Mobile Computing

Chapter One: Applications

Agenda

 Introduction to Mobile Computing

Overviews of Wireless Communication

Wireless Network Benefits

Frequencies for Radio Transmission

Signal Propagation

Multiplexing and Modulation

Mobile computing

The rapidly expanding technology of cellular communication, wireless LANs,

and satellite services will make information accessible anywhere and at any time.

Mobile Computing is a technology that allows transmission of data, voice and

video through wireless enabled device without having to be connected to a

fixed physical link.

Mobile computing works based on these three concepts- Mobile

communication, Mobile Hardware and Mobile Software.

Cont.…

 Mobile communication: Mobile communication represents the infrastructure insured in

the wireless device that verifies seamless and reliable communication.

 Mobile Hardware: Mobile Hardware refers to device components or mobile devices that

employ and deploys the service of mobility.

 Mobile Software: Mobile software is responsible for the operation of the device. It can be

understood as the engine of the device.

 Mobile Software encompasses all facilities of wireless communications enabling

mobile computing.
Cont.…

There are two different kinds of mobility: user mobility and device

portability.

User mobility refers to a user who has access to the same or similar

telecommunication services at different places.

 The user can be mobile, and the services will follow him or her.

Device portability: the communication device moves with or without a user.

Wireless Communication Technology

 Wireless communication involves the transmission of information over a distance without

the help of wires, cables or any other forms of electrical conductors.

 Transmitting/receiving information using electromagnetic waves in open space.

 The transmitted distance can be anywhere between a few meters (for example, a television's

remote control) and thousands of kilometers (for example, satellite television).

A Short history of wireless communications

 The first wireless networks were developed in the Pre-

industrial age.
These systems transmitted information over line-of-sight distances using smoke
signals, torch signaling, flashing mirrors, or semaphore flags.
These early wireless communication networks were replaced by the wireless

telegraph network (invented by Marconi in 1896)

Cont.…
Cont.…
Benefits of Wireless Network
 Mobility: The freedom to move about without being secured by wires is certainly the
principal advantage of a wireless network.

 Easier and Less Expensive Installation: Installing network cabling can be a difficult,
slow, and costly task, especially in older buildings.

 Increased Reliability: Network cable failures may be the most common source of network
problems.

 Moisture from a leak during a thunderstorm can erode metallic

conductors.
Cont.…

 Disaster Recovery:

 Accidents happen every day. Fires, tornados, and floods can occur with little, if any,

warning.

 the computer network is such a vital part of the daily operation of a business, the

ability to have the network up and working after a disaster is critical.

 Many businesses are turning to WLANs as a major piece of their disaster recovery

plans, in addition to using IEEE 802.11n or IEEE 802.11ac wireless networking as the

main connectivity solution.

Challenges of Wireless Networking

Radio Signal Interference: Because wireless devices operate using radio

signals, the potential for two signals to interfere with each other exists.

Security: Because a wireless device emits radio signals that can cover a wide

area, security becomes a major concern.

Health Risks: Wireless devices contain radio transmitters and receivers that

emit radio frequency (RF) energy.

Applications of wireless communication
 Vehicles

 transmission of news, road condition, weather, music via DAB(Digital audio broadcasting)

 personal communication using GSM

 position via GPS

 local ad-hoc network with vehicles close-by to prevent accidents, guidance system, redundancy

 Education:

 An instructor can connect to multimedia display projectors without using wires.

 The wireless connection also frees students from having to go to a specific computer lab or the library to get

on the school’s computer network

Cont.…
Typical application: road traffic

UMTS, WLAN, o c
h
DAB, GSM, ad
cdma2000, TETRA, ...

Personal Travel Assistant,

DAB, PDA, laptop,
GSM, UMTS, WLAN,
Bluetooth, ...
Cont.…

Home Entertainment:-

Several large manufacturers are adding wireless networking capability to their

products

 From wireless speakers to media players

 DVD players

 televisions, digital video recorders (DVR)

 and multimedia personal computers

Cont.…

 Health Care:-

 Wireless point-of-care computer systems based on smartphones, tablet computers, or wireless-

equipped allows medical staff to access and update patient records immediately.

 health care professionals can immediately document a patient’s medication administration in the

computer while moving from room to room.

 Doctors can now monitor a patient’s vital signs remotely.

Cont.…

Travelling salesmen

 direct access to customer files stored in a central location

 consistent databases for all agents

 mobile office

Replacement of wired networks

 remote sensors, e.g., weather, earth activities

 flexibility for trade shows

 LANs in historic buildings

Radio Frequency (RF) for
Communications
Radio Frequency (RF) communications is the most common
type of wireless communications.

It comprises all types of radio communications that use radio

frequency waves, from radio broadcasting to wireless computer
networks.
Cont.…
 Radio transmission can take place using many different frequency bands

 Radio transmission starts at several kHz, the very low frequency (VLF) range, Waves in
the low frequency (LF) range are used by submarines, because they can penetrate water
and can follow the earth’ surface.
 Some radio stations still use these frequencies
Cont.…

The medium frequency (MF) and high frequency (HF) ranges are typical for

transmission of hundreds of radio stations.

Either as amplitude modulation (AM) between 520 kHz and 1605.5 kHz, as short

wave (SW) between 5.9 MHz and 26.1 MHz, or as frequency modulation (FM)

between 87.5 MHz and 108 MHz.

The frequencies limiting these ranges are typically fixed by national regulation and,

vary from country to country.

Cont.…
 Conventional analog TV, digital audio broadcasting and digital TV are using the very high

frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) bands.

 UHF is also used for mobile phones with analog technology, digital GSM, digital coddles

telephone ,3G cellular systems.

 VHF and especially UHF allow for small antennas and relatively reliable connections for mobile

telephony.

 SHF (SHF = Super High Frequency) and higher for directed radio links, satellite communication

 Wireless LANs use frequencies in UHF to SHF spectrum

Components of a Radio System
 filters, mixers, amplifiers, and antennas.

 Filters:

 A filter does exactly what its name indicates: it filters RF signals to get rid of all the ones that
are not wanted.

 There are three basic types of RF filters: low-pass, bandpass, and high-pass.

 With a low-pass filter, a maximum frequency limit or threshold is set and all signals below that
value are allowed to pass through

Low-pass
filter
Cont.…
 A high-pass filter has a minimum frequency threshold. All signals above this minimum threshold
are allowed to pass through, whereas those below the minimum threshold are blocked.

High-pass filter

 A bandpass filter, instead of having either a minimum or maximum frequency threshold, has a
range called a passband, which includes both a minimum and a maximum threshold

Bandpass filter
Cont.…
Example
Cont.…
Mixers

The purpose of a mixer is to combine two frequencies, the input signal and the
transmission carrier frequency, and create a single output.

Mixer output
Cont.…
 The mixer adds the input frequencies to the mixed-in frequency to produce the sums:

In this example, 23,400 Hz is the highest sum. The mixer also determines the
lowest difference between the input frequencies and the mixed-in frequency
Cont.…

19,700Hz 16,600Hz

 In this example, the lowest difference frequency would be 16,600 Hz. Therefore, the output

from the mixer would be a signal with a frequency range between 16,600 and 23,400 Hz.

 The sum and the difference are known as the sidebands of the frequency carrier because they

fall above and below the center frequency of the carrier signal.
Cont.…

 Amplifiers

 The amplifier is one of the first stages in a radio receiver circuit and one of the last stages in a

transmitter.

 The amplifier is called an active device, because unlike filters and mixers, it must be supplied with

electricity.

 Amplifiers use this electricity to increase the input signal’s intensity or strength and then output an

exact copy of the input signal at a higher amplitude.

Cont.…

Antennas
Finally, for an RF signal to be transmitted or received using
electromagnetic waves, the transmitter and receiver must
have an antenna
Cont.…
Summery of components of a radio system
Signal propagation ranges
Transmission range
communication possible
low error rate
Detection range
detection of the signal sender

possible
no communication transmission
possible
Interference range detection

signal may not be interference

detected
signal adds to the
background noise
Cont.…
Radio waves are affected by the phenomena of reflection, refraction, diffraction,
shadowing and scattering.

Receiving power additionally influenced by

Shadowing (blocking), reflection at large obstacles, refraction depending on the

density of a medium, scattering at small obstacles, diffraction at edges

shadowing reflection refraction scattering diffraction

Multipath propagation
The vast number of different signal paths arise from the fact that signals are
reflections from buildings, mountains or other reflective surfaces including water,

Signal can take many different paths between sender and receiver due to reflection,
scattering, diffraction

LOS pulses

signal at sender
signal at receiver
Multiplexing and modulation
 Multiplexing describes how several users can share a medium with minimum or no interference.

 One example, is highways with several lanes. Many users (car drivers) use the same medium

(the highways) with hopefully no interference (i.e., accidents).

 This is possible due to the provision of several lanes (space division multiplexing) separating

the traffic. In addition, different cars use the same medium (i.e., the same lane) at different

points in time (time division multiplexing).

Modulation
 Digital modulation

 digital data is translated into an analog signal (baseband)

 ASK, FSK, PSK

 Analog modulation

 shifts center frequency of baseband signal up to the radio carrier

 Basic schemes

 Amplitude Modulation (AM)

 Frequency Modulation (FM)

 Phase Modulation (PM)

Cont.…
analog
digital baseband
data signal
digital analog
101101001 modulation modulation radio transmitter

radio
carrier

analog
baseband digital
signal data
analog synchronization
demodulation decision 101101001 radio receiver

radio
carrier
Modulation
 Modulation of digital signals known as Shift Keying

 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK): The two binary values, 1 and 0, are represented by two different amplitudes.
 very simple
 low bandwidth requirements
 very susceptible to interference

 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK): also called binary FSK

 (BFSK), assigns one frequency f1 to the binary 1 and another frequency f2 to the binary 0.
 needs larger bandwidth

 Phase Shift Keying (PSK): uses shifts in the phase of a signal to represent data.
 more complex
 robust against interference
Thank you!