Mobile & Wireless Computing

Cosc6132

Tesfa Tegegne (PhD)

 Course overview

1. Introduction
2. Wireless Transmission
3. Media Access Control
4. Wireless Telecommunication / Cellular Network
5. Satellite Systems
6. Wireless LAN
7. Mobile Network Protocols/Mobile IP
8. Mobile Ad hoc Networks and Sensor Networks
 Evaluation

• Reading assignments
• Article/chapter review (three reviews
&Presentation)
• Project
• Short paper for publication in a conference or
journal
• Final exam
 Textbooks and References
• Mobile communications 2nd Edition, Jochen Schiller

• Introduction to Wireless and Mobile Systems (Second

Edition) Dharma P. Agrawal – University of Cincinnati
Qing-An Zeng – University of Cincinnati , 2006

• Fundamentals of Mobile and Pervasive Computing,

Frank Adelstein , Sandeep KS Gupta (Author), Golden
Richard III (Author), Loren Schwiebert (Author)

• IEEE/ACM journals and conference papers

 Introduction

 Wireless communications and mobility

 History of wireless/mobile communications
 Market penetration and growth
 Areas of research
 Computers for the next decades?

Computers are integrated

– small, cheap, portable, replaceable - no more separate devices

Technology is in the background

– computer are aware of their environment and adapt (“location awareness”)
– computer recognize the location of the user and react appropriately (e.g., call
forwarding, fax forwarding, “context awareness”))

Advances in technology
– more computing power in smaller devices
– flat, lightweight displays with low power consumption
– new user interfaces due to small dimensions
– more bandwidth per cubic meter
– multiple wireless interfaces: wireless LANs, wireless WANs, regional wireless
telecommunication networks etc. („overlay networks“)
 Mobile communication
Two aspects of mobility:
– user mobility: users communicate (wireless) “anytime, anywhere, with anyone”
– device portability: devices can be connected anytime, anywhere to the network
Wireless vs. mobile Examples
  stationary computer
  notebook in a hotel
  wireless LANs in historic buildings
  Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

The demand for mobile communication creates the need

for integration of wireless networks into existing fixed
networks:
– local area networks: standardization of IEEE 802.11,
ETSI (HIPERLAN)
– Internet: Mobile IP extension of the internet protocol IP
– wide area networks: e.g., internetworking of GSM and ISDN
 Applications I

Vehicles
– transmission of news, road condition, weather, music
– personal communication using GSM
– position via GPS
– local ad-hoc network with vehicles close-by to prevent accidents, guidance
system, redundancy
– vehicle data (e.g., from busses, high-speed trains) can be transmitted in
advance for maintenance

Emergencies
– early transmission of patient data to the hospital, current status, first diagnosis
– replacement of a fixed infrastructure in case of earthquakes, hurricanes, fire
etc.
– crisis, war, ...
 Vehicular Ad hoc Networks(VANET)

• Vehicles Transformed into “Computers on the Wheels” or

“Networks on the Wheel”
• Vehicular Communication System (VCS):- Tow main types of
communications:
– Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication:
– Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication:
• VCS provides real-time and safety applications
• Real-time applications:
– Traffic congestion and routing information
– Mobile infotainment (combined information and entertainment)
– High-speed tolling and many others
• Safety applications:
– Emergency
– Collision
– Car accident and other safety warnings
Typical application: road traffic

UMTS, WLAN,
DAB, GSM,
cdma2000, TETRA, ...

Personal Travel Assistant,

DAB, PDA, laptop,
GSM, UMTS, WLAN,
Bluetooth, ...
 Mobile and wireless services – Always Best
Connected
UMTS, GSM LAN
LAN, WLAN GSM 53 kbit/s 115 kbit/s 100 Mbit/s,
780 kbit/s Bluetooth 500 kbit/s WLAN
54 Mbit/s

UMTS,
DECT
2 Mbit/s

GSM/EDGE 384 kbit/s,

WLAN 780 kbit/s
UMTS, GSM
GSM 115 kbit/s,
384 kbit/s
WLAN 11 Mbit/s
 Applications II

Travelling salesmen
– direct access to customer files stored in a central location
– consistent databases for all agents
– mobile office

Replacement of fixed networks

– remote sensors, e.g., weather, earth activities
– flexibility for trade shows
– LANs in historic buildings

Entertainment, education, ...

– outdoor Internet access
– intelligent travel guide with up-to-date
location dependent information
– ad-hoc networks for
multi user games
 Location dependent services

Location aware services

– what services, e.g., printer, fax, phone, server etc. exist in the local
environment
Follow-on services
– automatic call-forwarding, transmission of the actual workspace to the
current location
Information services
– „push“: e.g., current special offers in the supermarket
– „pull“: e.g., where is the nearest hotel from the air port ?
Support services
– caches, intermediate results, state information etc. „follow“ the mobile
device through the fixed network
Privacy
– who should gain knowledge about the location
 Mobile devices
Pager PDA Laptop
• receive only • simpler graphical displays • fully functional
• tiny displays • character recognition • standard applications
• simple text • simplified WWW
messages

Sensors,
embedded
controllers

Mobile phones Palmtop

• voice, data • tiny keyboard
• simple graphical displays • simple versions
of standard applications

performance
 Effects of device portability
Power consumption
– limited computing power, low quality displays, small disks due to limited
battery capacity
– CPU: power consumption ~ CV2f
• C: internal capacity, reduced by integration
• V: supply voltage, can be reduced to a certain limit
• f: clock frequency, can be reduced temporally
Loss of data
– higher probability, has to be included in advance into the design (e.g., defects,
theft)
Limited user interfaces
– compromise between size of fingers and portability
– integration of character/voice recognition, abstract symbols
Limited memory
– limited value of mass memories with moving parts
– flash-memory or ? as alternative
 Wireless networks in comparison to fixed
networks
Higher loss-rates due to interference
– emissions of, e.g., engines, lightning
Restrictive regulations of frequencies
– frequencies have to be coordinated, useful frequencies are almost all occupied
Low transmission rates
– local some Mbit/s, regional currently, e.g., 9.6kbit/s with GSM
Higher delays, higher jitter
– connection setup time with GSM in the second range, several hundred milliseconds
for other wireless systems
Lower security, simpler active attacking
– radio interface accessible for everyone, base station can be simulated, thus
attracting calls from mobile phones
Always shared medium
– secure access mechanisms important
 Early history of wireless communication

Many people in history used light for communication

– heliographs, flags („semaphore“), ...
– 150 BC smoke signals for communication;
(Polybius, Greece)
– 1794, optical telegraph, Claude Chappe
Here electromagnetic waves are of special importance:
– 1831 Faraday demonstrates electromagnetic induction
– J. Maxwell (1831-79): theory of electromagnetic Fields, wave
equations (1864)
– H. Hertz (1857-94): demonstrates
with an experiment the wave character
of electrical transmission through space
(1888, in Karlsruhe, Germany, at the
location of today’s University of Karlsruhe)
 History of wireless communication I

1895 Guglielmo Marconi

– first demonstration of wireless
telegraphy (digital!)
– long wave transmission, high
transmission power necessary (> 200kw)
1907 Commercial transatlantic connections
– huge base stations
(30 100m high antennas)
1915 Wireless voice transmission New York - San Francisco
1920 Discovery of short waves by Marconi
– reflection at the ionosphere
– smaller sender and receiver, possible due to the invention of the vacuum tube
(1906, Lee DeForest and Robert von Lieben)
1926 Train-phone on the line Hamburg - Berlin
– wires parallel to the railroad track
 History of wireless communication II
1928 many TV broadcast trials (across Atlantic, color TV,
TV news)
1933 Frequency modulation (E. H. Armstrong)
1958 A-Netz in Germany
– analog, 160MHz, connection setup only from the mobile station, no handover,
80% coverage, 1971 11000 customers
1972 B-Netz in Germany
– analog, 160MHz, connection setup from the fixed network too (but location of the
mobile station has to be known)
– available also in A, NL and LUX, 1979 13000 customer in D
1979 NMT at 450MHz (Scandinavian countries)
1982 Start of GSM-specification
– goal: pan-European digital mobile phone system with roaming
1983 Start of the American AMPS (Advanced Mobile
Phone System, analog)
1984 CT-1 standard (Europe) for cordless telephones
 History of wireless communication III
1986 C-Netz in Germany
– analog voice transmission, 450MHz, hand-over possible, digital signaling,
automatic location of mobile device
– Was in use until 2000, services: FAX, modem, X.25, e-mail, 98% coverage
1991 Specification of DECT
– Digital European Cordless Telephone (today: Digital Enhanced Cordless
Telecommunications)
– 1880-1900MHz, ~100-500m range, 120 duplex channels, 1.2Mbit/s data
transmission, voice encryption, authentication, up to several 10000
user/km2, used in more than 50 countries
1992 Start of GSM
– in D as D1 and D2, fully digital, 900MHz, 124 channels
– automatic location, hand-over, cellular
– roaming in Europe - now worldwide in more than 170 countries
– services: data with 9.6kbit/s, FAX, voice, ...
 History of wireless communication IV

1994 E-Netz in Germany

– GSM with 1800MHz, smaller cells
– As Eplus in D (1997 98% coverage of the population)
1996 HiperLAN (High Performance Radio Local Area
Network)
– ETSI, standardization of type 1: 5.15 - 5.30GHz, 23.5Mbit/s
– recommendations for type 2 and 3 (both 5GHz) and 4 (17GHz) as wireless ATM-
networks (up to 155Mbit/s)
1997 Wireless LAN - IEEE802.11
– IEEE standard, 2.4 - 2.5GHz and infrared, 2Mbit/s
– already many (proprietary) products available in the beginning
1998 Specification of GSM successors
– for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) as European proposals for
IMT-2000
Iridium
– 66 satellites (+6 spare), 1.6GHz to the mobile phone
 History of wireless communication V

1999 Standardization of additional wireless LANs

– IEEE standard 802.11b, 2.4-2.5GHz, 11Mbit/s
– Bluetooth for piconets, 2.4Ghz, <1Mbit/s
Decision about IMT-2000
– Several “members” of a “family”: UMTS, cdma2000, DECT, …
Start of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and i-mode
– First step towards a unified Internet/mobile communicaiton system
– Access to many services via the mobile phone
2000 GSM with higher data rates
– HSCSD offers up to 57,6kbit/s
– First GPRS trials with up to 50 kbit/s (packet oriented!)
UMTS auctions/beauty contests
– Hype followed by disillusionment (approx. 50 B$ payed in Germany for 6 UMTS
licences!)
2001 Start of 3G systems
– Cdma2000 in Korea, UMTS in Europe, Foma (almost UMTS) in Japan
Wireless systems: overview of the development

cordless wireless LAN

cellular phones satellites
phones
1980:
1981: CT0
NMT 450 1982:
1983: Inmarsat-A
AMPS 1984:
CT1
1986:
NMT 900 1987:
1988: CT1+
Inmarsat-C
1989:
CT 2
1991: 1991: 1991:
1992: CDMA D-AMPS 1992: DECT 199x:
GSM Inmarsat-B proprietary
1993:
Inmarsat-M
PDC
1994: 1997:
DCS 1800 IEEE 802.11
1998:
Iridium 1999:
802.11b, Bluetooth

2000: 2000:
analogue GPRS IEEE 802.11a
2001:
IMT-2000
digital
200?:
Fourth Generation
(Internet based)
4G – fourth generation: when and how?
 Market for mobile communications

Although the growth in wireless and mobile communication systems

has slowed down, these technologies have still a huge market
potential.

The following figure shows the increasing number of subscribers to

mobile phone services
worldwide (2014)
Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100
inhabitants, 2007-2014*

Source: ITU: ICT facts and figures 2014

The number of mobile-broadband subscriptions reaches
2.3 billion, with 55% of them in developing countries
Mobile Penetration rates in Ethiopia
 Mobile broadband subscription by region

ITU: ICT facts and figures 2014

• Mobile-broadband penetration in Africa reaches close to

20% in 2014, up from 2% in 2010
Mobile-cellular subscription per 100 inhabitants

Source: ITU: ICT facts and figures 2014

The number of mobile-cellular subscriptions worldwide is approaching the number

of people on earth. Mobilec ellular subscriptions will reach almost 7 billion by end
2014, corresponding to a penetration rate of 96%. More than half of these (3.6
billion subscriptions) will be in the Asia-Pacific region.
 Mobile-cellular subscription per 100

Source: ITU- ICT facts and figures 2014

 Wireless Innovations
• 5G: Beyond 4G. Expected in 2020. 100X LTE
• Cognitive Radio: Find unused channels and use them
• 802.11ah: Low-speed coordinated communication for
M2M
• TeraHz Waves: Sub-millimeter waves. 1 mm to 0.1mm
wavelength. 0.3 to 3THz. Between Radio and light
• 802.11ad: WiGig. Gigabit Wireless
• Smart Antennas: Antenna arrays that can orient
towards direction of arrival
• LTE-Advanced: Next generation of LTE. Real 4G. 1 Gbps
• 802.11ac: 500Mbps-1 Gbps WiFi
• WiFi Direct: Point-to-Point WiFi without access point
• 802.11u: Authentication for 802.11 hotspots
 Wireless Innovations (cont)
• Small Cells: 10m to 2km. Includes Micro cells, Pico cells,
Femto cells
• 802.22: Wireless regional area network using white spaces
in TV channels
• Super WiFi: Long-distance internet access using TV white
spaces
• TD-LTE: LTE using time-division duplexing rather than
frequency division duplexing
• ZigBee: Trade name for 802.15.4 personal area networks.
Like WiFi for 802.11
• 802.11r: Fast Base Station transition
• LTE: Long-Term Evolution. 3.9G
• 802.11n: WiFi with multiple antennas
• 802.11k: Discover the best AP before transition
Wireless Speed Trends
 Simple reference model used here

Application Application
Transport Transport

Network Network Network Network

Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link

Physical Physical Physical Physical

Radio Medium
Overlay Networks - the global goal
integration of heterogeneous fixed
and mobile networks with varying
transmission characteristics

regional

vertical
handover
metropolitan area

campus-based horizontal
handover

in-house
 Challenges

• Security is a major concern.

• Authentication schemes.
• Encryption schemes.
• Payment schemes.
– E-tickets getting a service by producing a
ticket.
– E-currency issues like anonymity, credit-
worthiness, non-repudiation, etc. (bitcoin)
• Mobile agent security
Areas of research in mobile communication

Wireless Communication
– transmission quality (bandwidth, error rate, delay)
– modulation, coding, interference
– media access, regulations
– ...
Mobility
– location dependent services
– location transparency
– quality of service support (delay, jitter, security)
– ...
Portability
– power consumption
– limited computing power, sizes of display, ...
– usability