What is 802.11?

•  Suite of of physical layer (PHY) and link-

layer protocols standardized by IEEE
802.11 Networks for Dummies Professors •  Aka “WiFi” (or “wireless ethernet”)

Lecture 25 •  Wildly successful: hundreds of millions in use

May 10, 2010 •  Most laptops and smartphones have it today
6.02 Spring 2010
•  Multiple possible uses
802.11 (WiFi) physical, link, subnetwork •  Cellular wireless LANs
layer essentials •  Mesh networks
Application of 6.02 topics and techniques •  Mobile ad hoc networks

Example Deployments
Cellular Wireless LAN Architecture
Wireless local area WiFi hotspots
Boston-area WiFi APs beacon periodically
networks
To/from  Internet   Client scans, picks an AP
Associates, authenticates
Obtains IP address

AP
wigle.net

AP Cell  
Cell  
Wireless
mesh
networks

Meraki.com MIT roofnet Base picture from Novell

Layered System Common 802.11 Standards

(Alphabet soup: a, b, g, n, …)
Network layer (IP) Not part of 802.11

Access point selection

Subnetwork layer Mobility management
Mesh routing
Framing
Stop-and wait rxmit protocol
Link layer MAC (mainly CSMA)
Bit rate adaptation (non-std)
Power-saving protocol (non-std)
Channel (freq) allocations
Physical layer (PHY) Modulation (mainly OFDM)
Convolutional coding
From wikipedia

1
 Multiple Frequency Channels In-Phase and Quadrature Transmitter

DAC

V
Digital
Bits
Modulator
20 MHz From wikipedia In
•  802.11b/g/n: up to 14 channels each 20 MHz wide,
centered 5 MHz from each other in 2.4 GHz band
•  North America (1-11), Japan (1-14), most of world DAC
(1-13)
•  b uses “direct sequence spread spectrum”, g uses
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
•  802.11a/n: 5 GHz band, 20 channels (in US), OFDM
•  “Etiquette rules” set power levels and other constraints

In-Phase and Quadrature Receiver Multiple Bit Rates

ADC

V
Digital
Bits
De-
out
Modulator
Convolutional
Modulations coding
ADC

From wikipedia

I (cos) and Q (sin) as Constellations Channels and Sub-carriers

20 MHz

With OFDM: 52 carriers,

312.5 KHz per carrier
16.25 MHz total used, with
some “guard bands”
48 carriers used for data, 4
for control
From Mythili Vutukuru

2
Digital Modulator for Orthogonal Frequency Division Layered System
Multiplexing (OFDM)

Network layer (IP) Not part of 802.11

Access point selection

Subnetwork layer
Mesh routing
Bits Framing
In Stop-and wait rxmit protocol
Link layer MAC (mainly CSMA)
Bit rate adaptation (non-std)
Power-saving protocol (non-std)
Channel (freq) allocations
Physical layer (PHY) Modulation (mainly OFDM)
Convolutional coding

802.11 MAC Time-varying Channel

•  Mobility
•  Radios aren’t wires – inherently broadcast 30

•  Change in attenuation 25

SNR (dB)
•  Receptions aren’t perfect like in Ethernet •  Multipath fading
20
15
10
•  Ethernet: either perfect reception or perfect
•  Adapt redundancy by
5
0
collision 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

picking best 10 s
•  Wireless: probabilistic receptions Time (Milliseconds)
modulation/code
•  Time-varying channels combination
•  Interference
25
20

SNR (dB)
15

•  How to achieve high throughput? •  Needs accurate and 10

5

responsive channel 0
1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750

estimates 250 ms Time (Milliseconds)

16

MAC Protocol: Sharing a Wireless Channel Bit-Rate Adaptation: One Approach

Collision! Frame-based
x
Problems w/ ✔ u
802.11 CSMA MAC z
✘ Data

v y

ACK
•  MAC: decide who transmits when
•  Goal: increase spatial concurrency (reuse) Es0mate  frame  loss  
•  Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) rate  at  each  bit  rate  
•  Sender senses “busy”  defer Pick bit rate that maximizes throughput: bitrate * (1-lossrate)
•  “Busy” by energy or preamble detection 17 Problem: Takes a long time, not good for mobile users

3
 Summary
Access point selection
Subnetwork layer Mobility management
Mesh routing
Framing
Stop-and wait rxmit protocol
Link layer MAC (mainly CSMA)
Bit rate adaptation (non-std)
Power-saving protocol (non-std)
Channel (freq) allocations
Physical layer (PHY) Modulation (mainly OFDM)
Convolutional coding

Hundreds  of  millions  of  devices  

Protocols  and  designs  s0ll  evolving  
Many  open  challenges