Wirless Networks

• Sharing the channel

-TDMA, FDMA, CDMA, CSMA

• Transmitting information
- OFDM, DSSS, FHSS

• Example: 802.11a

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 1

 Sharing the channel: TDMA
Time Division Multiple Access: Share same carrier frequency
by dividing signal into different time slots (used in GSM cell
phone networks)

First slot is used in

cell phones to contact
tower for slot
assignment. Tower
can determine
appropriate timing
advance for each user
(accounts for varying
distance from tower)
so that transmissions
won’t overlap at the
tower.

6.082 Fall 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_division_multiple_access Wireless Networks, Slide 2

 Sharing the channel: FDMA, SDMA
• Frequency Division Multiple Access: Divide
frequency channel into subbands
– Different users assigned to different subbands
– Each subband has its own carrier
– Use different frequencies for transmit and receive
(frequency-division duplexing). Eg, using FDD, adjacent
cell towers don’t “hear” each other.
– TDMA/FDMA/FDD used in GSM cell phone networks
• Space Division Multiple Access: adjust antenna
radiation pattern (eg, using phased arrays)
depending on location of the user
– Focus transmitter power in required direction
– On receive, eliminate noise from other sources

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 3

 Sharing the channel: CDMA
• Two vectors are orthogonal if their dot products are 0.
Here’s a set of 4 mutually orthogonal vectors:
– V1: (1, 1, 1, 1)
V2: (1, 1, -1, -1)
V3: (1, -1, 1, -1)
V4: (1, -1, -1, 1)
• Assign each transmitter a particular one of the orthogonal
vectors (Vi) to use to encode its transmissions (called the
“chip code”). With vectors shown above we can support 4
transmitters.
– If message bit is 0, transmit –Vi
1 message bit → len(Vi) “chips”
– If message bit is 1, transmit Vi
• Channel will sum the transmitted values:
– send 00 using V1: -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
send 01 using V2: -1 -1 1 1 1 1 -1 -1
send 11 using V3: 1 -1 1 -1 1 -1 1 -1
send 10 using V4: 1 -1 -1 1 -1 1 1 -1
channel: 0 -4 0 0 0 0 0 -4
6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 4
 CDMA Receiver
• At receiver take groups of len(V) bits and form
dot product with Vi for desired channel.
– If result is negative, message bit is 0
– If result is positive, message bit is 1

channel: 0 -4 0 0 0 0 0 -4

receive using V1: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

dot product: -4 -4
message bits: 0 0

receive using V2: 1 1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1

dot product: -4 4
message bits: 0 1

receive using V4: 1 -1 -1 1 1 -1 -1 1

dot product: 4 -4
message bits: 1 0
6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 5
 Asynchronous CDMA
• Use N orthogonal vectors to multiplex N transmitters (e.g.,
use a NxN Walsh Matrix)
• Scheme described above works for synchronous CDMA when
all symbols are transmitted starting at same moment. For
example this works fine for a cell tower transmitting to
mobile phones.
• But hard to synchronize mobile phone transmissions, so use
asynchronous CDMA:
– Can’t create transmissions that are truly orthogonal if they
start at different times
– Approximate orthogonality with longer uncorrelated pseudo-
random sequences (called pseudo-noise or PN). “pseudo” implies
that sequence can be reconstructed at receiver given a known
starting point.
– Assuming equal signal strengths from each transmitter at
receiver, if we decode bits using a particular PN sequence
synchronized with desired transmitter, we’ll get desired signal
plus some uncorrelated noise from other transmitters.
6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 6
 Sharing the channel: CSMA
• Carrier Sense Multiple Access
– “Carrier Sense” – transmitter listens to ensure no other carrier
is present on channel before transmitting
– “Multiple Access” – multiple transmitters share the channel,
transmissions received by everyone (not quite true for wireless)
– If two transmitters start at the same time (both having
detected no other carrier), their transmissions collide and entire
packet is lost (looks like other errors that cause packet to be
discarded). Recover via retransmission.
• CSMA with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)
– Transmitter informs others of intent to transmit (costs
bandwidth); collisions still possible as in pure CSMA
– Used by 802.11, 802.15
• CSMA with collision detection (CSMA/CD)
– Transmitter detects collision, stops, and retries after random
interval.
– Used by original Ethernet, doesn’t work with radio where range
effects cause some receivers not to hear certain transmitters
6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 7
 Transmitting Information: OFDM
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing:

• Bit stream split into lower-bandwidth parallel bit streams

each transmitted on a separate channel
– Symbol times long relative to propagation time
– Add guard interval to reduce inter-symbol interference (multi-
path echoes die away during guard interval)
• Channels are orthogonal
– No cross-talk
– Don’t need filters for each subchannel
– Don’t need inter-carrier guard bands
• Robust, makes good use of channel capacity
– ADSL,VDSL (telephone line data transmission)
– 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.15.3 (ultra wide band)
– Terrestrial Digital TV
– Power line networking

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 8

 OFDM Transmitter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OFDM

• Signal is interleaved across multiple subchannels

– For bidirectional links, can use some subchannels for each direction
• Constellation mapping can be chosen separately for each
subchannel: for other than BPSK, Xi are complex values

BPSK QPSK 16-QAM 64-QAM

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 9
 OFDM Receiver

• Need good frequency synchronization at receiver to keep

subchannels orthogonal, need good gain control to keep
amplitudes correct for slicing.
• Low-pass filter selects demodulated baseband signal
• Symbol detection for each subchannel is matched to
modulation scheme selected by transmitter

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 10

Transmitting Information: Spread Spectrum
• Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
– Used in asynchronous CDMA where each “chip” from
pseudo-random “chip vector” is used to change phase of
transmission.
– Chip rate is many times higher than message rate (i.e.,
we transmit many chips per message symbol), so message
is spread out over large spectrum
• Highest freq is twice the chip rate
– Longer PN sequences and higher chip rate increase
rejection of uncorrelated transmissions (“process gain”)
– Used in 802.11b, CDMA phones
• Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
– Like DSSS except adjust carrier frequency instead of
phase.
– Adapt sequence to avoid crowded frequencies (Bluetooth)

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 11

 Wireless Data Networks

Current wireless networks use standards developed by the IEEE

LAN/MAN Standards Committee (aka IEEE 802).

802.11: Wireless Local-Area Networks (Wi-Fi)

802.11b: 11Mbps (6.5Mbps typ) @ 2.4GHz, 100m
802.11a: 54Mbps (25Mbps typ) @ 5GHz, 50m
802.11g: 54Mbps (11Mbps typ) @ 2.4GHz, 100m
802.11n: 540Mbps (200Mbps typ) @ 2.4GHz or 5GHz, 250m

802.15: Wireless Personal-Area Networks

802.15.1: (Bluetooth) 1-3Mbps @ 2.4GHz, 1:10:100m
802.15.3: (UWB) 100-500Mbps @ 3.1-10.6GHz, 1-3m
802.15.4: (ZigBee) 40kbps @ 915MHz, 250kbps @2.4GHz, 10-75m

802.16: Broadband Wireless Access (WiMAX)

up to 70Mbps and up to 100km (but not at the same time!)
@ 1-10GHz, or @ 10-66GHz

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 12

 802.11a
• 12 channels in 5GHz band
• 20MHz bandwidth (16.6MHz occupied)
– Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
– 52 subcarriers (48 data, 4 pilot), (20MHz/64) = .3125MHz separation

– Modulation and channel coding scheme can be chosen to reflect

actual channel capacity (choice based on SNR):
• BPSK (6Mbps @ rate 1/2, 9Mbps @ rate 3/4, 1 bit)
• QPSK (12Mbps @ rate 1/2, 18Mbps @ rate 3/4, 2 bits)
• 16-QAM (24Mbps @ rate 1/2, 36Mbps @ rate 3/4, 4 bits)
• 64-QAM (48Mbps @ rate 2/3, 54Mbps @ rate 3/4, 6 bits)
– Symbol duration 4us (includes guard interval of 0.8us)
• ~250k combined symbols per second, 48 data channels
• ~Data rate = (48)(250k)(# bits/symbol)(code rate)
= (12M)(# bits/symbol)(code rate)

6.082 Fall 2006 http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/6/sp06/6.973/ -- Lecture 4 Wireless Networks, Slide 13

 802.11a Transmitter
“Randomize” incoming Rate 1/2
signal to flatten (optional) Convert Protect against
convolutional
spectrum to rate 2/3 or 3/4 burst errors
code

Map data into Convert to Fill guard

constellation time domain interval with
“right stuff”

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 14

 802.11a Receiver

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 15

 802.11a Packet Structure

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 16

 802.11a Virtual CSMA/CA
IFS = inter frame space

• Full Collision Detect would require full duplex radio ($$$)

• Transmitter sends Request-To-Send packet specifying
source, destination and duration (cts+pkt+ack)
• Receiver sends Clear-To-Send packet with duration (pkt+ack)
• Everyone receiving RTS or CTS will mark channel as busy for
given duration
• Transmitter sends Data packet, receiver checks CRC and
replies with ACK packet.

6.082 Fall 2006 Wireless Networks, Slide 17