Chapter 1

• Overview of Wireless Standards,

Organizations, and Fundamentals
 Exam Essentials
• Know the three industry organizations
– Understand the roles and responsibilities of the
regulatory domain authorities, the IEE, and the Wi-Fi
Alliance.
• Understand Core, Distribution and Access
– Know where 802.11 technology is deployed in
fundamental network design
• Understand wavelength, frequency, amplitude,
and phase
– Know the definitions of each RF characteristics
• Understand the concepts of modulation
– ASK, FSK, PSK are three carrier signal modulation
techniques
 History of WLAN
• Trace back to 19th century scientists
– Radio Frequency
• WWII
– Tramsitting encrypted plans over RF
• Spread Spectrum Technology created
• 1970s-Aloha Net
• 1990s-Early commercial development

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 Standards Organizations
• FCC
• IEEE
• Wi-Fi Alliance
• ISO

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 FCC
• Regulates Communication in the US
• Regulate Licensed and Unlicensed
– Wireless LAN mostly in unlicensed
• Regulates:
– Frequency
– Bandwidth
– Maximum Power of the intentional Radiator
– Maximum equivalent isotropically radiated power
(EIRP)
– Use (indoor and/or outdoor)

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 FCC
• Regulates Communication in the US
• Regulate Licensed and Unlicensed
– Wireless LAN mostly in unlicensed
• Regulates:
– Frequency
– Bandwidth
– Maximum Power of the intentional Radiator
– Maximum equivalent isotropically radiated power
(EIRP)
– Use (indoor and/or outdoor)

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 Federal Communications
Commission
• Manage RF for USA
• 802.11 wireless can use both licensed and
unlicensed frequencies
• Unlicensed means no cost to users
– 2.4 Ghz industrial, scientific and Medical
(ISM)
– 5 Ghz Unlicensed National Inforamtion
Infrastructure (UNII) band

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 ITU-R
• Manages global spectrum of RF

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 IEEE
• Defines the 802 series standards
– 802.3 Ethernet
– 802.11 Wireless
• Document the technical and equipment
basics
– Can be different interpretations

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 Wi-Fi Alliance
• Starting with 802.11b manufacturers
formed WECA
– Promote technology
– Support interoperability
• In 2000, WECA became WiFi Alliance

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 Interoperability Certifications
• Addressed the issue of standards
• Help growth and progression
• Allow interoperability

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 Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
Certification Overview
• Created due to weak security in initial standards
• Interim solution before 802.11i
– Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)
– Passphrase
– 802.1X/EAP
• Two Modes
– Personal
• Home Office
– Enterprise
• Larger Deployment (Servers)

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 Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA
2.0) Certification Overview
• Post 802.11i
– WPA 2.0
• Personal and Enterprise
• More advanced security
– Personal mode security uses a passphrase
• Generates a 256 bit preshared key
– Enterprise mode uses 802.1X/EAP
• Port based authentication designed for enterprises
• Strong security and external authentication

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 Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA
2.0) Certification Overview

WiFi Alliance Security Authentication Cipher Suite/Encryption

Mechanism Mechanism Mechanism
WPA-Personal Passphrase TKIP/RC4

WPA_Enterprise 802.1x/EAP TKIP/RC4

WPA2.0 Personal Passphrase CCM/AES or TKIP/RC4

802.1x/EAP CCM/AES or TKIP/RC4

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 Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM)
Certification Overview
• Proactive certification for 802.1e
– Address QOS for wireless networks
• WMM Validates the features of 802.11e
– Vendor neutral QOS approach
– Ciritical for interoperability

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 Wi-Fi Multimedia Power Save (WMM-PS)
Certification Overview
• Designed for Mobile devices with battery issues
– VoIP Phones
– Notebooks
– PDAs
– Headsets
– Mice
– Keyboards
• Allow “dozing” to save battery
• May affect performance

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 Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
Certification Overview
• Designed for simple set up of wireless for SOHO
networks
• Requires support for two types of authentication
– Push Button Config (PBC)
– PIN based config
• Enables automatic configuration of network
names and WPA2 security
• Both methods need to be supported
• Near Field Communications also supported

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 ISO
• Identifies standards for business,
government and society
• Created the OSI model for computers
networking
– Not implemented, but often referenced
• Should understand the layers

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 OSI Model
– Layer 7- Application
– Layer 6-Presentation
– Layer 5- Session
– Layer 4- Transport
– Layer 3-Network
– Layer 2-Data Link
• LLC
• MAC
– Layer 1-Physical
• Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away
• All People Seem To Need Data Processing
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 Core, Distribution, Access
• Core
– No routing-High Speed Switching
– Redundant Solutions
• Distribution
– Router Traffic between LANS/VLANS
– Wireless Bridges can operate here
• Access
– Slower delivery to end user devices
– To the desktop
– 802.11 Mostly implemented at access layer
• Access points
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Communications Fundamentals
• Most people have a basic idea about
transfer of data
• This section gives more background on
fundamental communications for wireless

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 Carrier Signals
• Need to be able to transmit two
states:
– 1 or 0
• AC or DC alone wont do it,
need to alternate or modulate
• The base signal that is
modified is called the Carrier
Signal
• The method of adjusting it is
the modulation technique
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Amplitude and Wavelength

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 Key wave terms
• Amplitude is a measure of the height of a wave.
The higher the amplitude, the higher the power.
• Wavelength is the measure of the length
between peaks.
• Frequency is how often the peaks come in a
period of time, usually measured in Hertz (times
per second).
• Phase is usually used to refer to the relationship
between two waveforms of the same frequency.
Phase is measured in degrees.
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Amplitude and Wavelength

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Phase

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 Keying Methods
• Signal transmitted from the transceiver
has to be manipulated to let receiver
distinguish between 1 and 0
– This is the keying method
– Also known as modulation techniques
• Amplitude Shift Keying
• Frequency Shift Keying
• Phase Shift Keying
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 Current State Keying
• Uses the current (in time) value to show a 1 or 0
• Whatever the current state is is the binary 0
– Other state is 1

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 State Transition Keying
• The change, or lack of change will signify
a 0 or 1
• 0 is a change in state
• 1 is no change in state of signal

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 Amplitude-Shift Keying
• Uses the height, or amplitude of the wave
to signal change.
• Current state technique
– A shift indicates a change from current signal

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 Frequency-Shift Keying
• Uses the frequency, or number of cycles per
second to indicate change.
• Current state technique
– A shift indicates a change from current signal
• Used in legacy (older) 802.11 technologies

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 Phase-Shift Keying
• Varies the phase of a signal to represent
data
• State Transition technique

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 Phase-Shift Keying-Advanced
• Can encode multiple bits per symbol as
well
– Use four different phases
• Multiple Phase shift Keying

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 Exam Essentials
• Know the three industry organizations
– Understand the roles and responsibilities of the
regulatory domain authorities, the IEE, and the Wi-Fi
Alliance.
• Understand Core, Distribution and Access
– Know where 802.11 technology is deployed in
fundamental network design
• Understand wavelength, frequency, amplitude,
and phase
– Know the definitions of each RF characteristics
• Understand the concepts of modulation
– ASK, FSK, PSK are three carrier signal modulation
techniques
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