Wireless Transmission

and Services

Chapter 9
 Objectives

 Associate electromagnetic waves at different points on the

wireless spectrum with their wireless services
 Identify characteristics that distinguish wireless transmission
from wire-bound transmission
 Explain the architecture and access methods used in cellular
networks and services
 Understand the differences between wireless and wired local
loops
 Describe the most popular WLAN standards, including their
advantages, disadvantages, and uses
 Identify the major satellite positioning schemes and list
several telecommunications services that rely on satellite
transmission
The Wireless Spectrum
The Wireless Spectrum
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Characteristics of Wireless
Transmission
 Antennas
 An antennas Radiation pattern - the relative strength over a three
dimensional area of all the electromagnetic energy the antenna sends or
receives.

 Directional antenna - sends wireless signals along a single direction.

Used for point-to-point communication or multiple inline destinations.
 These antenna can be used with a stationary sending and receiving
stations, or repositionable stations.
Antennas

 Omni-directional antenna - sends and

receives wireless signals with equal
strength and clarity in all directions.
 This signal can reach multiple
destinations in many directions.
 Also good for mobile destinations that
move within the transmission area.
 Signal Propagation
 Line of sight – signal travels directly from transmitter to
destination. Requires the least amount of energy and
results in best reception.

 Reflection - the wave encounters an obstacle and bounces

back towards its source at angle to its original path.

 Diffraction - a wireless signal splits into secondary waves

when it encounters an obstruction splitting off at many
angles different to the original path but usually in the same
direction (going).

 Scattering - the diffusion or the reflection of a signal in

multiple different directions.
Signal Propagation
 Signal Propagation

 Fading and Delay

 Fading: a change in signal strength as result of some of the

electromagnetic energy being scattered, reflected, or
diffracted after being issued by the transmitter.

 Delay: occurs when different parts of the original message

arrive at different times (eg. TV broadcast Ghosting).

 Diversity - the use of multiple antennas or multiple signal

transmissions to compensate for fading and delay.
 Signal Propagation

 Attenuation - after a signal has been transmitted,

the farther it moves away from the transmission
antenna, the more it weakens.

 Interference - because wireless signals are a form

of electromagnetic activity, they can be hampered
(interfered with) by other electromagnetic
energy/devices, resulting in interference.

 A problem with electromagnetic wireless

transmissions is that the signal is not bound to a
medium (like wired), so there is little opportunity for
shielding.
 Also signals use a shared medium (airwaves) to
transmit they can more easily affect other signals.
 Narrowband, Broadband, and
Spread Spectrum Signals
 Narrowband - a transmitter concentrates the
signal energy at a single frequency or in a very
small range of frequencies.

 Broadband - a type of signaling that uses a

relatively wide band of the wireless spectrum.

 Spread spectrum - the alternate use of

multiple individual frequency channels (ranges)
to transmit a signal.
Fixed vs. Mobile
 Fixed Vs Mobile

 Fixed wireless – transmission stations are

static. Energy is directed to specific site
and not wasted across a large area. More
signal energy = higher potential bandwidth

 Mobile wireless – receiver can be located

anywhere in the transmission range. And
can move freely inside this range without
problems.
Fixed vs. Mobile
 Cellular Communications

 Mobile telephone service - a system for

providing telephone services to multiple, mobile
receivers using two-way radio communication
over a limited number of frequencies.

 Mobile wireless evolution:

 First generation – Analog transmission.
 Second generation – supports digital
transmission, multiple signals on limited
bandwidth, encryption (our current phones)
 Third generation – TBA – all-digital
encoding, QoS guarantees, more efficient
spectrum usage, faster transmission and
globally compatible.
Principles of Cellular Technology
 Handoff between cells
Cells enables user movement
 Traditional Analog Spectrum

 Forward path - 824-849 MHz – phone to base

station
 Reverse path – 869-894MHz – base station to
phone
 Guardband – 849-869MHz – to prevent signal
interference
 Wavelength (12”)provides good reflectivity off
streets, buildings and cars (solid, metallic or flat
objects) but prone to absorption by organic and
rough/uneven surfaces.
 Cellular Call Completion

 Components of a signal:
 Mobile Identification Number (MIN) - an
enclosed representation of the mobile telephone’s
10-digit telephone number.
 Electronic Serial Number (ESN) - a fixed
number assigned to the telephone by the
manufacturer.
 System Identification Number (SID) - a number
assigned to the particular wireless carrier to which
the telephone’s user has subscribed.
Cellular Call Completion
Call Completion
 Advanced Mobile Phone Service
(AMPS)
 A first generation
cellular technology
that encodes and X
transmits speech as
analog signals. X

 Separate Channels of X
30Hz are dedicated to
each directional
transmission (2 are
needed for a single
telephone
conversation.
 Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)
 Divide the frequency range into channels
 Divide each channel into (usually 3) time slots
 Allocate in a round robin fashion to nodes needing to
transmit – enabling multiple transmissions per channel
 No hoping between channels
 Separate Synchronisation channel
 Similar to TDM, using digital signals enabling encryption,
compression, advanced error detection and correction.
 Also known as IS (Interim Standard) – 136 or D-AMPS
(Digital Advanced Mobile Service)
Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)
 Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)
 Each voice signal is digitized and
assigned a unique code
 small portions of the transmission are
issued over multiple frequencies using
the spread spectrum technique.
 Each special code makes a single
transmission unique to other
transmissions happening at the same
time.
 This allows for individual transmissions
to be separated out from the crowd.
 Digital coded transmission makes it
difficult to intercept, but more
expensive to implement.
 Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSM)
 A version of time division multiple access (TDMA)
technology, because it divides frequency bands into
channels and assigns signals time slots within each
channel.

 Makes more efficient use of limited bandwidth than

the IS-136 TDMA standard by dividing channel into
smaller timeslots, and enabling spread spectrum
hopping when adjacent frequencies are unused.
 Emerging Third Generation (3G)
Technologies

The promise of these technologies is that a user can

access all there telecommunication services from one
mobile phone.

 CDMA2000 - a packet-switched version of CDMA

(compared to circuit-switched). Relies on GPS for
timing information.
 Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) - based on technology
developed by Ericson, is also packet-switched but with
channels 4 times wider, independent synchronization.
 Wireless Local Loop (WLL)

 A generic term that describes a wireless link used in

the PSTN to connect LEC central offices with
subscribers.
 Acts the same as a copper local loop.
 To consumer seems the same – inside wiring on the
office to CPE (Customer Premise Equipment).
 External link to PSTN is then via radio transceiver and
antenna (mostly directional).
 Used to transmit both voice and data signals between
1.8GHz-3.7GHz.
WLAN Architecture
WLAN Architecture
 WLAN Architecture

o Limited geographical area

o High-frequency radio waves
o Most networks are not exclusively wireless but add
this functionality when mobile nodes are required.
o Downside is the lack of one dominant standard to
base interoperable transmissions.
o NIC contains transceiver and antenna.
o Signals are issued to nodes (peer-to-peer network)
or specialized hardware (base stations or access
points).
WLAN Architecture
 Wireless Networking Standards

 In general a wireless node must remain within ~90-

100m (300feet) of an access point to maintain
optimal transmission speed.
 Signals are subject to interference and obstructions
(eg concrete or metal walls).
 Nodes to access point – roaming within limits
 Access point to access point connection – usually
fixed, longer distance of ~300m (1000feet).
 WLANs run the same networking protocol suite (eg
TCP/IP) with a different DLL signalling protocol.
 And operating system (eg. Novell) as wireline LANs.
 Wireless Networking Standards

802.11 - IEEE’s Radio Frequency Wireless networking standard

committee.
 802.11b - uses direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
signaling. Used the 2.4GHz-2.4835 GHz frequency range ,
separated into 14 overlapping 22-MHz channels to achieve
11Mbps throughput at a distance of ~90-100meters(300feet).
 802.11g - designed to be just as affordable as 802.11b while
increasing its maximum capacity to 54Mbps at 2.4GHz through
different encoding techniques. Backwards compatible with 11b.
 802.11a - uses multiple frequency bands in the 5GHz range (not
as congested as 2.4GHz). Like 802.11g, 802.11a provides a
maximum throughput of 54Mbps. Higher frequency is less likely
to suffer interference from other signals but requires more
power to transmit and spans a shorter distance.
 Bluetooth 802.15.1

 A mobile wireless networking standard that uses direct

sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signaling in the 2.4GHz
band to achieve a maximum throughput of less than 1Mbps.
 Access points and receivers need to be within 10m of each
other.
 Designed to be used on small networks composed of
personal communications devices, also known as personal
area networks (PANs).
 Low throughput and short range makes it impractical for
WLANs (not compatible with 802.11) but good for personal
equipment.
 Satellite Positioning

 The original method for positioning satellites above the

earth was in geosynchronous orbit (GEO).
 Geosynchronous satellites are positioned
approximately 35,800 km (22,300 miles) above the
earth’s equator.
 Signals can reach a very large geographical area so
are effective ways of transmitting a signal a long
distance.
 But at the cost of transmission power, delay and cost.
 An alternative to GEO satellites are low earth orbiting
(LEO) satellites (700-1400km above equator) or
medium earth orbiting (MEO) satellites (10,350-
10,390km above a latitude).
Satellite Positioning
 Satellite Services
 Analog broadcasting - Traditional analog television and radio
signals can be issued from a terrestrial transmitter to a satellite
and then downlinked to another terrestrial location within
seconds. Good for real-time events.

 Digital broadcasting - To deliver audio and video content

(uplink) to subscribers in a broadcast fashion (downlink) to
earth. Subscribers can have fixed antenna and receiver (eg
TV), or mobile antenna and receiver (eg. Radio).

 Mobile Wireless - Services such as cellular telephone, paging,

and other PCS applications are well suited to LEO or MEO
satellite transmission, but the cost can be prohibitive.

 Global positioning service (GPS) - Remote monitoring

functions allow a mobile station on earth to exchange signals
with a satellite to determine its precise location on a topological
map.
 Summary

 The wireless spectrum, the range of frequencies within the

electromagnetic spectrum that are used for telecommunications
services, starts at 9KHz and ends at 300GHz.

 The cellular telephone service is distinguished from other mobile

two-way radio services by its use of cells to reuse limited
frequencies within a certain geographical area.

 Wireless LANs (WLANs) use the same protocols and a similar

architecture as wire-bound LANs, but with different access
methods and standards (802.11 and 802.15).