Chapter 2

Part II: Wireless Transmission Fundamentals

 Electromagnetic Spectrum
 Wireless Propagation Models
 Digital Modulation Techniques
 Multiple Access
 Performance Issues
 Cellular and Ad Hoc Concepts
 Link Budget Analysis tseng:1
 Electromagnetic Waves
 predicted by British physicist James Maxwell in
1865, and observed by German physicist Heinrich
Hertz in 1887
 These waves are created by the movement of
electrons and have the ability to propagate through
space.
 using appropriate antennas, transmission and reception
of electromagnetic waves through space becomes
feasible.
 the speed of electron vibration determines the wave’s
frequency.
 Hertz: how many times the wave is repeated in 1
sec. (to honor Heinrich Hertz)
tseng:2
 Wavelength and Amplitude
 l = wavelength, f = frequency, c = speed of
light

tseng:3
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
 spectrum: range of electromagnetic
radiation
 band: spectrum parts

tseng:4
 Radio Waves

 HF band enables worldwide transmission:

 HF signals are reflected off the ionosphere and thus can
travel very large distances
tseng:5
 Microwaves
 small wavelengths compared to radio waves
 easily attenuated by objects

tseng:6
 Infrared
 emitted by very hot objects
 such as human body (night vision applications)
 frequency depends on the temperature of the
emitting body
 line-of-sight, point-to-point
 of no use outdoors (interfered by heat of sun)
 short-rang: 10 meters
 IrDA: Infrared Data Association

tseng:7
 Microwave and Infrared Bands
 Most wireless networking traffic is in the
microwave frequency bands.
 some licensed, some unlicensed
 Infrared:
 for short-range wireless communication

tseng:8
 Spectrum Regulation
 ITU = Int’l Telecommunications Union
 a worldwide spectrum regulation org.
 the world is split into 3 parts:
American continent
Europe, Africa, and former Soviet union
rest of Asia and Oceania
 Rules of assigning spectrum
 lottery
 auction
 comparative bidding
such as pricing, technology, etc.
tseng:9
 Licensed Microwave Band
 Examples: cellular, paging, PCS
 Use of a license is typically in an order of
10 years.
 A company can’t have the license and not use
it.
 Bandwidth is regarded as a resource that the
public wants and needs.

tseng:10
 Unlicensed Microwave Band
 Also on the same microwave band, but no
license required.
 To avoid interfering primary (licensed) users,
spreading spectrum is required.
 Two types:
FHSS: Frequency-hopping spread spectrum
DSSS: Direct sequence spread spectrum
 Also known as ISM band.
 industrial, scientific, and medical

tseng:11
 Model of Wireless Propagation

 Free space path loss

 Doppler shift
 Slow/fast fading
 Error modeling
tseng:12
 Shannon’s Formula
 an upper bound on the bit rate W of any channel
of bandwidth H Hz:
W = H log2(1 + S/N)
S/N = signal to thermal noise ratio
 However, in real world, the upper bound is
difficult to achieve due to:
 free space path loss
 proportional to r-2, where r is the distance between transmitter
and receiver (sometimes at higher exponent)
 Doppler shift
 a signal transmitter and receiver are moving relative to one
another
 slow/fast fading
tseng:13
Slow Fading

tseng:14
 Definitions
 Reflection:
 when an electromagnetic wave falls on an
object with dimension very large compared to
the wave’s wavelength
 Scattering:
 when obstructed by objects with dimensions in
the order of the wavelength
 Diffraction (or shadowing):
 when the wave falls on an impenetrable object
 in which case, the secondary waves are formed
behind the obstructing body
tseng:15
 Fast Fading: Multipath Effect
 waves traveling along different paths may
be completely out of phase when they reach
the antenna (thereby canceling each other)

tseng:16
 Multipath propagation delay can degrade
performance in indoor/outdoor environment.
 When the path length differences are short, the
effect is smaller.
 multipath fading is also referred as fast fading
 When LOS (line of sight) exists, this kind of
fading is known as Ricean Fading
 When LOS does not exist, this kind of fading is
known as Rayleigh Fading

tseng:17
 Propagation Models
 We say that the relative strength  To take into account of the
of signal x, P(x), to that of signal shadowing effect
y, P(y), is D dB, if
 PL(r) = PL(r0) +
 D = 10 log10(P(x)/P(y))
10n
 In free space, the average path log(r/r0) + X
loss (PL) at a distance of r is (in
dB):  X = zero-mean Gaussian
 PL(r) = PL(r0) + random variable with
standard deviation 
10n
log(r/r0)
 r0 = reference distance
(typically 1 Km for
macrocells; and 100 m for
microcells)
 n = environmental factor
(typically >= 2)
tseng:18
 Digital Modulation Techniques

 Binary Modulation
 Phase Shift Keying
 Minimum Shift Keying
 /4-Shifted QPSK
tseng:19
 Basics
 Convert digital stream into the analog signal
A(t)cos(wt + ), where w = 2f.
 The characteristics in this formulation that
may be changed are:
 amplitude
 frequency
 phase
 Ex: ASK = amplitude shift keying; FSK =
frequency shift keying; PSK = phase shift
keying

tseng:20
 Most systems modulate the information
onto a carrier centered in a (small) allocated
spectrum.

tseng:21
tseng:22
 Binary Modulation Scheme
 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK):
 using ON/OFF to represent 1/0
 “keying”: like a telegraph key
 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK):
 1/0 represented by two different frequencies
separated by some distance

tseng:23
 Binary Phase Shift Keying
 Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)
 use alternative sine wave phases to encode bits
 simple to implement
 very robust, used extensively in satellite
communications

tseng:24
 Quarternary Phase Shift Keying
 QPSK:
 multi-level modulation: 2 bits per symbol
 more spectrally efficient, more complex
receiver

tseng:25
 Differential PSK (DPSK)
 1 = changing the phase relative to the
previous symbol by some amount
 0 = having the same phase as the previous
symbol
 adv: self-clocked

tseng:26
 /4-Shifted QPSK
 coding by bit pairs
 varying the phase of the
current bit pair to the
phase of the previous bit
pair by a multiple of /4
 example:
 10 10 01 (Fig. 2.27)
(i.e., -/4, -/4, +5/4)

tseng:27
 Hybrid of PSK + ASK
 QAM = Quadrate Amplitude Modulation
 mixture of PSK and ASK
 3 bits at a time

tseng:28
 Multiple Access

 defining how nodes in a wireless

network to share a common
medium

tseng:29
 Objectives
 MAC layer is to define how a user access a
channel when he needs one.
 Random access: ALOHA and CSMA
 Ordered access: Token bus and Token Ring
 Deterministic access: FDMA, TDMA, and
CDMA
 Combinations: TDMA-over-FDMA, TDD-
CDMA, and TDMA/CSMA

tseng:30
 FDMA
 frequency division multiple access

** NMT = nordic Mobile Telephony tseng:31

 TDMA
 time division multiple access

tseng:32
 CDMA
 code division multiple access
 each station has a “station code”
 each bit is encoded by station code
code 1 is mapped to 1
code 0 is mapped to -1

tseng:33
 ALOHA
 A type of packet-radio network.
 The first well-known wireless network as
well as network system.
 Very simple, but not efficient!

 Variations:
 pure-ALOHA: whenever desired, send the
packet
 slotted-ALOHA: further divide time axis into
slots

tseng:34
 CSMA
 Before sending, sense the carrier.

tseng:35
 Persistent and Non-persistent CSMA
 Persistent CSMA:
 when the medium is busy, a station can
persistently wait for the medium to become
idle, and then transmit with a probability p
 This is called 1-persistent or p-persistent
CSMA.
 Non-persistent CSMA:
 A station can stop monitoring the wireless
medium, and listen to the medium again at
predefined time.

tseng:36
 Hidden-Node Problem
 CSMA has the following problem:
 when two nodes are too far away, carrier
sensing is difficult

tseng:37
 CSMA/CA
 CA = collision avoidance
 sender first does carrier sense
 sender broadcasts RTS (request to send) to
receiver
 receiver broadcasts CTS (clear to send) to
sender
 then send data packet

 Q: Is CSMA/CD possible in wireless

network?

tseng:38
tseng:39
 Ordered MAC Techniques
 Can a token-ring or token-bus protocol be
applied to a wireless network?

 Problems:
 mobility (nodes joining or leaving the ring)
 token loss

tseng:40
 Comparison and Summary
 Random access: CSMA
 under light load: fast response time
 under heavy load: throughput declines
 simplicity
 Deterministic protocols: TDMA, FDMA
 guaranteed bandwidth
 larger average delay
 small delay variance
 Hybrid: CSMA/TDMA
 adaptive, higher overhead

tseng:41
 Spread Spectrum

 FHSS
 DSSS

tseng:42
 Spread Spectrum Technology
 Spread spectrum must be used in ISM band.
 Two major technologies:
 Frequency Hopping SS (FHSS)
 Direct Sequence SS (DSSS)
 Located at the PHY of the network stack:

tseng:43
 FHSS
 Most Wireless LANs  Hopping Pattern
use the ISM bands as  In each time slot, the
secondary users. occupied frequencies
 They must use SS in are separated by some
order not to interfere distance to avoid
with the primary
interference.
users.
 FHSS: send info in
different frequencies
on different time slots.

tseng:44
 FHSS is different from FDM (frequency
division multiplexing).
 Example: (Fig. 4.7)
 In the 2.4 GHz band of ISM, we have a space
of 80 MHz. (2400~2483MHz)
 A typical bandwidth of the information signal
is 1 MHz.
Maximum occupancy is 1MHz regulated by FCC.
 One time slot = 0.1 sec.

tseng:45
 Primary vs. Secondary Users
 In FHSS, a typical power limit is 1 watt.
 For primary users, the power limit is much larger.
 So the interference from FHSS will not be noticeable
primary users.
 For FHSS secondary user,
 when there is 1 primary user  there will be a
throughput loss of 1/80 = 1.25%;
 when there are 2 primary users  there will be a
throughput loss of 2/80 = 2.5%.
 fig 4.8

tseng:46
primary
user

primary
user

tseng:47
 DSSS
 The input data stream is transferred to a
chip stream that is x times higher by XOR.
 a chip is 0 or 1, but is called so to distinguish
from a bit
 example: x = 11, 13, 15, 16 chips/bit

tseng:48
 The frequency spectrum is spread out and
the spectral energy is x times lower.
 It’s so low that primary users are not
interfered.

tseng:49
 Comparison of Interference
 Degradation due to existence of
interference:
 FHSS: linear to the level of interference
 DSSS:
degraded by half after a certain point (since it
typically occupies 50% of the bandwidth)
won’t work after a certain level

tseng:50
tseng:51
tseng:52
 Link Budget Analysis

 “Tutorial on Basic Link Budget

Analysis” Application Note, June
1998, AN9804.1, Intersil Co.

tseng:53
 Communication Basics
 When evaluating a wireless link, there are 3
most important questions to be answered:
 How much radio frequency (RF) power is
available?
 How much bandwidth is available?
 What is the required reliability?
evaluated by BER (bit error rate)

tseng:54
 Link Budget Example 1
 Wireless Link to Modem
 required rate: 40 Kbps (28.8 Kbps plus
framing, overhead, checksum)
 range: 5 meters
 BER: 10-6

tseng:55
 Choices of Technology:
 900 MHz
2.4GHz and 5GHz are not selected since the
required rate is low.
 no spread spectrum
since low transmission power is sufficient for 5
meters
 Orthogonal FSK
simplicity: two separated frequencies (one for “1”
and the other for “0”)
separated by 40 kHz (called “orthogonal” since
frequency-separation/bit-rate = 1)

tseng:56
 Link Budget Example 2
 Wireless USB
 required data rate = 2 Mbps (1.408 Mbps plus
framing, overhead, and checksum)
 range = 30 meters
 BER = 10-6

tseng:57
 Selection of Technologies:
 ISM band in 2.4 GHz (with 83MHz of band to
use)
 DSSS spreading to support long distance
transmission
will occupy 2 x 11 = 22 MHz of bandwidth due to
spreading
 DQPSK (differential quadrature phase shift
keyed) modulation

tseng:58
 Performance Increasing Techniques
for Wireless Networks

 antenna diversity
 coding
 power control

tseng:59
 Diversity
 definition:
 to send multiple copies of the same
information signal through several channels
 goal:
 to combat fading in wireless channels
 example:
 time, frequency, antenna

tseng:60
 Antenna Diversity
 also known as space diversity
 method
 a set of array elements (also referred to as
branches), spaced sufficiently apart from each
other
 usually 2 elements
 can combat multipath fading
 because multipath fading is usually
independent at distances in the order of
channel’s wavelength
tseng:61
 Example
 a 2-branch diversity system
 a number of algorithms have been proposed to
reconstruct the original transmission
 ex: pick the strongest signal from one of the
antennas

tseng:62
 Smart Antennas
 multi-antennas that change in order to adapt
to the conditions of wireless channels
 can focus toward the receivers
 can focus to the transmitters
 also known as beamforming
 Already available for
several years
 not widely used due to costs

tseng:63
 Coding
 Parity check
 Hamming code
 Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)

tseng:64
 Power Control
 properly tuning the transmission power to
reduce coverage and interference

tseng:65
 Summary
 What have we discussed?
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
 Wireless Propagation Models
 Digital Modulation Techniques
 Multiple Access
 Performance Issues
 Cellular and Ad Hoc Concepts
 Link Budget Analysis
 Performance Improvement Techniques

tseng:66