Wi-Fi / WLAN

Wireless LANs

give the enterprise more mobility and flexibility by allowing

workers to stay connected to the Internet and to the network
as they roam from one coverage area to another
increases efficiency by allowing data to be entered and
accessed on site.
Benefits of Wi-Fi

Wireless Ethernet
Extended Access
Cost Reduction
Mobility
Flexibility
802.11 Basics

Network Topology
Components of a WLAN requires radio transceiver and
antenna
Etiher stations or access points
Stations (STAs) - wireless LAN client radios; can be incorporated
into a LAN card installed in a desktop, a USB adapter, a
PCMCIA or PC card, or can be integrated into the
notebook or handheld device itself.
Access Points (APs) - bridge between wireless and wired LANs.
Portal - bridges a wireless LAN to a wired LAN
Distribution System (DS) - allows communication among APs;
802.11 Basics

Network Topology
Basic Service Set (BSS) basic building block of a Wi-Fi
network formed when two or more
stations have recognized each other
and established a network; set of
STAs controlled by a single
coordination function (CF) - logical
function that determines when a STA
transmits and when it receives.
Peer-to-peer (ad hoc mode) identical to its wired
counterpart, except without the wires. Two or more STAs can
talk to each other without an AP. When two or more stations
form an ad hoc network, this is referred to as an Independent
Basic Service Set (IBSS).
802.11 Basics

Network Topology
Client/Server (infrastructure networking) consists of
multiple stations connected to an AP, which acts as a bridge
to a wired network. A BSS in this configuration is referred to as
being in infrastructure mode.
All wireless devices trying to join the BSS must associate with the
AP. An AP provides access to its associated STAs to what is
called the distribution system (DS). The DS is an architectural
component that allows communication among APs
802.11 Basics

Network Topology
Extended Service Set (ESS) - is formed when multiple overlapping
BSSs (each containing an AP) are
connected together by means of a
distribution system, usually a wired
Ethernet LAN. BSSs whose ranges
overlap must transmit on different
channels to avoid interference.

**Range between STAs and Aps is up to 100 m (depending on data

rate), but the overall range of an ESS is limited only by the range of
the wired distribution system which can be extended with wireless links
up to several miles using directional extender antennas.

** network name, or SSID, must be the same for all APs participating in
the same ESS.
802.11 Basics

Network Topology
Extended Service Set (ESS) - is formed when multiple overlapping
BSSs (each containing an AP) are
connected together by means of a
distribution system, usually a wired
Ethernet LAN. BSSs whose ranges
overlap must transmit on different
channels to avoid interference.

**Range between STAs and Aps is up to 100 m (depending on data

rate), but the overall range of an ESS is limited only by the range of
the wired distribution system which can be extended with wireless links
up to several miles using directional extender antennas.
802.11

1999
provides for data rates at up to 2 Mbps at 2.4 GHz, using either
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) or Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
802.11b

industry standard for WLANs

uses DSSS
data rates up to 11 Mbps at 2.4 GHz
802.11a

1999
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
provide data rates to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz U-NII bands
Advantage: more spectrum in the U-NII bands allows room for
12 non-overlapping channels, compared to just three in the 2.4
GHz ISM bands. Both of these factors make operating in the U-
NII bands far less prone to interference
Disadvantage: more path loss; decrease in range; may require
that more access points be installed to effectively cover an
area comparable to that of 802.11b
802.11g

TG is working on a supplement to the 802.11 standard that

defines a technology for operation at 2.4 GHz that offers higher
data rates (up to 22 Mbps) using OFDM, while remaining
backwards compatible to 802.11b
higher data rates using two different methods (up to 33 Mbps
using PBCC-DSSS and up to 54 Mbps using CCK-OFDM) which
manufactures can optionally incorporate
offers the advantages of lower cost, backwards compatibility
to existing 802.11b equipment, and less path loss than 802.11a.
This translates into higher data rates for a given range, or
increased range for a given data rate
802.11e

enhance the current 802.11 MAC to expand support for

applications with quality of service requirements
intent is to make 802.11 fully capable of supporting
applications from both business and home environments,
including multimedia
created a QoS Baseline Document (eventually to become a
draft) that proposes methods for handling time-sensitive traffic.
guarantees collision avoidance and provides mechanisms for
scheduling transmissions and improving channel robustness
TCP Model

802.11 and its extensions (a, b, g, etc.) define two layers in the
five-layer TCP model: the physical layer and the data link layer.
data link layer is actually made up of two layers: media access
control (MAC) and logical link control (LLC).
IEEE 802.11 Physical Layer (PHY)

responsible for modulation methods, encoding schemes and

the actual transmission of radio signals through space.
PHY implementations operate in specific bands many Wi-Fi
devices are designed for use in the Industrial, Scientific and
Medical (ISM) band (for license-free devices) ; regulatory
requirements demand that license-free devices use spread-
spectrum technology. Direct sequence spread spectrum
(DSSS) PHYs are the most widely deployed at this point in time.
IEEE 802.11 Medium Access
Control Layer (MAC)

sublayer of the data link layer (DLL)

rides above the physical layer, controlling transmission of data
and providing interaction with a wired backbone, if one exists
provides services related to the radio and mobility
management
uses CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision
Avoidance) which acts to prevent collisions before they
happen to move data packets across a shared channel
required to appear to a logical link control (LLC) layer as an
IEEE 802 LAN, thus Wi-Fi and Ethernet both use MAC addresses
in the same format
Services Specified by IEEE
802.11

Station Services (SS)

All 802.11 compliant wireless stations (STAs) must implement
the four station services defined in the IEEE specification.
Authentication - It is a required state that comes before the
STA may enter the association state.
Deauthentication - This service voids an existing authentication.
Privacy - A wireless station must be able to encrypt frames in
order to protect message content so that only the intended
recipient can read it.
MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU) Delivery - An MSDU is a data
frame that must be transmitted to the proper destination.
Services Specified by IEEE
802.11

Distribution System Services (DSS)

A wireless station that functions as an access point must implement
the four station services plus the distribution system services
Association - establishes an AP/STA mapping after mutually agreeable
authentication has taken place between the two wireless stations. A
STA can only associate with one AP at a time. This service is always
initiated by the wireless station and when successfully completed
enables station access to the DSS.
Reassociation - moves a current association from one AP to another AP.
Disassociation - voids a current association.
Distribution - handles delivery of MSDUs within the distribution system
Integration - handles delivery of MSDUs between the distribution system
and a wired LAN on the other side of a portal. Basically this is the
bridging function between wireless and wired networks.
RF Fundamentals for WLANs

RF Propagation Characteristics
Reflection - Radio waves can be reflected by some materials. In an office
environment it can create multipath
Absorption - Radio waves can be absorbed by many materials such as water,
plastic, sheetrock, and carpet.
Geometric Spreading loss -Radio waves, get weaker as they expand outward away
from their source. This loss grows as the square of the distance. This means that if a
device is moved twice as far away, the signal power drops by one fourth. Path loss -
unavoidable weakening of the signals power as it propagates outward.
Multipath - If a received signal is made up of radio waves from the same signal that
has dispersed and arrived from different paths, then the effects of multipath are
seen. Television sets connected to antennas often exhibit this as ghosting. Network
users may likewise experience its digital counterpart -referred to as intersymbol
interference - caused when the difference in time between radio waves arriving
from the same signal, referred to as delay spread, is enough to cause symbol
overlap in the digital data. As the data transmission speed gets faster, the time
between received data bits get smaller and more susceptible to intersymbol
interference, so multipath places an upper limit on data transmission speed.
State Variables

Each wireless station maintains two state variables, one for

authentication and one for association. A wireless station is
authenticated or unauthenticated. Once in an authenticated
state, the STA is either associated or unassociated.
These variables create three states:
State 1: Unauthenticated and unassociated.
State 2: Authenticated, not associated.
State 3: Authenticated and associated.
802.11 Frame and Message
Types

Types of MAC frames (MPDUs) traverse a wireless LAN:

Control
Data
Management
MAC frame address fields
BSS Identifier (BSSID) - Identifies the AP of an infrastructure BSS. For an IBSS (ad
hoc network) this is a locally-administered random number.
Destination Address (DA) - Identifies the final recipient(s) of the frame.
Source Address (SA) - Identifies the initial source of the frame.
Receiver Address (RA) - Identifies the immediate recipient AP(s) on the
wireless DS.
Transmitter Address (TA) - Identifies the AP that transmitted the frame onto
the wireless DS.
RF Fundamentals for WLANs

RF Propagation Characteristics
At lower frequencies (longer wavelengths), less RF energy is absorbed by
obstructions. Signals can pass through solid objects (walls) more readily.
At higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths), smaller antennas can be used.
However, if antennas are scaled down proportionately with wavelength, the
received signal power will decrease as a function of frequency squared,
due to less signal energy being intercepted by the smaller antenna. This
shortcoming can be overcome by using higher gain antennas.
Data Rate and Range

RX signal strength is often stated in reference to the noise level as

the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio or SNR)
Information theory
defines a relationship between the SNR of a received signal, and how
much information can be reliably transmitted over that channel.
The result for the user is that for a given SNR (and corresponding
transmitted power level), the bit error rate (BER) increases as the data
rate increases.
tradeoff between data rate and range
All things (transmitter power, encoding method, antenna gain, etc.)
being equal, if a wireless network is operated at a higher data rate, the
effective range will decrease
**The only way to increase range without decreasing data rate is to
increase power (but there is also a limitation of power levels)
Regulations

Allocated Spectrum
WLANs and Bluetooth share portions of their spectrum with the
globally allocated Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands in
the 2.4 GHz region
802.11a WLANs, the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure
(U-NII) bands in the 5 GHz region
Mandated Use of Spread Spectrum Techniques
To minimize interference in this crowded spectrum, the FCC Part 15
rules specify that all transmissions with a power level exceeding 0
dBm (1 mW) must utilize either frequency hopping or direct
sequence spread spectrum techniques.
Signal Spreading Techniques

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

originally conceived as a means to hide a transmission from
unwanted listeners
reduction of interference
transmitting the signal carrier for a short period of time on one
narrow band, then hopping to another, and so on. Over a period
of time, the average signal power is thus spread over a very wide
band of frequencies.
employed by wireless LANs and PANs, no longer offers any inherent
security but serves to reduce interference to and from other
devices.
Signal Spreading Techniques

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

more complex technique which spreads the signals power across
a wider bandwidth by spreading the carrier itself
directly modulating the carrier with a high-speed code sequence
which has the characteristics of pseudo-random noise (PN).
The faster a carrier is modulated, the wider its bandwidth
becomes.
signal power is spread over a much larger band and appears to
other users as low-power noise
Signal Spreading Techniques

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

utilizes multiple carriers (referred to as subcarriers), is technically
not a spread spectrum technique because the subcarriers remain
stationary and are not spread, but it serves the same purpose of
spreading the signal power over a large band
breaking the signal up into parts and transmitting each of the parts
on a different subcarrier at a different center frequency
fast transmission is sent as many slow transmissions, simultaneously,
on many different frequencies
resistant to intersymbol interference