networks Adhoc Wireless networks

Instant / Dynamic
Infrastructure Static and Fixed Infrastructure
Infrastructure
Battery Constraint No Power constraint Power constraint exists
Topology Static Dynamic
Nodes act as host as well as a
Routing Routers perform routing
router
Unplanned – more
Interference Known infrastructure
interferences
Redundant links controlled by Too many redundant links.
Redundancy
administrator Uncontrolled
Links Symmetric Asymmetric

15. What are the contents of link state advertisement message? (Reg. 2013)

The link state advertisement message contains:

 The identity of the router originating the message

 The identity of all its neighbours.
 The delays along various links to its neighbours
 A unique sequence number which is formed by increasing the count every
time the router forms a new link state advertisement

-o0o –o0o –o0o-

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Part - B
University Questions
1. Describe the reactive routing protocols. (8) (Dec 2014)
2. i) Explain the Dynamic Source Routing in Adhoc networks with example(8) (Dec 2012)
(June 2013) (June 2014) (May 2015)
ii) Explain the DSR routing protocol with suitable example. What are the advantages and
pitfalls of cache maintenance in DSR? (16) (Dec 2013)
3. Discuss the routing protocols in MANET (8) (Nov 2014)
4. Explain the multicast routing protocols in detail (8) (Nov 2013)
-o0o –o0o –o0o-
PART B
1. Explain the dynamic source routing for ad hoc networks in detail. (May 2015, Dec
2013, June 2014, Dec 2012, June 2013)

Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) is a routing protocol for wireless mesh networks. The
dynamic Source Routing protocol (DSR) is a simple and efficient routing protocol designed
specifically for use in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks of mobile nodes. A dynamic source
routing network can configure and organize itself independently of oversight by human
administrators.DSR allows the network to be completely self-organizing and self-configuring,
without the need for any existing network infrastructure or administration. It is similar to
AODV in that it forms a route on-demand when a transmitting node requests one.

However, it uses source routing instead of relying on the routing table at each
intermediate device. In an ad-hoc network where nodes exchange packets from time to time,
i.e., the network is only lightly loaded, and DSDV or one of the traditional distance vector or
link state algorithms is used for updating routing tables. Although only some user data has to
be transmitted, the nodes exchange routing information to keep track of the topology. These
algorithms maintain routes between all nodes, although there may currently be no data
exchange at all. This causes unnecessary traffic and prevents nodes from saving battery power.

Dynamic source routing (DSR), therefore, divides the task of routing into two separate
problems.

● Route discovery: A node only tries to discover a route to a destination if it has to

send something to this destination and there is currently no known route.

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● Route maintenance: If a node is continuously sending packets via a route, It has to

make sure that the route is held upright. As soon as a node detects problems with the current
route, it has to find an alternative.

Part of a routing table for DSDV

The basic principle of source routing is also used in fixed networks, e.g. token rings.
Dynamic source routing eliminates all periodic routing updates and works as follows. If a node
needs to discover a route, it broadcasts a route request with a unique identifier and the
destination address as parameters. Any node that receives a route request does the following. If
the node has already received the request (which is identified using the unique identifier), it
drops the request packet. If the node recognizes its own address as the destination, the request
has reached its target. Otherwise, the node appends its own address to a list of traversed hops in
the packet and broadcasts this updated route request.

Using this approach, the route request collects a list of addresses representing a possible
path on its way towards the destination. As soon as the request reaches the destination, it can
return the request packet containing the list to the receiver using this list in reverse order. One
condition for this is that the links work bi-directionally. If this is not the case, and the
destination node does not currently maintain a route back to the initiator of the request, it has to
start a route discovery by itself. The destination may receive several lists containing different
paths from the initiator. It could return the best path, the first path, or several paths to offer the
initiator a choice.

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Fig. 4.1 Sample Networks

Applying route discovery to the above example for a route from N1 to N3 at time t1 results in
the following.

1. N1 broadcasts the request ((N1), id = 42, target = N3), N2 and N4 receive this request.

2. N2 then broadcasts ((N1, N2), id = 42, target = N3), N4 broadcasts ((N1, N4),id = 42,
target = N3). N3 and N5 receive N2’s broadcast, N1, N2, and N5 receive N4’s broadcast.

3. N3 recognizes itself as target, N5 broadcasts ((N1, N2, N5), id = 42, target =N3). N3
and N4 receive N5’s broadcast. N1, N2, and N5 drop N4’s broadcast packet, because they all
recognize an already received route request (and N2’s broadcast reached N5 before N4’s did).

4. N4 drops N5’s broadcast, N3 recognizes (N1, N2, N5) as an alternate, but longer
route.N3 now has to return the path (N1, N2, N3) to N1. This is simple assuming symmetric
links working in both directions. N3 can forward the information using the list in reverse order.

The assumption of bi-directional links holds for many ad-hoc networks. However, if
links are not bi-directional, the scenario gets more complicated. The algorithm has to be
applied again, in the reverse direction if the target does not maintain a current path to the
source of the route request.

N3 has to broadcast a route request ((N3), id = 17, target = N1). Only N5 receives this
request.N5 now broadcasts ((N3, N5), id = 17, target = N1), N3 and N4 receive the
broadcast.N3 drops the request because it recognizes an already known id. N4 broadcasts ((N3,
N5, N4), id = 17, target = N1), N5, N2, and N1 receive the broadcast.N5 drops the request
packet, N1 recognizes itself as target, and N2 broadcasts ((N3, N5, N4, N2), id = 17, target =
N1). N3 and N5 receive N2’s broadcast. N3 and N5 drop the request packet.

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Now N3 holds the list for a path from N1 to N3, (N1, N2, N3), and N1 knows the path
from N3 to N1, (N3, N5, N4, N1). But N1 still does not know how to send data to N3! The
only solution is to send the list (N1, N2, N3) with the broadcasts initiated by N3 in the reverse
direction. This example shows clearly how much simpler routing can be if links are
symmetrical.

The basic algorithm for route discovery can be optimized in many ways.

To avoid too many broadcasts, each route request could contain a counter. Every node
rebroadcasting the request increments the counter by one. Knowing the maximum network
diameter (take the number of nodes if nothing else is known), nodes can drop a request if the
counter reaches this number.

A node can cache path fragments from recent requests. These fragments can now be used
to answer other route requests much faster. A node can also update this cache from packet
headers while forwarding other packets. If a node overhears transmissions from other nodes, it
can also use this information for shortening routes.

After a route has been discovered, it has to be maintained for as long as the node sends
packets along this route. Depending on layer two mechanisms, different approaches can be
taken:

 If the link layer uses an acknowledgement (as, for example, IEEE 802.11) the node
can interpret this acknowledgement as an intact route.
 If possible, the node could also listen to the next node forwarding the packet, so
getting a passive acknowledgement.
 A node could request an explicit acknowledgement.

This situation is complicated if links are not bi-directional. If a node detects connectivity
problems, it has to inform the sender of a packet, initiating a new route discovery starting from
the sender. Alternatively, the node could try to discover a new route by itself.

Although dynamic source routing offers benefits compared to other algorithms by being
much more bandwidth efficient, problems arise if the topology is highly dynamic and links are
asymmetrical.

2 Discuss in detail about Destination Sequence Distance Vector routing protocol and
Zone Routing Protocol. (Nov 2012)

Destination sequence distance vector (DSDV) routing is an enhancement to distance

vector routing for ad-hoc networks. DSDV can be considered historically, however, an on-
demand version (ad-hoc on-demand distance vector, AODV) is among the protocols currently
used. Each node maintains a routing table which stores next hop, cost metric towards each
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destination, a sequence number that is created by the destination itself. Each node periodically
forwards routing table to its neighbors.

Each node increments and appends its sequence number when sending its local routing
table. Each route is tagged with a sequence number; routes with greater sequence numbers are
preferred. Each node advertises a monotonically increasing even sequence number for itself.
When a node finds that a route is broken, it increments the sequence number of the route and
advertises it with infinite metric. Destination advertises new sequence number

Distance vector routing is used as routing information protocol (RIP) in wired

networks. It performs extremely poorly with certain network changes due to the count-to-
infinity problem. Each node exchanges its neighbor table periodically with its neighbors.
Changes at one node in the network propagate slowly through the network (step-by-step with
every exchange).

The strategies to avoid this problem which are used in fixed networks (poisoned-
reverse/split horizon) do not help in the case of wireless ad-hoc networks, due to the rapidly
changing topology. This might create loops or unreachable regions within the network.

DSDV now adds two things to the distance vector algorithm:

Sequence numbers: Each routing advertisement comes with a sequence number.

Within ad-hoc networks, advertisements may propagate along many paths. Sequence numbers
help to apply the advertisements in correct order. This avoids the loops that are likely with the
unchanged distance vector algorithm.

Damping: Transient changes in topology that are of short duration should not
destabilize the routing mechanisms. Advertisements containing changes in the topology
currently stored are therefore not disseminated further. A node waits with dissemination if
these changes are probably unstable. Waiting time depends on the time between the first and
the best announcement of a path to a certain destination.
For each node N1 stores the next hop toward this node, the metric (here number of
hops), the sequence number of the last advertisement for this node, and the time at which the
path has been installed first. The table contains flags and a settling time helping to decide when
the path can be assumed stable. Router advertisements from N1 now contain data from the
first, third, and fourth column: destination address, metric, and sequence number. Besides
being loop-free at all times, DSDV has low memory requirements and a quick convergence via
triggered updates.

Important steps in the operation of DSDV

The important steps in the operation of DSDV are as follows:

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1. Each router in the network collects route information from all its neighbours.
2. After gathering information the node determines the shortest path to the destination based on
the gathered information.
3. Based on the gathered information a new routing table is generated.
4. The router broadcasts this table to its neighbours. On receipts by neighbours the neighbor
nodes recomputed their respective routing tables.
5. This process continues till the routing information becomes stable.

Zone Routing protocol (ZRP) (2 Marks) (Nov / Dec 2012)

The ZRP is a hybrid protocol that overcomes the shortcomings of both proactive and
reactive routing protocol. ZRP divides the entire network into overlapping zones of variable
size where routing inside the zone is performed using proactive approach and outside the zone
is performed using reactive approach. The size of a zone is not determined by geographical
measurement but is given by a radius of length ρ, where ρ is the number of hops to the
perimeter of the zone. The routing in ZRP is divided into two parts: Intra zone routing and inter
zone routing

Intrazone routing

First, the packet is sent within the routing zone of the source node to reach the peripheral
nodes. Each node collects information about all the nodes in its routing zone proactively. This
strategy is similar to a proactive protocol like DSDV. Each node maintains a routing table for
its routing zone, so that it can find a route to any node in the routing zone from this table. In the
original ZRP proposal, intrazone routing is done by maintaining a link state table at each node.
Each node periodically broadcasts a message similar to a hello message kwon as a zone
notification message.

Zone Notification Message

A zone notification message dies after k hops, i.e., after reaching the node´s neighbors
at a distance of k hops.

Interzone routing

The packet is sent from the peripheral nodes towards the destination node. The
interzone routing discovers routes to the destination reactively. Consider a source (S) and a
destination (D). If D is within the routing zone of S, the routing is completed in the intrazone
routing phase. Otherwise, S sends the packet to the peripheral nodes of its zone through border
casting.

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Evaluation of ZRP

When the radius of the routing zone is 1, the behaviour of ZRP is like a pure reactive
protocol, for example, like DSR. When the radius of the routing zone is infinity (or the
diameter of the network), ZRP behaves like a pure proactive protocol, for example, like
DSDV.The optimal zone radius depends on node mobility and route query rates.

Control traffic generated by a protocol is the number of overhead packets generated due
to route discovery requests. In ZRP, control traffic is generated due to interzone and intrazone
routing. Hello messages transmitted for neighbour discovery are not considered as control
traffic since mobility has no effect on it. In the intrazone routing, each node needs to construct
the border cast tree for its zone. With a zone radius of r, this requires complete exchange of
information over a distance of 2r-1 hops. For unbounded networks with a uniform distribution
of nodes intrazone control traffic.

The intrazone control traffic grows fast in practice with increase in zone radius. So, it is
important to keep the zone radius small.The control traffic can be reduced drastically with
early query termination, when a RREQ message is prevented from going to the same region of
the network multiple times. However, the amount of control traffic depends both on node
mobility and query rate.

The performance of ZRP is measured by compairing control traffic with call-to-

mobility (CMR) ratio. The call-to-mobility ratio (CMR) is the ratio of route query rate to node
speed. As CMR increases, the number of control messages is reduced by increasing the radius
of the routing zones. This is because, it is easier to maintain larger routing zones if mobility is
low. Hence, route discovery traffic also reduces.CMR is low if mobility is high. In such a case,
the routing zone maintenance becomes very costly and smaller routing zones are better for
reducing control traffic. An optimally configured ZRP for a CMR of 500 [query/km] produces
70% less traffic than flood searching.

Route Query Response Time

For a fixed CMR, the route query response time decreases initially with increased zone
radius. However, after a certain radius, the response time increases with zone radius. This is
due to the fact that the network takes longer time to settle even with small changes in large
routing zones.

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ZRP ARCHITECTURE
In zone routing protocol, a routing zone is defined for each node separately and the
zones of neighboring nodes overlap. The routing zone has a radius ρ expressed in hops. The
zone thus includes the nodes, where distance from center node is at most ρ hops. A routing
zone with radius two can be seen in figure 1, where the routing zone of S includes nodes A-K
but not L.

Fig. 4.2 ZRP zones

The nodes A-H are interior nodes, the nodes I-K are peripheral nodes and node L is
outside the routing zone. Node J can be reached by two paths, one with length 2 hops through
B and one with length 3 hops through C and B. The node is within the zone, since the shortest
path is equal to the zone radius. ZRP uses proactive approach for routing inside the zone i.e.
intra-zone routing protocol (IARP) and reactive approach for routing outside the zone i.e. inter-
zone routing protocol (IERP).

1. Intra Zone Routing Protocol (IARP) : IARP is used by a node to communicate with the
interior nodes of its zone and is limited by the zone radius .It maintains routes inside the zone,
each node continuously needs to update the routing information in order t determine the
peripheral nodes as well as maintain a map of which nodes can be reached locally.

2. Inter Zone Routing Protocol (IERP) : IERP is used to communicate between nodes of
different zones. It is reactive routing component which offers enhanced route discovery. The
IERP needs to be able to take advantage of the local connectivity provided by IARP. Route
discovery is done through a process called border casting that uses a Bordercast Routing
Protocol (BRP) to only transmit route requests to peripheral nodes.

3. Border cast Routing Protocol (BRP) : BRP is used to direct the route requests initiated by
the IERP to the peripheral nodes and also utilizes the topology information provided by IARP

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to construct a border cast tree. For route requests away from areas of network, a query control
mechanism is employed by BRP.

ZRP ARCHITECTURE

Neighbor discovery Intra zone routing

protocol protocol

Hello data packets Updating packets

Inter zone routing

Border cast
protocol
Resolution protocol
Discovery packets

Fig.4.3 ZRP architecture

3. (a) Explain in detail about the attacks on ad hoc networks. (8) (Reg. 2013)

One of the large varieties of attacks that are possible in a MANET, many are
essentially routing attacks. There are various attacks on a MANET can be classified into
passive and active attacks based on the means of attack.

Passive attack: Targets to monitor and steal the data exchanged in the network without
disrupting the network operations. It becomes very difficult to identify these attacks since these
do not have any perceivable symptoms. These attacks can be reduced by using suitable
encryption techniques.

Active attack: It is destructive and disturbs the normal functionality of the network.

The below table shows a classification of various types of security attacks against MANETs
into active and passive attacks.

Passive and Active attacks in a MANET

Passive attack Active attack

Snooping,eavesdropping,traffic Wormhole, black hole,grey hole, resource

analysis, monitoring consumption, routing attacks

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Attacks can also be classified according to the specific layer of the protocol stack that they
target and it is shown in the below table.

Layer Attacks

Application layer Malicious code, repudiation, data corruption

Transport layer Session hijacking, SYN flooding

Network layer Wormhole, black hole, fabrication attack

Data link layer Resource consumption

Traffic analysis, monitoring, disruption, jamming,
Physical layer
interceptions, eavesdropping

Routing loop

By sending tampered routing packets, an attacker can create a routing loop. This will
result in data packets being sent around endlessly, consuming bandwidth and causing
dissipation of power for a no of nodes. In this attack the packets are prevented from reaching
their intended recipients and thus it can be considered to be a type of denial of service (DOS)
attack.

Malicious code attacks

A malicious code can be virus, worm, spyware or a Trojan. In a MANET an attacker can
propagate malicious code and can slow down the nodes, overload the network or even crash
the nodes.

Repudiation attack

It refers to the denial of participation in a communication. In this attack a malicious user

can deny a credit card or bank transaction.

SYN flooding attack

In this attack, an attacker creates a large no of half opened TCT connections with the
victim nodes by sending a large no of SYN packets to them. This causes the TCP connection
tables of the victim nodes to overflow.

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Session hijacking

In a typical session all the communications are authenticated only at the beginning of the
session. The attacker can spoof the IP address of a node that has just started a session and
hijack the session from the victim and perform a DOS attack.

Fabrication attack

In AODV routing, when a node detects a broken link while forwarding a packet it sends a
route message towards the packet sender. In this attack a malicious code sends a false route
error message to the packet sender even when the next hop link is not broken.

Black hole

A node can set up a route to some destination through itself and when the actual data
packets are received from other nodes and these are simply dropped. This node forms a black
hole to which data packets enter but never leave.

Grey hole

A special case of the black hole attack is the grey hole attack. The malicious router can
also accomplish this attack selectively, e.g. by dropping packets for a particular network
destination, at a certain time of the day, a packet every n packets or every t seconds, or a
randomly selected portion of the packets. This is rather called a gray hole attack. If the
malicious router attempts to drop all packets that come in, the attack can actually be discovered
fairly quickly through common networking tools such as trace route. Also, when other routers
notice that the compromised router is dropping all traffic, they will generally begin to remove
that router from their forwarding tables and eventually no traffic will flow to the attack.

Partitioning

In this kind of attack, the attacker partitions a network by causing some nodes to split up
from the other nodes (i.e.) one set of nodes is not able to communicate with the other set of
nodes. By analyzing the network topology the attacker can choose to make the partitioning
between the set of nodes that causes the most harm to the system. This attack can be
accomplished in many ways such as by tampering routing packets as in the previous attacks. It
can also be launched through some physical attack such as radio jamming.

Blacklist

This attack tries to exploit a loophole in security mechanisms. Some ad hoc routing
protocols try to tackle this security problem by keeping a list of perceived malicious codes.
Each node has a blacklist of what it thinks bad nodes and thereby avoids using them when

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setting up routing paths. An attacker might to try to get a good node blacklisted causing the
other good nodes to add this node to their respective blacklists and so avoid it.

Wormhole

In a wormhole attack a direct link (tunnel) between the two nodes is established. This is
referred as wormhole link. Here one node eavesdrops messages at one end and tunnels them
through the wormhole link to the other node which then replays them. Once wormhole is
established a malicious node can use it for traffic analysis or make a denial of service attack by
dropping certain data or control packets.

Dropping routing traffic

It is essential that in an ad hoc network, all nodes participate in the routing process.
However, it is possible that a node may act selfishly and process only the routing information
that is related to itself either maliciously or to conserve energy. This behavior /attack can create
network instability or even segment the network.

3 (b) Explain the various design issues in MANET. (8) (Reg.2013)

MANET DESIGN ISSUES

There are few important issues that are relevant to the design of suitable MANET protocols.

Network size and node density

Network size and node density are the two important parameters of a MANET that need
to be considered while designing an appropriate routing protocol for a network. Network size
refers to the geographical area.For larger networks, clustering is essential to keep the
communication overheads low. The cluster size as well as a specific clustering solution for a
network would to a large extent depend on node density.

Connectivity

The term connectivity of a node usually refers to the number of neighbours. Here the
neighbour of a node is one that is in its transmission range. The term connectivity is also
sometimes used to refer to a link between the two nodes. The term link capacity denotes the
bandwidth of the link. In a MANET both the number of neighbouring nodes and the capacities
of the links to different neighbours may vary significantly.

Network topology

The topology of a network denotes the connectivity among the various nodes of the
network. Mobility of the nodes affects the network topology. Due to node mobility, new links
can form and some links may get dissolved. Other than mobility nodes can become inoperative

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due to discharged batteries or hardware failures and thereby cause changes to the topology. The
rate at which the topology changes needs to be appropriately considered in the design of an
effective network.

User traffic

The design of a MANET is carried out primarily based on the anticipated node density,
average rate of node movements and the expected traffic. The traffic in a network can be of
various types. A network protocol should leverage the characteristics of specific traffic types
that are expected to improve its performance. The common traffic types are:

 Bursty traffic
 Large packets sent periodically

Operational environment

The operational environment of a mobile network is usually either urban, rural and
maritime. These operational environments support the line of sight (LOS) communication. But
there can be a significant difference in the node density and the mobility values in different
operational environments, requiring different designs of mobile networks to suit an operational
environment.

Energy constraint

There is no infrastructure in a MANET, the mobile nodes themselves store and forward
packets. Also the mobile nodes as routers leads to nodes incurring perennial routing related
with workload and this consequently results in continual battery drainage.

4. Discuss in detail about the traditional routing protocols. (16) (Reg. 2013)

The routing mechanisms deployed in a traditional network which help us to appreciate

the specific changes made to traditional routing protocols to support the specific requirements
of an ad hoc network. Two important classes of routing protocols for traditional networks are
the link state and the distance vector. These two protocols are extremely popular in packet
switched networks. Both these protocols require a node to determine the next hop along the
shortest path towards a given destination. The specific cost metric such as the number of hops
in the route.

Link state protocols (LSP)

The term link state denotes the state of a connection of one router with one of its
neighbours. A neighbour of a router is one with which it can directly communicate without
taking any help from the intervening routers. Each router determines its local connectivity
information and floods the network with this information with a link state advertisement. As a

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router in the network receives this link state advertisement it stores this packet in a link state
packet database. (LSPDB).

Link state routing is a complex routing technique in which each router shares
information with other routers about the reachability of other networks and the metric to reach
the other networks in order to determine the best path. Routing is the process of moving
packets across a network from one host to another. It is usually performed by dedicated
devices called routers. Packets are the fundamental unit of information transport in all modern
computer networks, and increasingly in other communications networks as well. They are
transmitted over packet switched networks, which are networks on which each message (i.e.,
data that is transmitted) is cut up into a set of small segments prior to transmission.

The metric is based on number of hops, link speeds, traffic congestion and other factors
as determined by the network designers. A hop is the trip that a packet takes from one router to
another as it traverses a network on the way to its destination.

The basic concept of link-state routing is that every node constructs a map of the
connectivity to the network, in the form of a graph, showing which nodes are connected to
which other nodes. Each node then independently calculates the next best logical path from it
to every possible destination in the network. The collection of best paths will then form the
node's routing table. Link-state algorithms are sometimes characterized informally as each
router 'telling the world about its neighbours"

Link state routing is an improvement over distance vector routing protocols, the other
main class of routing protocols for packet switched networks. These protocols, such as RIP
(routing information protocol), normally use only a single metric (such as hop count) and
which exchange all of their table information with all other routers on a regular basis. Link
state routing normally requires more memory and processing than distance vector routing, but
there is less transmission overhead and it reacts more quickly to changes in network
connectivity.

Distributing the information for the map

Next, each node periodically (and in case of connectivity changes) sends a short message, the
link-state advertisement which

 Identifies the node which is producing it.

 Identifies all the other nodes (either routers or networks) to which it is directly connected.
 Includes a sequence number, which increases every time the source node makes up a new
version of the message.

This message is then flooded throughout the network. As a necessary precursor, each node
in the network remembers, for every other node in the network, the sequence number of the
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last link-state message which it received from that node. Starting with the node which
originally produced the message, it sends a copy to all of its neighbours. When a link-state
advertisement is received at a node, the node looks up the sequence number it has stored for
the source of that link-state message.

If this message is newer (i.e., has a higher sequence number), it is saved, and a copy is sent
in turn to each of that node's neighbours. This procedure rapidly gets a copy of the latest
version of each node's link-state advertisement to every node in the network. Networks running
link state algorithms can also be segmented into hierarchies which limit the scope of route
changes. These features mean that link state algorithms scale better to larger networks.

The link-state advertisement (LSA) is a basic communication means of the OSPF routing
protocol for the Internet Protocol (IP). It communicates the router's local routing topology to
all other local routers in the same OSPF area. OSPF is designed for scalability, so some LSAs
are not flooded out on all interfaces, but only on those that belong to the appropriate area. In
this way detailed information can be kept localized, while summary information is flooded to
the rest of the network. Link-state protocols implement an algorithm called the shortest path
first (SPF, also known as Dijkstra's Algorithm) to determine the path to a remote destination.
The basic characteristic of a link state routing protocol is that every router constructs a graph
representing the connectivity between the various nodes in the network based on the
information received from other routers. The link state advertisement message contains:

 The identity of the router originating the message

 The identity of all its neighbours
 The delays along various links to its neighbours
 A unique sequence number which is formed by increasing the count every
time the router forms a new link state advertisement

Distance vector (DV) protocols

Distance vector protocols (a vector contains both distance and direction), such as RIP,
determine the path to remote networks using hop count as the metric. A hop count is defined as
the number of times a packet needs to pass through a router to reach a remote destination. A
distance-vector routing protocol requires that a router inform its neighbors of topology changes
periodically. Compared to link-state protocols, which require a router to inform all the nodes in
a network of topology changes, distance-vector routing protocols have less computational
complexity and message overhead.

The term vector means that routes are advertised as a vector (distance, direction) where
distance is the no of hops between the two nodes and direction is defined in terms of the next
hop router to which the packets need to be forwarded. The distance vector protocols are based
on the well known Bellman Ford algorithm.

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Characteristics of Distance Vector routing protocols

1. Periodic updates
2. Neighbors
3. Broadcast updates
4. Entire routing table is included with routing update

As a router receives the routing information of its neighbouring nodes, it updates its own
routing table by examining the received information and in turn informs its own neighbours of
the changes. This is also referred as “routing by rumour” because routers are relying on the
information they receive from other routers and have no way to determine if the information is
actually valid. A number of techniques have been suggested to cope with instability and
inaccurate routing information. The routers using the distance vector protocol do not have
knowledge of the entire path that a packet would take to reach its destination. Instead they just
know the following vector:

 Direction in (or the specific network interface over) which a packet should be
forwarded.
 Its own distance from the destination.

5. (a) Explain in detail about VANETs. Also Differentiate MANET with VANET.
(April/May 2015)

VANETs (Vehicular Ad Hoc networks)

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are created by applying the principles of

mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) - the spontaneous creation of a wireless network for data
exchange to the domain of vehicles. They are a key component of intelligent transportation
systems (ITS).The term VANET became mostly synonymous with the more generic term inter-
vehicle communication (IVC).

A Vehicular Adhoc networks is a special type of MANET in which moving

automobiles form the nodes of the network. VANETs were initially introduced for vehicles of
police, fire brigades and ambulances for safe travelling on the road. In this network, a vehicle
communicates with other vehicles that are within a range of about 100 to 300 meters.

Multi hop communication often results in rather large networks. In a city or a busy
highway the diameter of the network can be several tens of kilometers. Any vehicle that goes
out of the signal range of all other vehicles in the network is excluded from the network. A
vehicle that was outside the communication range of a vehicle that is already in the network
and as a result can join the network.

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VANETs support a wide range of applications - from simple one hop information
dissemination of, e.g., cooperative awareness messages (CAMs) to multi-hop dissemination of
messages over vast distances. A VANET can offer a significant utility value to a motorist.

Example applications of VANETs are as follows:

Electronic brake lights, which allow a driver (or an autonomous car or truck) to react to
vehicles braking even though they might be obscured (e.g., by other vehicles).

Platooning, which allows vehicles to closely (down to a few inches) follow a leading vehicle
by wirelessly receiving acceleration and steering information, thus forming electronically
coupled "road trains".

Traffic information systems, which use VANET communication to provide up-to-the minute
obstacle reports to a vehicle's satellite navigation system.

Uses of VANET

 VANET can help drivers to get advance information and warnings from a nearby
environment through message exchanges. The trailing vehicles get advance notification
of the collision ahead on the road. The driver can also get advance information on the
road condition ahead or a warning about the application of emergency electronic brake by
a vehicle ahead in the lane.
 A VANET can help disseminate geographical information to the driver as he continues to
drive.
 Drivers may have the opportunity to engage in other leisurely tasks such as VOIP with
family, watch news highlights, listen to series of media files known as podcasts or even
carry out some business activities such as participate in an office video conference
session.

5.(b) Explain in detail about Vehicular Adhoc networks (VANET). Also Differentiate
MANET with VANET. (April/May 2015)

MANET DESIGN ISSUES

There are few important issues that are relevant to the design of suitable MANET protocols.

Network size and node density

Network size and node density are the two important parameters of a MANET that need
to be considered while designing an appropriate routing protocol for a network. Network size
refers to the geographical area.For larger networks, clustering is essential to keep the
communication overheads low. The cluster size as well as a specific clustering solution for a
network would to a large extent depend on node density.

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Connectivity

The term connectivity of a node usually refers to the number of neighbours. Here the
neighbour of a node is one that is in its transmission range. The term connectivity is also
sometimes used to refer to a link between the two nodes. The term link capacity denotes the
bandwidth of the link. In a MANET both the number of neighbouring nodes and the capacities
of the links to different neighbours may vary significantly.

Network topology

The topology of a network denotes the connectivity among the various nodes of the
network. Mobility of the nodes affects the network topology. Due to node mobility, new links
can form and some links may get dissolved. Other than mobility nodes can become inoperative
due to discharged batteries or hardware failures and thereby cause changes to the topology. The
rate at which the topology changes needs to be appropriately considered in the design of an
effective network.

User traffic

The design of a MANET is carried out primarily based on the anticipated node density,
average rate of node movements and the expected traffic. The traffic in a network can be of
various types. A network protocol should leverage the characteristics of specific traffic types
that are expected to improve its performance. The common traffic types are:

 Bursty traffic
 Large packets sent periodically

Operational environment

The operational environment of a mobile network is usually either urban, rural and
maritime. These operational environments support the line of sight (LOS) communication. But
there can be a significant difference in the node density and the mobility values in different
operational environments, requiring different designs of mobile networks to suit an operational
environment.

Energy constraint

There is no infrastructure in a MANET, the mobile nodes themselves store and forward
packets. Also the mobile nodes as routers leads to nodes incurring perennial routing related
with workload and this consequently results in continual battery drainage.

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MANET Vs VANET:

MANETs are a kind of wireless ad hoc networks that usually has a routable
networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network. A mobile ad-hoc network
(MANET) is a self-configuring infrastructure- less network of mobile devices connected by
wireless.

Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will
therefore change its links to other devices frequently

Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET) is a subclass of mobile Ad Hoc networks

(MANETs). These networks have no fixed infrastructure and instead rely on the vehicles
themselves to provide network functionality.

MANET can contain many nodes that have un-controlled moving patterns. But since
VANET is formed mainly by vehicles so node movement is restricted by factors like road
course, traffic and traffic regulations. Because of the restricted node movement it is quite
likely that the VANET will be supported by some fixed infrastructure that provide some
services and access to stationary networks.

The fixed infrastructure will be deployed at critical locations like slip roads, service
stations, dangerous intersections or places well-known for hazardous weather conditions. Both
VANET and MANET are characterized by the movement and self-organization of the nodes

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UNIT – V
MOBILE PLATFORMS AND APPLICATIONS

Mobile Device Operating Systems – Special Constrains & Requirements – Commercial

Mobile Operating Systems – Software Development Kit: iOS Android BlackBerry Windows
Phone – MCommerce – Structure – Pros & Cons – Mobile Payment System – Security
Issues.

PART A

1. Mention the salient features of Palm OS? (Reg. 2013)

Features of Palm OS

• It has an elementary memory management system. To keep the operating system

small and fast, Palm OS does not isolate the memory areas of applications from each other.
Consequently, any misbehaving application can crash the system.
• Palm supplies Palm emulator, which emulates the Palm hardware on a PC. This
allows Palm programs to be developed and debugged on a PC before being run on the Palm
hardware.
• It supports a handwriting recognition-based system for user input.
• It supports a facility called HotSync technology for data synchronization with
desktop computers.
• It supports sound playback and recording capabilities.
• It incorporates a very simple and rudimentary security model in which a device can
be locked by password.

2. Define UIQ interface. (Reg. 2013)

UIQ (known as User Interface Quartz) is a software package developed by UIQ

Technology for Symbian OS. Essentially, this is a graphical user interface layer that provides
capabilities for third-party application developers to develop applications and effortlessly
create user interfaces.

3. List the layers included in Android software stack. (Reg. 2013)

The layers which are included in android software attack are as follows:

 Application Layer
 Application framework

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 Libraries and Runtime

 Kernel

4. Write about Blackberry OS. (Reg. 2013)

Blackberry operating system is a proprietary operating system designed for BlackBerry

smart phones produced by Research In Motion Limited (RIM). Being a proprietary operating
system, details of its architecture have not been published. But, at the user level, the very good
email system that it deploys is easily noticed. It supports instant mailing while maintaining a
high level of security through on-device hardware-based message encryption

5. What are the security issues in M-Commerce?

 Snooping
 Eavesdropping
 Misusing user’s personal data
 Transaction thefts
 Phishing

6. List the components of an android application. (Reg. 2013)

The four components of an android application are as follows:

Activity: Each activity presents a GUI screen of an application.

Content providers: Content providers are used for reading and writing data that are either
private to an application or shared across applications. By using the content provider, an
application can query or modify the stored data.
Service: A service denotes a background task and not for interacting through a user interface
Broadcast receivers: The broadcast receiver responds to broadcast announcements by an
application

7. What are the advantages of android application? (Reg. 2013)

The advantages of android application are as follows:

• The Android SDK to develop applications is possible on every operating system.

• Android requires a low footprint of 250 KB.
• The emulator of the Android platform has a modern design and is easy to use.
• Application installation on the emulator/device is possible via Android Debug Bridge (adb)
or via Eclipse (with ADT plug-in)

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8. What is supply chain management? (Reg. 2013)

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Information about the supply chain processes can be made available via mobile
devices. By scanning an RFID tag using a mobile phone, it is possible for a manager or
anyone in the supply chain to check information about a product’s state in the supply chain.
This kind of accurate information can help manage the business efficiently.

9. List the advantages of M- Commerce. (Reg. 2013)

The following are the major advantages of M-commerce:

1. For the business organization, the benefits of using M-commerce include customer
convenience, cost savings, and new business opportunities.
2. From the customer’s perspective, M-commerce provides the flexibility of anytime,
anywhere shopping using just a lightweight device. The customer can save substantial time
compared to visiting several stores for identifying the right product at the lowest price.
3. Mobile devices can be highly personalized, thereby providing an additional level of
convenience to the customers. For example, a repeat order for some items can be placed at
the touch of a button.

10. What are the responsibilities, constraints and requirements of a Mobile operating
system? (Reg.2013)

The responsibilities of a Mobile operating system are

 Managing Resources
 Providing different interfaces

Constraints
 Limited Memory
 Limited Screen Size
 Miniature Keyboard
 Limited Processing Power
 Limited Battery Power

Requirements of Mobile Os:

 Support for specific communication protocols
 Support for variety of input mechanism
 Compliance with open standards
 Extensive library support

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Define mobile OS. Give some examples. (Reg. 2013)

 A mobile operating system is a software that allows smartphones, tablets & other
devices to run application and programs.
 Eg: Android, iOS, PalmOS, Symbian

12. What is Business to Business application? (Reg. 2013)

Business-to-business (B2B) is a form of commerce in which products or services are sold

from a company to its dealers. For example, a company that manufactures TV sets would
normally sell it through a dealer network rather than selling the product directly to the
consumers. Here, the manufacturer and the dealers are said to be the B2B partners.

13. Draw the structure of Mobile Commerce. (Reg.2013)

14. What are the advantages of M-Commerce?(Reg.2013)

The following are the major advantages of M-commerce:
1. For the business organization, the benefits of using M-commerce include customer
convenience, cost savings, and new business opportunities.
2. From the customer’s perspective, M-commerce provides the flexibility of anytime,
anywhere shopping using just a lightweight device. The customer can save substantial time
compared to visiting several stores for identifying the right product at the lowest price.
3. Mobile devices can be highly personalized, thereby providing an additional level of
convenience to the customers. For example, a repeat order for some items can be placed at
the touch of a button.

15. List out the most popular Mobile Payment Schemes. (Reg.2013)
Three popular types of M-payment schemes are currently being used:
(a) Bank account based
(b) Credit card based
(c) Micropayment

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PART – B

1. Discuss in detail about the requirements and the constraints included in Mobile OS.
(Reg. 2013)

Special Constraints and Requirements of Mobile OS

There are a few special constraints under which the operating system of a mobile
device needs to operate. There are also a few special features that are required to be
supported by a mobile OS, but are not present in traditional operating systems.

1. Special Constraints

The operating system for a mobile device needs to function in the presence of many
types of constraints which are not present in a traditional computer. As an example of such a
constraint, consider the fact that a mobile device is powered by severely limited energy
stored in a tiny battery. Therefore, an important constraint for a mobile device lies in
avoiding complex computations and hence entering into a low power sleep mode as soon as
possible. Such a constraint is not usually imposed on a traditional operating system. Further,
the number of times that a mobile device is typically turned on per day is significantly higher
than that of a desktop or any other computer.

Due to this constraint, the mobile OS would need to be loaded (booted) much faster
each time after it is switched on, compared to a desktop. Consequently, the kernel of a
mobile OS needs to be of a very small size. There are several such constraints which
influence the design of a mobile OS. It can be argued that coping with such constraints is an
important reason why the operating system of a mobile device needs to differ significantly
from a general-purpose operating system. Some of the important constraints of a mobile OS

Limited memory

A mobile device usually has much less permanent and volatile storage compared to
that of a contemporary desktop or laptop. To cope with the limited memory of a mobile
device, the OS must be as small as possible and yet provide a rich set of functionalities to
meet user demands. The size of the kernel is, therefore, considered to be a very important
figure of merit of a mobile OS.

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Limited screen size

The size of a mobile handset needs to be small to make it portable. This limits the size
of the display screen. Consequently, new innovative user interfaces need to be supported by
the mobile OS to overcome this constraint and minimize user inconveniences. For example,
many handsets provide easy configurability of the interface to suit individual preferences,
switching between menu and iconic interfaces, etc.

Miniature keyboard

Mobile handsets are either provided with a small keypad or the small-sized display
screen is designed to be used as a keyboard in a touch screen mode using a stylus. In both
these arrangements, typing in the documents and entering the string commands is difficult.
This mandates the provision of some facility for word completion prompts and availability of
capabilities for free form handwriting recognition.

Limited processing power

Modern mobile devices incorporate ARM-based processors. These processors are
certainly energy efficient, powerful, and cheaper compared to the desktop or laptop
processors, yet these are significantly slower. The sizes of the on-chip and off-chip memory
are also restricted. The cope with the restricted processing power, storage, and battery power,
usually the operating system is made to provide only a limited number of functionalities that
are useful in the actual operation of the mobile. Activities such as mobile application
development that require use of memory-intensive utility programs, such as editors and
compilers, are carried out on a desktop or laptop, and only after the application is completely
simulated and tested, it is cross-compiled and downloaded onto the mobile device.

Limited battery power

Mobile devices need to be as lightweight as possible to increase their portability. Due

to the severe restrictions that are placed on their size and weight, a mobile device usually has
a small battery and often recharging cannot be done as and when required. In spite of the
small battery, a mobile phone is expected to support long talk time without the need to
recharge frequently.

Consequently, the operating system for a mobile device needs to be not only
computationally efficient, but also at the same time expected to minimize power
consumption. The techniques used by an OS to reduce power consumption include putting
the processor and display screen into sleep mode within a few seconds of inactivity, and
varying the intensity of transmitted antennae power as per requirement, etc.

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Limited and fluctuating bandwidth of the wireless medium

The operating system of a mobile handset needs to run complex protocols due to the
inherent problems caused by mobility and the wireless medium. A wireless medium is
directly susceptible to atmospheric noise, and thereby causes high bit error rates. Further, the
bandwidth of a wireless channel may fluctuate randomly due to atmospheric noise,
movement of some objects, or the movements of the mobile handset itself. This can show up
as short-term fades. There can be relatively longer-term disconnections due to handoffs. Here
an uninterrupted communication requires a special support for data caching, pre-fetching,
and integration

2 Special Service Requirements

Several facilities and services that are normally not expected to be supported by a
traditional operating system are mandated to be supported by a mobile OS.

Support for specific communication protocols

Mobile devices are often required to be connected to the base station and various
types of peripheral devices, computers and other mobile devices. This requires enhanced
communication support. The types of communication protocols used for communication with
the base station depend on the generation of the communication technology (1G, 2G, etc.) in
which the mobile device is deployed. Considering that a mobile should be usable across the
existing technology spectrum, it becomes necessary to simultaneously support two or more
generations of technology.

For communication with other devices and with computers, TCP/IP and wireless
LAN protocols also need to be supported. For web browsing as well as communication with
other personal devices such as pen drive and headphones, though mobile devices are
equipped with USB and other types of ports, mobility constraints often make infrared or
Bluetooth connections preferable. This mandates the operating system to support multiple
interfacing protocols and hardware interfaces.

Support for a variety of input mechanisms

A miniature keyboard forms the main user input mechanism for an inexpensive
mobile device. Sophisticated mobile devices (smart phones) usually support the QUERTY
keyboard. Many recent mobile devices also support touch screen or even stylus-based input
mechanisms along with the handwriting recognition capability.

The different input mechanisms to be supported strongly influence the intended

primary use of a device as well as the specific customer segment for which it is positioned.
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These issues dictate the choice and complexity of the user interaction part of the OS to a
large extent and to a smaller extent the internal design of the operating system. A mobile OS
needs to support a variety of input mechanisms to make it generic and usable by different
manufacturers of mobile devices.

Compliance with open standards

The open standard facilitates the development of innovative applications by third-

party developers. To facilitate the third party software development as well as to reduce the
cost of development and time-to market by the mobile handset manufacturers, the OS should
adhere to open standards. Smart phones come in many different shapes and sizes and have
varying screen sizes and user input capabilities. Therefore, the user interface and networking
capabilities of a mobile OS need to be designed keeping these diversities in view.

Extensive library support

The cost-effective development of third party applications requires extensive library

support by the OS. At the minimum, the expected library support includes the availability of
programmer callable primitives for email, SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, multimedia, user interface
primitives, and GSM/GPRS functionalities.

2. Explain in detail about Windows mobile, Palm OS and Symbian OS. (Reg. 2013)

Windows Mobile

Microsoft Corporation developed an operating system in the year 1996 targeted

specifically at these devices. The main feature of Windows CE operating system, which sets
it apart from other traditional operating systems, is the support that it provides for
deterministic scheduling of time-constrained tasks.

Based on the Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system, the company designed the
Pocket PC 2000 operating system in the year 2000. It was targeted for PDAs and not mobile
phones. Since the usage of mobile phones was increasing at a brisk rate, Microsoft
introduced its Windows Mobile operating system in the year 2003. It was developed based
on Pocket PC 2000 and was targeted specifically as an operating system for mobile phones
which the different cell phone vendors can use in their cell phones.

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Apple’e iOS and RIM’s Blackberry OS which are essentially confined to use on
Apple’s iPhone and the Blackberry, Microsoft intended the Windows mobile operating
system to be used across a wide cross section of mobile phone manufacturers.
Since the Windows Mobile operating system was developed to be suitable for use on
multiple vendor platforms, Microsoft defined a hardware specification for hand-held
computers that can run its Windows Mobile operating system in order to simplify the design
of the operating system and to reduce the number of versions of the operating system. It was
also intended to make the cell phones manufactured by different vendors appear uniform.

Microsoft renamed its Pocket PC operating system to Windows Mobile Classic.

Windows mobile classic operating systems support touch screen-based user interface but do
not support any phone capability. Windows mobile is designed to have a look and feel that is
very similar to the desktop version of Windows.

Microsoft planned that many users are familiar with the desktop version of Windows,
they find it easy to operate Windows mobile. Besides the core capabilities required by a
mobile device, many third-party software applications are available for Windows mobile.
These software applications can be purchased via the Windows Marketplace for mobiles.

Windows Phone 7 is a significant improvement over the Windows mobile operating

system. Possibly because of this, Microsoft has not maintained backward compatibility with
the Windows mobile operating system, meaning that a mobile application that runs on the
Windows mobile may not run on the Windows phone OS.
Microsoft has defined the hardware specifications that a Windows Phone 7 device
must meet. For example, it should support a screen resolution of 800 * 480 pixels. Windows
Phone 7 devices need to have an accelerometer and a compass. Windows phone operating
system provides a touch screen interface with facilities for both command and text input. The
operating system detects when a device has been rotated from portrait to landscape
orientation.

A few important features of the Windows mobile OS are the following:

• The Graphics/Window/Event manager (GWE) component handles all input and
output.
• Provides a virtual memory management.
• Supports security through the provision of a cryptographic library.
• Application development is similar to that in the Win32 environment.

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Fig. 5.1 Evolution of Microsoft’s mobile OS.

Palm OS

Palm OS was designed for ease of use with the provision of a touch screen-based
graphical user interface. Palm OS was upgraded to facilitate installation in several different
mobile devices, such as smart phones of different makes, wrist watches, hand-held gaming
consoles, bar code readers and GPS devices. The key features of the current Palm OS (named
Garnet) are the following:

• It is essentially a simple single-tasking operating system. As a result, only one

application can run at a time. The implications of this are many and easily noticeable. For
example, if you are on voice communication, you cannot use the calculator, or read an SMS.
• It has an elementary memory management system. To keep the operating system
small and fast, Palm OS does not isolate the memory areas of applications from each other.
Consequently, any misbehaving application can crash the system.
• Palm supplies Palm emulator, which emulates the Palm hardware on a PC. This
allows Palm programs to be developed and debugged on a PC before being run on the Palm
hardware.
• It supports a handwriting recognition-based system for user input.
• It supports a facility called HotSync technology for data synchronization with
desktop computers.
• It supports sound playback and recording capabilities.
• It incorporates a very simple and rudimentary security model in which a device can
be locked by password.
• The different interfaces supported include Serial port/USB, infrared, Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi connections.
• It uses a proprietary format to store calendar, address, task and note entries and yet
are accessible by third-party applications.

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Symbian OS
Symbian operating system was developed through collaboration among a few
prominent mobile device manufacturers including Nokia, Ericsson, Panasonic, and Samsung.
Their objective was to develop a single industry standard operating system. Symbian had a
vision of a single collaborative effort towards the realization of a versatile mobile OS
installable on a wide range of smart phones, in reality, the different participants tried to exert
control over the direction of evolution of the operating system and consequently it became
huge and unwieldy.

Symbian OS is a real time, multitasking, pre-emptive, 32-bit operating system that

runs on ARM-based processor designs. The inherent design of the Symbian operating system
is microkernel-based. The CPU is switched into a low power mode, when the application is
not responding to an event. Symbian comes in two major flavours and these flavours have
been developed based on demands from various service providers.

(a) Series 60: The series-60 platform was until recently the leading smart phone platform in
the world. The relatively large sized colour screen, easy-to-use interface and an extensive
suite of applications make it well-suited to support advanced features such as rich content
downloading and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). Series 60 was mainly being used
on Nokia’s smart phones and Samsung handsets.

(b) UIQ interface: UIQ (earlier known as User Interface Quartz) is a software package
developed by UIQ Technology for Symbian OS. Essentially, this is a graphical user interface
layer that provides capabilities for third-party application developers to develop applications
and effortlessly create user interfaces.

A few other important features supported by the Symbian operating system are given below:
• It supports a number of communication and networking protocols including TCP,
UDP, PPP, DNS, FTP, WAP, etc. For personal area networking, it supports Bluetooth,
InfraRed and USB connectivity.
• It supports pre-emptive multitasking scheduling and memory protection. Symbian is
a microkernel-based operating system.
• CPU is switched into a low-power mode when the application is not responding to
an event.
• It is optimized for low-power and memory requirements. Applications, and the OS
itself, follow an object-oriented design paradigm.
• All Symbian programming is event-based, and the CPU is switched into a low-
power mode when the applications are not directly dealing with an event. This is achieved
through a programming idiom called active objects.

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• Carbide is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) toolkit that is available

for C++ application development on Symbian OS. It essentially works as an Eclipse plug-in
and contains editor, compiler, emulator, libraries and header files required for Symbian OS
development. Development kits are available at Nokia and the Symbian Foundation websites.

3. Explain in detail about android and its software stack with its layers. (Reg. 2013)

Android

Google acquired a small start up company called Android, which was developing an
operating system for mobile devices based on Linux. It is a group of 82 technology and
mobile communication companies that are collaborating to develop the Android operating
system as an open source software for mobile devices. It facilitated any application developer
can write Android applications.

Android soon became feature-rich due to its open source nature. Google could embed
its search engine into Android, the way Internet Explorer is embedded into Windows and
also by giving away the operating system free and focusing on the search advertisement
revenue,

To understand the success of Android, it is important to understand the difficulties

that users were experiencing with other operating systems and how Android has helped
overcome the mobile manufacturers use different user interfaces and interaction styles for
their mobile devices depending on the customer segment targeted, Android provided the
ability to seamlessly use either a phone-based keyboard or a touch screen.

Mobile users expect to browse real web pages, and not the simplified mobile versions
of those pages. Many mobile handsets support browsing alternative sites provided by many
website operators for mobile handsets with small screens and limited interfacing capabilities.
However, android scores over those operating systems by providing a built-in full web
browser capable of rendering full web pages and not just small mobile versions.

For example, an application on iOS has to be approved by Apple before it can be

offered to the users as outlined in the SDK agreement. Apple does not, in fact, facilitate third
party application development and is implicitly promoting a closed proprietary environment,
where the internal working of the operating system is not exposed to the developers. A
prominent advantage that Android holds out is that Android SDK works in Eclipse
environment. Since many developers are already exposed to these standard technologies,
there is a large pool of developers available for working on projects on the Android platform.

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Android provides an RDBMS SQLite for data storage and data sharing across various
applications. It has several innovative pre-installed applications such as Gmail, Maps, voice
search, etc. Android allows application developers to write code in the Java language. It
facilitates the development of applications with the help of a set of core Java libraries
developed by Google.

Application layer

The Android operating system comes with a set of basic applications such as web
browser, email client, SMS program, maps, calendar, and contacts repository management
programs. All these applications are written using the Java programming language J2ME.
Android applications do not have control over their own priorities. This design is intentional
and is intended to help aggressively manage resources to ensure device responsiveness and
even kill an application when needed.

Application Layer

Application Framework

Libraries and Runtime

Kernel

Fig. 5.2 Android Software attack

Application framework

An application framework is used to implement a standard structure for different

applications. The application framework essentially provides a set of services that an
application programmer can make use of. The services include managers and content
providers. Content providers enable applications to access data from other applications. A
notification manager allows an application to display custom alerts on the status bar.

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Libraries and runtime

The available libraries are written using multiple languages such as C and C++. These
are called through a Java interface. These include a Surface Manager (for compositing
windows), 2D and 3D graphics, Media Codecs like MPEG-4 and MP3, an SQL database
SQLite and the web browser engine called WebKit.

The Android runtime consists of two components. A set of libraries provides most of
the functionalities available in the core libraries of the Java language. The other runtime is
the Dalvik virtual machine. Most applications that run on Android are written in Java.

Dalvik translates a Java application program into machine code of the mobile device
and executes it by invoking the operating system. These can be compiled to ARM native
code and installed using the Android native development kit (SDK).Dalvik VM is not a
traditional JVM, but a custom VM designed to run multiple instances efficiently on a single
device. Every Android application runs its own process with its own instance of the Dalvik
virtual machine.

Kernel

Android kernel has been developed based on a version of Linux kernel. However, it
has excluded the native X Window System and does not support the full set of standard GNU
libraries. It difficult to reuse the existing Linux applications or libraries on Android. Based on
the Linux kernel code, Android implements its own device drivers, memory management,
process management and networking functionalities. Android is multitasking and allows
applications to run concurrently.

For example, it is possible to hear music and read or write an email at the same time. This
layer is the one that is commonly used by the cell phone users. Google initially maintained
the kernel code they contributed to in the Linux public distribution. Since 2010, Google no
longer maintains its Android kernel extensions in the Linux public distribution. Now Google
maintains its own code tree. This has marked the branching of Android from Linux code in
the public distribution.

Application Components

Application components are the essential building blocks of an Android application.

The following are the four components of an Android application.

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Activity: Each activity presents a GUI screen of an application. For example, a chat
application might have one activity that allows to create a chat, another to view the previous
chat sessions, etc. Different activities form a cohesive chat application.
Content providers: Content providers are used for reading and writing data that are either
private to an application or shared across applications. By using the content provider, an
application can query or modify the stored data.

Service: A service denotes a background task and not for interacting through a user interface.
For example, a service might play music in the background while the user is interacting with
a different application.

Broadcast receivers: The broadcast receiver responds to broadcast announcements by an

application. For example, a battery monitoring application might broadcast that the battery is
low. Based on this, the music player might reduce the volume or the screen display may be
dimmed.

Advantages of Android

• The mobile platform Android is an open platform and can be ported on almost every
type of cell phone.
• The Android SDK to develop applications is possible on every operating system.
• Android requires a low footprint of 250 KB.
• The emulator of the Android platform has a modern design and is easy to use.
• Application installation on the emulator/device is possible via Android Debug
Bridge (adb) or via Eclipse (with ADT plug-in)
• Google offers a very good documentation as well as many examples which cover
the most basic and important techniques used to get in touch with Android and the
application development on it.
• Android supports robust libraries for media access, communication and data
transfer.
• Android offers a real database SQLite using which meaningful data manipulation
and data sharing across applications is possible.
• Android has an integrated web browser which gives an experience similar to web
browsing using a desktop PC.
• Android uses the standardized and open programming language Java.

4. Discuss about M-commerce and its structure in detail. (16) (Reg. 2013)

Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce (M-commerce in short) is an important application of mobile
computing.
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What is Mobile Commerce?

Mobile commerce involves carrying out any activity related to buying and selling of
commodities, services, or information using the mobile hand-held devices.

The popularity of m-commerce can be traced to the convenience it offers both to the
buyers and sellers. The use of computers and networking in trade related transactions has
been limited to automatic teller machines (ATMs), banking networks, debit and credit card
systems, electronic money and electronic bill payment systems (E-payment). Each of these
modes of transaction has its own advantages and disadvantages with a detailed investigation
for use in M-commerce. Mobile payment is a natural evolution of E-payment schemes and
has found an important place in M-commerce.

Applications of M-Commerce

M-commerce applications can be broadly categorized into either B2C or B2B.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Applications

Business-to-consumer (B2C) is a form of commerce in which products or services are

sold by a business firm to a consumer. B2C is an important category of mobile commerce
applications and is reported to be nearly half of the total M-commerce market

Advertising
Using the demographic information collected by the wireless service providers and
based on the current location of a user, a good targeted advertising can be done. The wireless
service provider may also keep track of the history of the purchases made by customers by
directing advertisements to mobile phones. Customers may also solicit specific
advertisements. For example, suppose a consumer in a shop is fascinated by a new electronic
product and wishes to buy it but only after getting more details about it. For this purpose, he
can view all the relevant advertisements for the product by taking the picture of the bar code
using his mobile device.

Comparison shopping
Consumers can use their mobile phones to get a comparative pricing analysis of a
product at different stores and also the prices of the related products. For example, suppose
consumers visiting a shop can use their mobile phones to access a web-based comparison
shopping application. By scanning the bar code on a product, the consumer can see the price
of this product at different shops in the adjacent area.

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Information about a product

Consumers can access additional information about products through their mobile
phones. The consumer buys some medicine in a pharmacy shop, but cannot read the dosage
instructions on the carton given in German and Spanish languages only.

Mobile ticketing
Mobile phones can be used to purchase movie tickets (called m-tickets) using credit
cards. After the payment is received, a unique bar code is sent to the purchaser’s mobile
phone by an SMS. The purchase can gain entry to the movie hall by showing the bar code
downloaded into the mobile device to a bar code reader at the entrance.
Consider another example. A customer books a train ticket using the mobile phone.
An m-ticket or a text message is sent to the mobile phone. Inside the train, by showing the m-
ticket on his mobile phone to the ticket collector, the traveller occupies the seat.

Loyalty and payment services

In this application, mobile phones can replace the physical loyalty cards. Having
signed up for a supermarket loyalty scheme, a unique bar code is sent to a consumer’s mobile
phone. After shopping at the same supermarket, the consumer shows the bar code at the cash
counter and accumulates points based on the total amount spent.
Mobile phones can be used to make payments. For example, consumers can buy
canned drinks from a vending machine by moving their phones close to an RFID enabled
phone reader. Payment is made through the person’s mobile phone bill. Consumers pay their
bills by simply scanning the bar code on the bill and using their mobile phones to process
payment.

Interactive advertisements
In an interactive advertisement, customers can scan a bar code in an advertisement for
a product appearing on a TV screen using their mobile phones. By scanning the bar code, the
consumer can order the product by invoking an internet application.

Catalogue shopping
Mobile phones can be used to place orders for products listed in a catalogue. For
example, a consumer might receive a catalogue by SMS from a catalogue shopping
company. Each product on sale is accompanied by a unique bar code. By scanning the bar
codes, the consumer can buy products directly from the catalogue shopping company.

Business-to-Business (B2B) Applications

Business-to-business (B2B) is a form of commerce in which products or services are
sold from a company to its dealers. For example, a company that manufactures TV sets

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would normally sell it through a dealer network rather than selling the product directly to the
consumers. Here, the manufacturer and the dealers are said to be the B2B partners.

Ordering and delivery confirmation

In this application, mobile phones can be used by dealers to order products. The
orders can be sent to the supplier in a standard format. By scanning the bar code on a product
by using the camera of a mobile phone and specifying the quantity required through a simple
application, a dealer can automatically re-order goods. Mobile phones can be used to gather
information about the status of consignments during the transport and delivery process. By
reading the bar code on a packet using a mobile device, a truck driver can confirm in real-
time that a consignment has been delivered.

Stock tracking and control

Mobile phones can be used to keep track of the stock in a distributed inventory
system and send updates to a central database. By using a mobile phone to scan bar codes or
RFID tags on products, employees can update the stock in real time. Mobile phones (as
opposed to dedicated mobile scanners already used in warehouses) are the particularly
attractive tools where the stock is stored in many locations. An example of such an
application is the stock control of apparel items warehoused in the various department stores.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Information about the supply chain processes can be made available via mobile
devices. By scanning an RFID tag using a mobile phone, it is possible for a manager or
anyone in the supply chain to check information about a product’s state in the supply chain.
This kind of accurate information can help manage the business efficiently.

Mobile inventory management

A new B2B application reported in a “rolling inventory” consisting of multiple trucks

carrying large amounts of goods. Whenever a store needs certain goods, it locates the nearest
truck to take delivery of the required goods. This reduces the amount of inventory and cost
for both the producers and the retailers. It also has the potential to drastically reduce the
delivery times and help in just-in-time delivery of goods.

Structure of Mobile Commerce

In mobile commerce, a content provider implements an application by providing two

sets of programs: client-side and server-side. The client side programs run on the micro
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browsers installed on the users’ mobile devices. The server-side programs, performing
database access and computations, reside on the host computer (servers).

Fig. 5.3 Architecture of a mobile commerce network

Mobile devices

Hand-held devices essentially present user interfaces to the mobile users. The users
specify their requests using the appropriate interface programs, which are then transmitted to
the mobile commerce application on the Internet. The results obtained from the mobile
commerce application are displayed in suitable formats.

Mobile middleware

The main purpose of mobile middleware is to seamlessly and transparently map the
Internet content to mobile phones that may sport a wide variety of operating systems, markup
languages, micro browsers, and protocols. Most mobile middleware also handle encrypting
and decrypting communication in order to provide secure transactions.
Network
Mobile commerce has become possible mainly because of the availability of wireless
networks. User requests are delivered either to the closest wireless access point (in a wireless
local area network environment) or to a base station (in a cellular network environment).
Wired networks are optional for a mobile commerce system. However, host computers
(servers) are generally connected to wired networks such as the Internet. So user requests are
routed to these servers using transport and/or security mechanisms provided by wired
networks.

Host computers

Host computers are essentially servers that process and store all the information
needed for mobile commerce applications. Most application programs used in the mobile
commerce are hosted on these. These applications usually consist of three major components:
web servers, database servers, and application programs and support software. The web

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servers help interact with the mobile client. The database servers store data. The application
program is the middleware that implements the business logic of the mobile commerce
application

Pros and Cons of M-Commerce

M-commerce has its own advantages and disadvantages and are as follows:

Advantages

The following are the major advantages of M-commerce:

1. For the business organization, the benefits of using M-commerce include customer
convenience, cost savings, and new business opportunities.
2. From the customer’s perspective, M-commerce provides the flexibility of anytime,
anywhere shopping using just a lightweight device. The customer can save substantial time
compared to visiting several stores for identifying the right product at the lowest price.
3. Mobile devices can be highly personalized, thereby providing an additional level of
convenience to the customers. For example, a repeat order for some items can be placed at
the touch of a button.

Disadvantages

The following are the major shortcomings of using M-commerce.

1. Mobile devices do not generally offer graphics or processing power of a PC. The users are
therefore constrained to use small screen and keyboard and low resolution pictures and
videos.
2. The small screens of mobile devices limit the complexity of applications. For example, the
menu choice, and text typing capability are severely constrained
3. The underlying network imposes several types of restrictions. For example, the available
bandwidth is severely restricted, and international reach is prohibitively expensive.
Therefore, ubiquity of M-commerce is hard to achieve in practice.

5. Explain in detail about: (Reg. 2013)

1. Software development Kit

2. Mobile payment system

1. Software development Kit

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Cell phones are small in size and therefore can easily be carried everywhere like a
wallet. Considering their portability and the powerful feature sets that they provide, they
have now come to play an important part in today’s society. For example, many handsets
provide facilities for radio and television reception, timer and clock, Internet access, camera,
and calculator. These applications are well known and standard. These are usually developed
by the operating system developers themselves and are bundled with the operating system.
However, the true power and distinguishing features of a handset come into picture with the
third-party developed applications.

A successful mobile operating system needs to facilitate the development of third-

party applications. In this regard, open operating systems stand out in facilitating the
development of third-party applications and Android application development tools have
now been well received.

Android SDK Environment

The Android SDK (Software Development Kit) is a mobile application development

framework using which developers can create applications for the android platform. The
android SDK provides the tools and libraries necessary to develop applications that can run
on Android-based devices. An important advantage of android SDK is the low processor and
RAM requirements. Besides, Android SDK can be installed on almost all common operating
systems such as Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

The SDK comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and other tools
which are required to develop applications. Android SDK converts Java byte code to
Android’s Dalvik VM byte code. It is important to realize that while developing android-
based applications, the developer codes the applications using Java but the mobile device
running Android does not finally run the Java byte code but runs the Dalvik VM byte code.
For this reason, applications developed using J2ME cannot be run directly on Android
mobile phones although they both use execution environments that are derivations of JVM.

The environment to develop applications for Android consists of the Android SDK,
the IDE Eclipse and the Java Development Kit (JDK). After installing the SDK, which is
done by simply extracting the downloaded ZIP file in a folder, the path to the SDK has to be
set in the path environment variable. Eclipse can be used as the IDE, which also
automatically installs the Android SDK as a plug-in. After installing this plug-in, one can
start the development of Android applications.

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Features of SDK

Using the SDK, one can either run the application on the actual Android device or a
software emulator on the host machine. This is achieved by using the Android Debug Bridge
(ADB) available with the SDK.

ADB is a client-server program and includes three main components:

• A client program which runs on the developer’s (called host) machine. One can
invoke a client from a shell by issuing an adb command.

• A daemon program which runs as a background process on each emulator or device

instance. It is the part that actually manages the communication with the handset or the
emulator and helps in executing the application.

• A server program which runs as a background process on the host machine. The
server manages communication between the client and an ADB daemon that runs on the
emulator or the Android handset.

2. Mobile Payment system

Mobile payments are a natural evolution of E-payment schemes.

A mobile payment (or M-payment) may be defined as any payment instrument where
a mobile device is used to initiate, authorize and confirm an exchange of financial value in
return for goods and services.

Mobile devices include mobile phones, PDAs, and any other device that connects to a
mobile network for making payments. A mobile device can also be used for payment of bills
with access to account-based payment instruments such as electronic funds transfer, Internet
banking payments, direct debit and electronic bill presentment.

Issue in Mobile Payment system: An important issue which influences the establishment of
the mobile payment procedure is the technical infrastructure needed on the customer side. A
sophisticated technology may fail if the customer is not able to handle it with ease.

There are simple procedures based on simple message exchange via short messaging
services (SMS) may prove more successful. The important payment solutions will be SMS-
based, which can easily be charged to the mobile phone bill of customers. Some other
procedures may integrate two or more solutions.

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Problems / Disadvantages:

 Security, privacy, and guarding against frauds.

 The challenges for providing secure transactions are many and range from physical
theft of a mobile device which can be subsequently used for fraudulent payments.
 The M-payment solutions are still being developed with standards defined on
individual business segments.
 The issues of standardization and interoperability.

Types of mobile payment schemes :

(a) Bank account based

(b) Credit card based
(c) Micropayment

In each of these approaches, a third party service provider (bank, credit card
company, or telecom company) makes a payment on the customer’s behalf. First, the service
provider may require pre-payment from users, leading to some financial gain through
investment of this fund. A service provider may charge a small amount as service charge,
which can decrease with increasing customer base.

Bank account based M-payment

In this scheme, the bank account of the customer is linked to his mobile phone
number. When the customer makes an M-payment transaction with a vendor or in a shopping
complex, based on Bluetooth or wireless LAN connectivity with the vendor, the bank
account of the customer is debited and the value is credited to the vendor’s account.

Credit card based M-payment

In the credit card based M-payment, the credit card number is linked to the mobile
phone number of the customer. When the customer makes an M-payment transaction with a
merchant, the credit card is charged and the value is credited to the merchant’s account.
Credit card based solutions have a limitation, being heavily dependent on the level of
penetration of credit cards in a country.

Micropayment

Micropayment is intended for payment for small purchases such as from vending
machines. The mobile device can communicate with the vending machine directly using a
Bluetooth or wireless LAN connection to negotiate the payment and then the micropayment

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is carried out. A customer makes a call to the number of a service provider where the per call
charge is equal to the cost of the vending item. Thus, the micropayment scheme is
implemented through the cooperation of the mobile phone operator and a third party service
provider. This approach has been used for vending from Coca-Cola machines.

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