Chapter 2

• Radio Frequency Fundamentals

 Exam Essentials
• Understand wavelength, frequency, amplitude, and
phase.
– Know the definition of each RF characteristic and how it can
affect wireless LAN design.
• Remember all the RF propagation behaviors.
– Be able to explain the differences between each RF behavior
(such as refection, diffraction, scattering, and so on) and the
various mediums that are associated with each behavior.
• Understand what causes attenuation.
– Loss can occur either on the wire or in the air. Absorption, free
space path loss, and multipath downfade are all causes of
attenuation.
• Define free space path loss.
– Despite the lack of any obstructions, electromagnetic waves
attenuate in a logarithmic manner as they travel away from the
transmitter.
 Exam Essentials
• Explain the difference between active and passive gain.
– RF amplifiers are active devices, whereas antennas are passive
devices.
• Explain the difference between transmit and received amplitude.
– Transmit amplitude is typically defined as the amount of initial amplitude
that leaves the radio transmitter. When a radio receives an RF signal,
the received signal strength is most often referred to as received
amplitude.
• Remember the four possible results of multipath and
their relationship to phase.
– Multipath may cause downfade, upfade, nulling, and data corruption.
• Know the results of intersymbol interference and delay
spread.
– The time differential between a primary signal and reflected signals may
cause corrupted bits and affect throughput and latency due to layer 2
retransmissions.
 Understanding Wireless
• Need to understand how wireless works at
the physical layer of the OSI model
• RF Signals move through the air in an
unpredictable manner
– Unbounded Medium
 What is Radio Frequency (RF)
• Part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

• Starts as Alternating Current (AC) generated

from a transmitter
– Radiated out of an antenna element
– Changes in current produce changes in
Electromagnetic Field
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 Alternating Current
• Current where the magnitude and direction varies in a
cycle over time
• Produces a sine wave
– Fluctuation is the oscillation
• Movement of the wave through air is the propagation
behaviors
– Absorption
– Reflection
– Scattering
– Refraction
– Diffraction
– Amplification
– attenuation
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 RF Characteristics
• Wavelength
• Frequency
• Amplitude
• Phase

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 Wavelength
• Distance between the peaks of the
waveform
• Distance traveled in a single cycle

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 Wavelength
• Represented by Greek lambda λ
• Inverse relationship between wavelength
and frequency

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 Wavelength
• The higher the frequency, the shorter the
wavelength.
• The longer the wavelength, the shorter the
frequency.

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 Wavelength
• As RF travels though space, signal
attenuate, or lose signal strength
• Shorter Wavelengths will attenuate
FASTER
• Signals keep traveling, but may be below
the sensitivity threshold of receiver.

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 Comparing 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz
• Higher Frequencies (shorter wavelength)
attenuate faster
– Attenuation through the air is Free Space
Path Loss
• Higher Frequencies also don’t penetrate
objects as well.

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 Frequency
• Measurement of how many times
something happens in a second
– 1 hertz (Hz) = 1 cycle per second
– 1 kilohertz (KHz) = 1,000 cycles per second
– 1 megahertz (MHz) = 1,000,000 (million)
cycles per second
– 1 gigahertz (GHz) = 1,000,000,000 (billion)
cycles per second

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 Amplitude
• Measure of signal
strength or power
– λ is for wavelength
– y is for amplitude
• Loss of amplitude is
attenuation or loss
• Transmit Amplitude
– Initial amplitude at
transmitter
• Received Amplitude
– Received signal strength
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 Amplitude
• Different RF technologies use different
transmit amplitudes
– AM Radio may use 50,000 Watts
• 802.11 Access Poitns from 1mW an 100
mW

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 Phase
• Difference in degrees separating two
overlapping sine waves
– Out of phase
• Measured from 0-360
– 0-in phase
– 90-quarter out of phase
– 180-cancels out original
– Etc.

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Phase

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 Phase
• Differences in phase are important to
understanding multipath
– Can cause interference in 802.11 signals

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 RF Behaviors
• Wave Propagation
• How waves move through the air and obstacles
– Absorption
– Reflection
– Scattering
– Refraction
– Diffraction
– Loss-Attenuation
• FSPL
• Multipath
– Amplification
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 Absorption
• If a signal does not bounce off, move
around, or pass through an object, then
100 % absorption has occurred.
– Significant cause of Loss
• Most materials absorb some level of RF
signal
• Brick, Concrete, Water all absorb a lot
– Even things with lots of water in them
• Drywall absorbs less
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 Reflection
• If a wave hits a smooth object larger than
itself it may bounce off
• Sky wave reflection
– Lower Frequencies bouncing off charged
particles in the ionosphere
• Microwave reflection
– Higher frequencies (1 Ghz to 300 Ghz) that
bounce off smaller objects like a metal door
– Important for WLAN
• Buildings, roads, water, earth’s surface
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 Reflection
• Can be a problem in WLAN as reflected
signals will arrive out of phase with original
signal
– Multipath

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 Scattering
• Multiple reflections
– If the wavelength is longer than
the medium that the wave is
passing through
– Two types
• If the particles are smaller than the
wavelength, minor scattering of the
signal
• If the signal encounters an uneven
surface and is reflected in multiple
directions
– Fences, trees, etc
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 Refraction
• Signals can also be BENT by refraction
– Bending of a signal as it passes through a
medium with a different density
– Causes the direction of the wave to change.
– Issue for long distance bridging

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Refraction

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 Diffraction
• Bending of a signal AROUND an object
– Also spreads the signal
– Usually caused by a partial blockage
– If you are behind the blockage, you are in the
RF shadow!

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 Loss (Attenuation)
• Decrease of amplitude or signal strength
– On a wire due to impedance
– Over the air-Free Space Path Loss
• Loss and gain are measured in Deibels

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 Multipath
• When multiple signals arrive at receiver
due to different obstructions/effects on RF
signal
• Difference in arrival is delay spread.

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 Multipath
• Downfade
– This is decreased signal strength. When the multiple RF signal paths arrive at the receiver
at the same time and are out of phase with the primary wave, the result is a decrease in
signal strength (amplitude). Phase differences of between 121 and 179 degrees will cause
downfade.
• Upfade
– This is increased signal strength. When the multiple RF signal paths arrive at the receiver at
the same time and are in phase or partially out of phase with the primary wave, the result is
an increase in signal strength (amplitude). Smaller phase differences of between 0 and 120
degrees will cause upfade. Please understand, however, that the fnal received signal can
never be stronger than the original transmitted signal because of free space path loss.
• Nulling
– This is signal cancellation. When the multiple RF signal paths arrive at the receiver at the
same time and are 180 degrees out of phase with the primary wave, the result will be
nulling. Nulling is the complete cancellation of the RF signal.
• Data corruption
– Because of the difference in time between the primary signal and the reflected signals
known as the delay spread, along with the fact that there may be multiple reflected signals,
the receiver can have problems demodulating the RF signal’s information. The delay spread
time differential can cause bits to overlap with each other, and the end result is corrupted
data, as seen in Figure 2.16. This type of multipath interference is often known as
intersymbol interference (ISI).

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Multipath

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Amplification

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 Exam Essentials
• Understand wavelength, frequency, amplitude, and
phase.
– Know the definition of each RF characteristic and how it can
affect wireless LAN design.
• Remember all the RF propagation behaviors.
– Be able to explain the differences between each RF behavior
(such as refection, diffraction, scattering, and so on) and the
various mediums that are associated with each behavior.
• Understand what causes attenuation.
– Loss can occur either on the wire or in the air. Absorption, free
space path loss, and multipath downfade are all causes of
attenuation.
• Define free space path loss.
– Despite the lack of any obstructions, electromagnetic waves
attenuate in a logarithmic manner as they travel away from the
transmitter.
Pg 54
 Exam Essentials
• Explain the difference between active and passive gain.
– RF amplifiers are active devices, whereas antennas are passive
devices.
• Explain the difference between transmit and received amplitude.
– Transmit amplitude is typically defined as the amount of initial amplitude
that leaves the radio transmitter. When a radio receives an RF signal,
the received signal strength is most often referred to as received
amplitude.
• Remember the four possible results of multipath and
their relationship to phase.
– Multipath may cause downfade, upfade, nulling, and data corruption.
• Know the results of intersymbol interference and delay
spread.
– The time differential between a primary signal and reflected signals may
cause corrupted bits and affect throughput and latency due to layer 2
retransmissions.

Pg 54