Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3 Wireless Radio
Technology
Note
1
Acknowledgements
Wireless Propagation
2
Wireless Propagation
Mental picture
• Wave is not a spot or a line, but a moving wave.
• Like dropping a rock into a pond.
• Wireless waves spread out from the antenna.
• Wireless waves pass through air, space, people, objects,…
Attenuation
3
Attenuation and Obstructions
Same wavelength
(frequency), less
amplitude.
4
Free-Space Waves
Reflected Waves
5
Microwave
Reflections
• Microwave signals:
– Frequencies between 1 GHz – 30 GHz (this can vary among
experts).
– Wavelength between 12 inches down to less than 1 inch.
• Microwave signals reflect off objects that are larger than their
wavelength, such as buildings, cars, flat stretches of ground, and
bodies of water.
• Each time the signal is reflected, the amplitude is reduced.
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 11
Reflection
• Reflection is the light bouncing back in the general direction from which
it came.
• Consider a smooth metallic surface as an interface.
• As waves hit this surface, much of their energy will be bounced or
reflected.
• Think of common experiences, such as looking at a mirror or watching
sunlight reflect off a metallic surface or water.
• When waves travel from one medium to another, a certain percentage
of the light is reflected.
• This is called a Fresnel reflection (Fresnel coming later).
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6
Reflection
Reflections
7
Microwave Reflections
Multipath Reflection
Multipath Reflection
• Reflected signals 1 and 2 take slightly longer paths than direct signal,
arriving slightly later.
• These reflected signals sometimes cause problems at the receiver by
partially canceling the direct signal, effectively reducing the amplitude.
• The link throughput slows down because the receiver needs more time
to either separate the real signal from the reflected echoes or to wait
for missed frames to be retransmitted.
• Solution discussed later.
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 16
8
Diffraction
Diffracted
Signal
Weather - Precipitation
9
Weather - Precipitation
Collapsed tower
Weather - Ice
10
Weather - Wind
Refraction
Sub-Refraction
Normal
Refraction
Earth
11
Working with Wireless Power
12
Inverse square law
• “Signal strength does not fade in a linear manner, but inversely as the
square of the distance.
• This means that if you are a particular distance from an access point
and you move measure the signal level, and then move twice a far
away, the signal level will decrease by a factor of four.”
Point A Point B
¼ the power of Point A
13
Watts
Watts
14
Watts
• Power levels on a single WLAN segment are rarely higher than 100
mW, enough to communicate for up to three-fourths of a kilometer or
one-half of a mile under optimum conditions.
• Access points generally have the ability to radiate from 30 to100 mW,
depending on the manufacturer.
• Outdoor building-to-building applications (bridges) are the only ones
Rickthat use
Graziani power levels over 100 mW.
graziani@cabrillo.edu 29
Ratios
2 : 1 Ratio
100 : 1 Ratio
2 Pennies 1 Penny
2 Pennies : 1 Penny
100 Pennies 1 Penny
15
Wireless Power Ratios 1w
1w
1w
1w
1w 1w
1w 1w
1w 1w 1w
1w 1w 1w 1w 1w 1w
Decibels
10x
10x
• The decibel scale allows people to work more easily with large
numbers.
• A similar scale called the Richter Scale.
– The Richter scale is logarithmic, that is an increase of 1 magnitude
unit represents a factor of ten times in amplitude.
– The seismic waves of a magnitude 6 earthquake are 10 times
greater in amplitude than those of a magnitude 5 earthquake.
– Each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold
increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy.
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 32
16
Decibels - FYI
• Calculating dB
The formula for calculating dB is as follows:
dB = 10 log10 (Pfinal/Pref)
• Notes:
– With base-10 logarithms, the subscript 10 is often omitted;
log 100 = 2 same as log 1000 = 3
– When the base-10 logarithm of a quantity increases by 1, the quantity itself
increases by a factor of 10, ie. 2 to 3 increases the quantity 100 to 1000.
– A 10-to-1 change in the size of a quantity, resulting in a logarithmic
increase or decrease of 1, is called an order of magnitude.
– Thus, 1000 is one order of magnitude larger than 100.
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17
Decibels
Decibel references
WLANs work in
milliwatts or 1/1,000th of
a Watt
18
Decibel references
• Example:
– 1 mW = .001 Watts
– Using 1 mW as our reference we start at: 0 dB
– Using the dB formula:
• Doubling the milliwatts to 2 mW or .002 Watts we get +3 dBm
• +10 dBm is 10 times the original 1 mW value or 10 mW
• +20 dBm is 100 times the original 1 mW value or 100 mW
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 37
Ref.
19
Interactive Activity – Calculating decibels
End
Start
Change
+10 dBm
• This activity allows the student to enter values for Power final and
Power reference, then calculates for decibels. Adding an antenna or
Rick Graziani
other type of amplification.
graziani@cabrillo.edu 39
• 10 * log10 (10 / 1)
• 10 * log10 10 -> 10 to the ? = 10
• 10 * 1
• 10
20
Interactive Activity – Calculating decibels
End
Change
• This activity allows the student to enter values for Power final and
Power reference, then calculates for decibels. Adding an antenna or
Rick Graziani
other type of amplification.
graziani@cabrillo.edu 41
+3dBm
End
Start
• This activity allows the student to enter values for Power final and
Change Power reference, then calculates for decibels. Adding an antenna or
Rick Graziani
other type of amplification.
graziani@cabrillo.edu 42
21
Interactive Activity – Using decibels
Change
Start
End
+10 dBm
• This activity allows the student to enter a value for the decibels and a value for
the reference power resulting in the final power. Adding an antenna or other
type of amplification.
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 43
Change
Start
+3 dBm
End
• This activity allows the student to enter a value for the decibels and a value for
the reference power resulting in the final power. Adding an antenna or other
type of amplification.
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 44
22
RF Receivers
Start
Change
23
Other decibel references besides mW
More on this
when we
discuss
antennas.
A simple decibel
conversion
24
ACU Status
Signal
• Signal Strength
– The signal strength for all received packets.
– The higher the value and the more green the bar graph is, the stronger the
signal.
– Differences in signal strength are indicated by the following colors: green
(strongest), yellow (middle of the range), and red (weakest).
– Range: 0 to 100% or -95 to -45 dBm
• Signal Quality
– The signal quality for all received packets. The higher the value and the
more green the bar graph is, the clearer the signal.
– Differences in signal quality are indicated by the following colors: green
(highest quality), yellow (average), and red (lowest quality).
– Range: 0 to 100%
• Overall Link Quality
– Overall link quality depends on the Current Signal Strength and Current
Signal Quality values.
– Excellent: Both values greater than 75%
– Good: Both values greater than 40% but one (or both) less than 75%
– Fair: Both values greater than 20% but one (or both) less than 40%
– Poor: One or both values less than 20%
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 50
25
Signal
Signal
• You will notice that the maximum Signal Strength is –45 dBm and
lowest Noise Level is –105 dBm.
• Why these values?
• This is beyond the scope of this curriculum but has to do with how
Radio Performance is measured.
• The Cisco Press book, 802.11 Wireless LAN Fundamentals is a good
start for more information, but you will still need to do more research to
fully understand this.
• See the white paper from WildPackets: Converting Signal Strength
Percentage to dBm Values.
Rick Graziani graziani@cabrillo.edu 52
26
Real World Measurements
Last note…
27
TechTarget.com
28