Chapter 4:

Wireless Local Area Networks

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Current IP Network Architecture

2
Overview of Access Networks

3
Contents
• Basics of WLAN
• IEEE 802.11 WLAN Standards
• Planning of Wireless LANs

4
What is WLAN?
• WLAN: Wireless local area
network
• Provides network connectivity
over wireless media
• Backbone network usually uses
cables
• Connects to a wired LAN

• Access point (AP)

• Bridges WLAN traffic into the
wired LAN
• Increase the maximum possible
distance between nodes
• AP also act as a repeater for
wireless nodes
• AP is equipped with antenna

5
What is WLAN?
• Range or coverage area
• Maximum reliable propagation distance between AP and WLAN
client
• Depends on structural hindrances and AP’s antenna gain
• Range determines the physical size of a network

• Hotspots: Commercially available public access wireless

networks
• To service larger areas, multiple APs may be installed with
a 20-30% overlap
• A client is always associated with one AP
• When a client roams (moves) closer to another AP, it
associates with the new AP
• Also called hand-off

6
WLAN Applications
1. LAN extension: WLAN linked into a wired LAN on same
premises
• Wired LAN
• Backbone
• Support servers and stationary workstations
• Wireless LAN
• Stations in large open areas
• Universities (e.g., AAiT), coffee shops, air terminals

2. Cross-building interconnect
• Connect LANs in nearby buildings
• Wired or wireless LANs
• Wireless used as a “backbone” to interconnect LANs
• Point-to-point wireless link is used
• Devices connected are typically bridges or routers

7
WLAN Applications
3. Nomadic access
• Wireless link between LAN hub and mobile data terminal, which is
equipped with antenna
• Laptop computer or notepad computer
• Uses
• Transfer data from portable computer to office server
• Extended environment such as campus
4. Ad hoc Networking
• Temporary peer-to-peer network set
up to meet immediate need
• Example: Employees with laptops convene for
a meeting; they link their computers in a
temporary network for duration of meeting
• MANETs (Mobile Ad Hoc Networks):
When ad hoc nodes are mobile

8
Market penetration

9
AP Protocol Stack

10
Roaming
• Users maintain a continuous connection as they roam from
one physical area to another
• Mobile nodes automatically register with the new access
point
• Methods: DHCP, Mobile IP
• IEEE 802.11 standard
does not address roaming,
you may need to purchase
equipment from one
vendor if your users need
to roam from one access
point to another

11
Security
• In theory, spread spectrum radio signals are inherently
difficult to decipher without knowing the exact hopping
sequences or direct sequence codes used
• The IEEE 802.11 standard specifies optional security
called “Wired Equivalent Privacy” WEP
• Goal of WEP: A WLAN offer privacy equivalent to that offered by a
wired LAN
• The standard also specifies optional authentication
measures

12
Contents
• Basics of WLAN
• IEEE 802.11 WLAN Standards
• Planning of Wireless LANs

13
Standardization Committee
• Industry entrust standardization to IEEE committee
• Helps interoperability

• IEEE 802 committee contains the following subcommittees

• 802.2 Logical Link Control
• 802.3 CSMA/CD Access Method
• 802.4 Token Bus Access Method
• 802.5 Token Ring Networks
• 802.6 Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
• 802.10 LAN Security
• 802.11 Wireless LAN
• 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Networks, e.g., 802.15.4 ZigBee
• 802.16 Broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks
• 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring
• 802.18 The Radio Regulatory TAG (Technical Advisory Group)
• 802.19 Coexistence Advisory Group
• 802.20 Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (Working Group)

14
IEEE 802.11 Protocols vs. OSI
• LAN protocols are compatible up to layer 2 of OSI layers
• Data-link layer is split into two sub-layers
• Functions of layer 2 in LANs: Addressing, sequencing, and flow
control
• Medium access control (MAC)
• Logical link control
• Why not layer 3?
• Layer 3, the network
layer, is concerned with
routing
• There is no routing
involved with LANs
• There is a direct (single)
link involved between
any two points

15
What is 802.11?
• A family of WLAN specifications developed by a working
groups at the IEEE
• Defines standard for WLANs using the following four
technologies
• Spread-spectrum: Resistant to interference, secure
• Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
• Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
• Infrared (IR)
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
• Versions: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11e, 802.11f,
802.11i
• Most wireless LAN products operate in unlicensed radio
bands: 2.4 GHz is most popular

16
IEEE 802.11 List of Standards

Sem. I, 2011/12 17
The 802.11 Protocol Stack
• Physical Layer
• Based on IR, FHSS, DSSS, HR-DSSS, and OFDM
• Spread spectrum: Scrambles the signal
• The term Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is used to refer to 802.11
• Data Link Layer
• Carriers-Sense Multiple-Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)

18
Wireless Physical Layer
• Physical layer conforms to OSI
• 1997: 802.11 infrared, FHSS, DSSS
• FHSS and DSSS run in the 2.4GHz band
• 1999: 802.11a OFDM and 802.11b HR-DSSS
• 2001: 802.11g OFDM

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802.11 Infrared
• Two capacities: 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps
• Spectrum for infrared virtually unlimited
• Possibility of high data rates
• Infrared spectrum unregulated
• Range is 10 to 20 meters and cannot penetrate walls
• Limited range
• Also does not work outdoors
• Reflected by light-colored objects
• Ceiling reflection for entire room coverage
• Equipment inexpensive and simple
• Transmitters of higher power required
• Limited by concerns of eye safety and excessive power
consumption

20
802.11 FHSS
• FHSS: Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
• Main issue: Multipath fading
• Idea: To spread a signal over a wider frequency than is actually
necessary to minimize multipath fading (frequency selective) and
interference (narrowband) from other devices
• One form of frequency diversity
• Scrambling also secures the signal

• Discrete changes of carrier frequency

• Frequency hopping: Determined by pseudo random number
• Additional “hopping” increases the required bandwidth

power interference spread power signal

signal
spread
detection at interference
receiver

f f
21
802.11 FHSS …
• 79 non-overlapping channels, each 1 Mhz wide at low end
of 2.4 GHz ISM band
• The same pseudo-random (coding sequence) number
generator used by all stations to start the hopping process
• Dwell time: minimum time on channel before hopping
(400msec)

22
FHSS – Slow vs. Fast Hopping

tb

user data

0 1 0 1 1 t
f
td
f3 slow
f2 hopping
(3 bits/hop)
f1

td t
f

f3 fast
f2 hopping
(3 hops/bit)
f1

tb: bit period td: dwell time

Sem. I, 2011/12 23
FHSS – Transceiver
narrowband spread
signal transmit
user data signal
modulator modulator

frequency hopping
synthesizer sequence
transmitter

narrowband
received signal
signal data
demodulator demodulator

hopping frequency
sequence synthesizer

receiver
Sem. I, 2011/12 24
802.11 DSSS
• DSSS: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
• Idea: Represent each bit in a frame by multiple bits in the transmitted
signal (i.e., it sends the XOR of that bit and n random bits)
• Spreads signal over entire spectrum using pseudo-random sequence
(similar to CDMA)
• Reduces time selective fading
• Each bit transmitted using an 11-bit chipping sequence, PSK at
1Mbaud
• This yields a capacity of 1 or 2 Mbps
1
0 Data stream: 1010

1
0 Random sequence: 0100101101011001

1
0 XOR of the two: 1011101110101001

Sem. I, 2011/12 25
DSSS transmission – Example
• Example: Sender A sends Ad = 1, chipping key Ak = 010011
• Rewrite, only one value per chip is shown:
Ad = (-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1); Ak = (+1, -1, +1, +1, -1, -1)
• Transmitted signal As = Ad * Ak (point-wise product)
• AS = Ad * Ak = (-1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1) * (+1, -1, +1, +1, -1, -1)
= (-1, +1, -1, -1, +1, +1)
• De-spreading at the receiver
• Computes scalar product
• Example: No error case
• AR = (-1, +1, -1, -1, +1, +1) , Ak = (+1, -1, +1, +1, -1, -1)
• AR * Ak = -1 + -1 + -1 + -1 + -1 + -1 = -6
• Example: If error
• AR = (-1, +1, +1, -1, -1, +1), same Ak
• AR * Ak = -1 + -1 + 1 + -1 + 1 + -1 = -2 > -6

26
DSSS transmission on signal level – 2nd example
data A
1 0 1 Ad

key A
key
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 Ak
sequence A
data  key 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1

signal A
As

Remark: Real systems use much longer keys resulting in a

larger distance between single code words in code space.

27
DSSS transmitter/receiver structure

spread
spectrum transmit
user data signal signal
X modulator

chipping radio
sequence carrier

transmitter
correlator
lowpass sampled
received filtered products sums
signal signal data
demodulator X integrator decision

radio chipping
carrier sequence

receiver

28
802.11a
• Employ OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)
• 54 Mbps in wider 5.5 GHz band ➔ transmission range is
limited
• Incompatible with devices operating at 2.4GHz
• Uses 52 FDM channels (48 for data; 4 for synchronization)
• Encoding is complex ( PSM up to 18 Mbps and QAM above
this capacity)
• E.g., at 54 Mbps 216 data bits encoded into in to 288-bit
symbols
• More difficulty penetrating walls

29
802.11a Advantages
• Ultra-high spectrum efficiency
• 5 GHz band is 300 MHz (vs. 83.5 MHz @ 2.4 GHz)
• More data can travel over a smaller amount of bandwidth
• High speed
• Up to 54 Mbps
• Less interference
• Fewer products using the frequency
• 2.4 GHz band shared by cordless phones, microwave ovens,
Bluetooth, and WLANs

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802.11a Disadvantages
• Standards and interoperability
• Standard not accepted worldwide
• Not compatible or interoperable with 802.11b
• Limited range
• At equivalent power, 5 GHz range will be ~50% of 2.4 GHz
• Power consumption: Higher data rates and increased signal
require more power
• OFDM is less power-efficient then DSSS
• Legal issues
• License-free spectrum in 5 GHz band not available worldwide
• Market
• Beyond LAN-LAN bridging, there is limited interest for 5 GHz
adoption
• 2.4 GHz has >40% cost advantage

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802.11a Applications
• Building-to-building connections
• Video, audio conferencing/streaming video, and audio
• Large file transfers, such as engineering CAD drawings
• Faster Web access and browsing
• High worker density or high throughput scenarios
• Numerous PCs running graphics-intensive applications

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802.11b HR-DSSS

• HR-DSSS: High Rate Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum

• 11a and 11b shows a split in the standards committee
• 11b approved and hit the market before 11a
• Up to 11 Mbps in 2.4 GHz band using 11 million chips/sec
• Note that, in this bandwidth all these protocols have to deal with
interference from microwave ovens, cordless phones and garage
door openers
• Range is 7 times greater than 11a
• 11b and 11a are incompatible!!

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802.11a Vs. 802.11b

802.11a vs. 802.11a 802.11b

802.11b
Raw data rates Up to 54 Mbps Up to 11 Mbps
(54, 48, 36, 24,18, 12 (11, 5.5, 2, and
and 6 Mbps) 1 Mbps)
Range 50 Meters 100 Meters

Bandwidth UNII and ISM ISM (2.4000—

(5 GHz range) 2.4835 GHz range)
Modulation OFDM technology DSSS technology

Sem. I, 2011/12 34
802.11g
• 802.11g is a high-speed extension to 802.11b
• Compatible with 802.11b
• High speed up to 54 Mbps
• 2.4 GHz (vs. 802.11a, 5 GHz) band
• Provides backward compatibility with 802.11b equipments
• Adaptive Rate Shifting

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802.11g Advantages
• Provides higher speeds and higher capacity
• Wireless Public Access
• Compatible with existing 802.11b standard
• Leverages Worldwide spectrum availability in 2.4 GHz
• Likely to be less costly than 5 GHz alternatives
• Provides easy migration for current users of 802.11b
WLANs
• Delivers backward support for existing 802.11b products
• Provides path to even higher speeds in the future

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Content
1. Basics of WLAN topology
2. IEEE 802.11 WLAN Standards
3. Planning of Wireless LANs

37
WLAN Planning Aspects
• Essential Questions
• Choosing the Right Technology
• Data Rates
• Access Point Placement and Power
• Antenna Selection and Placement
• Connecting to the Wired LAN
• Site Survey

38
Essential Questions
• Why is the organization considering wireless?
• Allows to clearly define requirements of the WLAN -> development
plan
• How many users require mobility?
• What are the applications that will run over the WLAN?
• Helps to determine bandwidth requirements, a criteria to choose
between available technologies. Wireless is a shared medium, not
switched!!!

39
Choose the right technology
• Usually IEEE 802.11b or 802.11a
• 802.11b offers interoperability (WECA Wi-Fi Certification
Program)
• 802.11a offers higher data rates (up to 54 mbps) -> higher
throughput per user. Limited interoperability.

40
Data rates
• Data rates affect range
• 802.11b 1 to 11 Mbps in 4 increments
• 802.11a 6 to 54 Mbps in 7 increments
• The minimum data rate must be determined at design time
• Selecting only the highest data rate will require a greater
number of APs to cover a specific area
• Compromise between data rates and overall system cost

41
Access Point Placement and Power
• Typically – mounted at ceiling height.
• Between 4.5m to 8m
• The greater the height, the greater the difficulty to get
power to the unit
• Solution: consider devices that can be powered using CAT5
Ethernet cable (CISCO Aironet 1200 Series).
• Access points have internal or external antennas

42
Antenna Selection and Placement
• Permanently attached
• Remote antennas connected using an antenna cable.
• Coax cable used for RF has a high signal loss, should not
be mounted more than a 1 or 2 meters away from the
device.
• Placement: consider building construction, ceiling height,
obstacles, and aesthetics. Different materials (cement,
steel) have different radio propagation characteristics.

43
Connecting to the Wired LAN
• Consider user mobility
• If users move between subnets, there are challenges to
consider.
• OSes like Windows XP and 2000, Linux support DHCP to
obtain the new IP address for the subnet. Certain
applications such as VPN will fail.
• Solution: access points in a roaming area are on the same
segment.

44
Site Survey
• Helps define the coverage areas, data rates, the precise
placement of access point.
• Gather information: diagramming the coverage area and
measuring the signal strength, SNR (signal to noise ratio),
RF interference levels

45
Group Assignment 4
Analyze the WLAN network of AAiT to answer the
following points:
1. Specification of used APs
2. Frequency and channel
3. Specific standard
4. Coverage in Assigned Area (Facilitated by Nebil)
5. Upload and download speed
6. Their Security Level
For (4) and (5), you can use WiFi Analyzer and
Heatmap from Play Store.

Deadline: December 20, 2022 46