Outline

Wireless Media
• Scribe?
• Projects
Helen Wang – Two weeks to proposal deadline
CS 294-1 – Anthony’s office hours
• M 10-11 (10-12 next week)
• IR Local Area Networks
Lecture 4
– ParcTab, Rednet
September 20, 2000
• Using the ICEBERG testbed
September 20, 2000 CS 294-1 Lecture #4 2

IR LAN Characteristics
Overview • Infrared light: 850 – 950 nanometers
• Two approaches to building IR LANs • Range is function of:
– ParcTab: An Infrared Network for – Xmit power (Received optical power varies as 1/r²)
Mobile Computers – Background noise (fluorescent lights, sunlight)
– Type of link
– Rednet: a wireless ATM local area • Directed, non-directed, line of sight, diffuse
network using infrared links
• Two types of light-based links
• Both are interesting – Directed (very narrow capture angle)
– Low cost, ad hoc wireless networking • Requires precise alignment
• Not practical for handheld environment
• Neither was successful – Non-directed (15 – 75° capture half angle)
– Lots of issues • IRDA, Rednet, ParcTab
September 20, 2000 CS 294-1 Lecture #4 3 September 20, 2000 CS 294-1 Lecture #4 4

Non-Directed IR Links IR LAN Comparison

• Diffuse: Can use reflections ParcTab Rednet

– Most desirable from user point of view I R e n c o d in g Pulse position O n -O f f

– But, reflections are very attenuated Power low p o w e r ( s h o r t 500 mW (~1/2 of RF LAN)
• Need to use lower speed or higher power transmit)

• Line of sight L in k s p e e d 9 .6 o r 1 9 .2 K b / s 2 Mb/s

– Limited range (4 m à small room) MAC CSMA/CA Binary countdown (complex)

Basestation broadcasts
– Ceiling mounted transceivers ( s i m p le )
synchronization beacon,
S m a ll c e l l s è
– Rednet: 3 LEDs under hemisphere lens hope 1 user/cell
everyone counts down (use
color / local contention
– ParcTab: circular array of wide-angle LEDs address to provide fairness)

September 20, 2000 CS 294-1 Lecture #4 5 September 20, 2000 CS 294-1 Lecture #4 6

1
 M e dia Access Control Rednet MAC
• Goals:
– Simplicity (not really, actually more complex)
• ParcTab uses simple CS M A / C A
– Efficiency (avoid wasting bandwidth from collisions)
– Vulnerable to hidden terminal problem, – Fairness (can control and guarantee bandwidth allocation)

but cells are small – Low latency (rapid selection cycle)

• Operation
– C S M A / C A doesn’t scale to large users
– Computers that want to send, transmit their contention
per collision domain
address bit-b y -bit from MSB
• What about this classroom? – Basestation retransmits a wired-OR of all the addresses of
computers that want to send à
• Rednet uses complex binary • At each bit, like musical chairs: someone knows that they are not

countdown protocol the one to transmit, last one remaining gets to send

• BTS controls what address it retransmits, so it can send its own

– Very powerful, precise control address if it wants (win whenever it wants)

• Basestation can prioritize certain users

– Ex: allocating a fixed bandwidth share
September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 7 September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 8

Network Topology
• ParcTab
M o bility
– IR gateways connected via serial cable to a computer
• Serial cables are slow, really takes > 15 min. to install (need • ParcTab model
computer, site survey, etc.)

– T a b g e n e r a t e d b e a c o n s u s e d t o t r a c k t a b ’s cell
– Tab à IR à Transceiver à (serial)
Gateway à (Ethernet) Agent
• Rednet
àApplication
– Transceivers are wired directly to ATM network
• Much faster system, but more complex
– Agent tracks Tab’s cell location

– Color used to number cells (no two adjacent have same • Provides level of indirection and handles tab-

number) specific logic

• Classic graph coloring problem!

• Rednet model
• Color provides a way for nodes to know when they’ve entered a
different cell and have to reregister for a new contention – G S M -like model with HLR and VLR
address/countdown
September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 9 September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 10

A p plications S y s t e m - L e v el M e a s u r e m e n t s
• Critical to understanding overall network and
• ParcTab application performance

– Tab-RPC for reliably sending com m a n d s • ParcTab

– Identified bottlenecks in Sun serial driver
to tabs
– Clustering commands into one packet to reduce latency and
– Unreliable events from tabs to apps increase throughput
– Breaking time down into components
• Rednet
– Overall: acceptable response time
– A T M -based connections • Rednet
– Handled by connection mgr, location – Measuring network performance
• Bit Error Rates (important for understanding reliability)
server, and HLR
• Latency for handover between cells
September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 11 September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 12

2
 IR LAN Lessons Learned

• Feasible to build low-cost IR LA N

devices
– Possible to support wide range of speeds 5- minute Break
from 9.6Kb/s to 4 Mb/s

• Many interfering light sources

– New energy-efficient fluorescent lights

• O n l y li m i t e d c o m m e r c i a l s u c c e s s
– IRDA: point-to-point, not LA N
September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 13 September 20, 2000 C S 2 9 4 -1 Lecture #4 14