Wireless LAN Technology

Chapter 13 Chapter 10 (Pahlavan)

Wideband local wireless networks

WLAN
Coverage area Data rate Batter consumption IEEE 802.11 and HIPERLAN

WPAN
IEEE 802.16, Bluetooth, HomeRF

Data-oriented and voice-oriented MAC

History of LAN Industry

WANs are offered as service
Cost of infrastructure Coverage area

LANs are sold as end products

You own, no service charge Analogy with PSTN/PBX

LAN History-2
Emerged to enable sharing of expensive resources such as printers & to ease wiring problems Early 1980s: Three standards are developed
802.3 (Ethernet) 802.4 (Token Bus) 802.5 (Token Ring)

Distinct PHY and MAC layers & topologies, but same management and bridging ~1985: Think coax Thin coax TP wiring Shorter segments, but ease of installation, lower cost, increased data rate

500 m per segment

185 m per segment

Thick coax
MAU MAU MAU

Terminator

Thin coax with BNC T-connector

AUI cable 10 Mbps clients 10 Mbps clients

Server

Thin Coax Cheaper-net Installation

Server

Thick Coax Installation

100 m UTP 10BASE-T Repeater

MAU: Medium Attachment Unit AUI: Attachment Unit Interface UTP: Unshielded Twisted Pair

Hub-and-Spoke Architecture
Server

Figure 10.1: Evolution of the LANs from thick to thin cable and then to star topology using TP.

Need for higher data rates

Thick/Think/TP ~ 10Mbps Interconnect LANs in different buildings to share computing resources High speed multimedia applications Interconnect LANs FDDI (fiber distributed data interface): 100 Mbps in mid-1980 Mid-1990: 100 Mbps fast Ethernet (802.3) Mid-1990: 100VG-AnyLAN (802.12) Late-1990: Gigabit Ethernet (802.3)

Backbone Network Router

Figure 10.2: Hierarchical LANs

LAN History-3
Mid 1990: ATM LAN (LANE) Emulation IEEE 802 Standards
802.3, 802.4, 802.5 are wired LANs 802.9: ISO Ethernet 802.6: MAN 802.11, 802.15, 802.16: Wireless local net 802.14 Cable modem 802.10 Security management

IEEE 802.10 Security

Higher Layers
802 Overview and Architecture

IEEE 802.1 Management

IEEE 802.2 Logical Link Control

IEEE 802.1 Bridging
802.3 MAC 802.4 MAC 802.5 MAC 802.6 MAC 802.9 802.11 802.12 802.14 802.15 802.16 MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC

802.3 PHY

802.4 PHY

802.5 PHY

802.6 PHY

802.9 802.11 802.12 802.14 802.15 802.16 PHY PHY PHY PHY PHY PHY

Figure 10.3: IEEE 802 Standard Series

WLAN Industry
WLAN vs. WAN Cellular Networks
Data rate (2 Mbps vs. 54 Mbps) Frequency band regulation (Licensing) Method of data delivery (Service vs. own)

Early Experiences
IBM Switzerland
Late 1970 Factories and manufacturing floors Diffused IR technology Could not get 1 Mbps 1980 100 Kbps DSSS around 900 Mhz CSMA as MAC Experimental licensing from FCC Frequency administration was problematic, thus abandoned ~1985 1.73 GHz Abandoned after FCC difficulties

HP Labs, Palo Alto

Motorola

What we learned
Complexity and cost Bandwidth Coverage Interference Frequency administration

Unlicensed Bands
FCC dilemma
WLAN requires ~o(10 MHz) WWAN uses 2*25 MHz tens of billions

FCC solutions (mid 1980)

Avoid 1-2 GHz, approve higher frequencies Motorola Altair (18-19 GHz) Release unlicensed frequency bands
ISM bands (May 1985) Public vs private public use etiquette

Products, Bands, Standards

By late 1980s, products with diff. tech.
18-19 MHz licensed bands Spread spectrum technology in ISM bands IR

802.4L 802.11 Shoe-box sized APs (LAN extension) LAN WLAN did not materialize

More bands
WINForum created to obtain more license from FCC
20 MHz in PCS band 10 for voice, 10 for data Rules (based on CSMA)
Listen before talk Low transmit power Restricted duration

Three basic rules 1. Listen before talk (or transmit) LBT Protocol 2. Low transmitter power 3. Restricted duration of transmissions

Figure 10.4 Unlicensed PCS Bands and their Spectrum Etiquette

Even more bands

1992 HIPERLAN completed 23 Mbps 200 MHz, 5.15-5.35 & 17.1-17.3 GHz FCC responded by U-NII bands in 1997 OFDM based WLANs

Shift in Marketing
Early 1990s expectation of LAN WLAN shift did not happen Two new directions 1: Boost the power, directional antennas
Cross-building interconnect Alternative (T1) were expensive Range is fairly good (Tens of kms)

2: Reduce the size to PCMCIA card

Targeted for notebooks Use SS, low power, unlicensed bands

Building Cross-connect

PCMCIA cards and Laptops

(b)
Wired Backbone

(c)

(a)

Shoebox type LAN Extension

Figure 10.5 Different forms of WLAN products (a) LAN-Extension (b) Inter-LAN Bridge (c ) PCMCIA cards for laptops

Shift in Marketing
Horizontal vs. vertical integration Traditionally horizontal (end products) New vertical markets (solutions)
Barcode industry Financial services Health care WCANs

Horizontal markets now.

New Interest from Military

Mid-1990 InfoPAD BodyLAN SUO/SAS

Figure 10.7: Fusion of Computers and Communications in the InfoPAD project at the University of California, Berkeley.

Figure 10.8: Body LAN or Wearable LAN

Figure 10.9: The urban/outskirts combat scenario for the SUO-SAS project

New Interest in EU
Incorporate into cellular industry ATM-based vision HIPERLAN-2

Explosion in 2000
Japan EU US
Small office sizes Laptops replacing PCs WLAN is seen part of the WWAN Cellular Unlicensed, high-data rate Broadband Internet access Home networking

Low-power personal networking devices

To fixed network

Connection Point

Intelligent Office

Smart Home

TODAY! Win $ 1000

Ad hoc setup

WLAN

Position Location

Figure 10.11: Wireless Networks: 2000 and Beyond

Wireless Home Networking

PSTN
Telephone Wiring

Internet

Virtual connection

Cable, xDSL, Voiceband modem

Cable Net

Cable or Satellite

Figure 10.12: Todays fragmented home access and distribution networks

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 No. of Homes

Almost doubles each year

Figure 10.13: Growth of the home networking industry

Internet Broadband Home-Access

Broadband Home-Distribution or Home Area Network (HAN)

Figure 10.14: Two basic technologies needed for home networking

What is a HAN?

Phone appliances
Standard phone Inter Comm Cordless phone

Location / Navigation
locating children and pets navigating handicaps

Home Computing
Desktop computer Laptop Printer Scanner QuickCam

Security Systems Smart appliances

Oven(s) Fridge(s) Washing machine(s) Motion detectors Door pins System control unit Camera Alarm

Entertainment Audio/Visual appliances

Analog/Digital TV VCR / DVD Camcorder Stereo system Speakers / Headphones

PROGRAM

Utility metering Electricity Gas Fuel Water

Figure 10.15: Classification of home equipment demanding networked operation

Why do we need a HAN?

LANs do not provide a good solution
Applications diversity Number of users Bandwidth requirements Coverage area System administration Installation and maintenance

HAN Technologies
TP phone lines Cable from cable TV
Relatively good distribution Suitable for Ethernet connection Also used for phone and xDSL Poor distribution Used for multi-channel TV signal distribution Cable-modems are required Excellent distribution Line quality is poor Frequency selective channel & impulse noise Data-rate limitations and complex DSP Ideal Bandwidth, coverage, security, interference, reliability etc.

Power lines

Wireless

HPNA
Ethernet compatible LAN over home phone lines Stand-alone adapter to connect to any device with 10Base-T interface to phone jacks Shares the medium through FDM Up converts the Manchester coding to HPNA band MAC layer is the same as 802.3 Incorporates the legacy hardware and software

Network camera
Home Gateway

Laptop

Internet

Desktop

telephone

Printer

Multimedia PC Webphone

Camera Scanner

TV and Set-Up Box

Figure 10.17 An example of a HPNA network

Figure 10.18: Phone line wirings shared among three technologies using FDM. (a) POTS uses 20 Hz 3.4 kHz (b) xDSL uses 25 kHz 1.1 MHz, and (c) HomePNA uses 2 MHz 30 MHz

Power Line Modems

1 Mbps type rates AM band is avoided Some use in smart appliances Interference, noise, multi-path, fading makes it a challenging medium FSK and QPSK is used for low-rates OFDM for high rates CSMA is used as MAC

Figure 10.16: (a) Typical Power line transfer function (b) Typical noise level in the power lines

Narrowband applications Wideband applications

AM radio

3 kHz - 148.5 kHz (EU) HF band (1 - 30 MHz) 9 kHz - 490 kHz (US)

frequency

Figure 10.19: Frequency bands for low- and high-speed data communications over power lines.

Internet

Electric Company Local Transformer

Meter reading
communications through outside AC lines to the meter

xDSL modem Voice band modem Cable modem

Head control/security

Control network
on/off, light dimmer, HVAC control

Smart appliances
Sense other appliances on the power lines, breakdown alert, access through web site, email

High speed computing

Sharing Internet connection, file transfer, share printer

Security systems
Sensors network through power lines

PROGRAM

Figure 10.20: Power lines potential applications

Home Server

Security

HPNA Internet
Cable, xDSL, v.90

Home RF

Power Line
PROGRAM

Figure 10.21: Evolving Home Area Networks (HAN)

 Wireless
802.16 HIPER-ACCESS DBS Wired xDSL Cable Modem

Digital Broadcast Satellite

Hybrid Fiber-Coax Network

Wireless PSTN

Figure 10.23: Broadband home access alternatives

HomeRF SWAP

Grandmas Brownies 3 cups flour 1 cup grated chocolate 1 cup sugar 1 stick butter

Control Point
USB Camera Game Pad Printer Phone Cable

1394

Stereo

Camcorder VCR Multimedia (e.g. 1394)

TV

HomePNA

Figure 10.22: Vision of the Home RF group at IEEE 802.15.