The different types of wireless networks and the various equipment and connections they require.

1. Wireless LAN
Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology provides internet access within a building or a limited outdoor area.
First used within offices and homes, WLAN technology is now also used in stores and restaurants.
The use of home networks greatly increased as the COVID-19 pandemic forced office workers, students,
teachers and others to work and study from home.Most home network designs are simple. A modem
connects to the cable or fiber from a local service provider. A wireless router is connected to the modem
and receives the signal from the modem. The router also serves as the wireless access point (AP), which
then broadcasts using a wireless protocol, such as the 802.11 standards.Office networks are more
complicated. APs are usually mounted on the ceiling, with each broadcasting a wireless signal to the
surrounding area. Multiple APs are required in large offices, each connecting to the office backbone
network via a wired connection to a switch. APs coordinate support for users walking through the office
area and hand off support to maintain open, connected sessions from AP to AP.
THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF
What is wireless communications? Everything you need to know
 Which also includes:
 A history of wireless for business and a look forward
 Wireless network capacity planning and requirements
 12 types of wireless network attacks and how to prevent them
2. Wireless MAN
Wireless metropolitan area networks have been installed in cities worldwide to provide access for people
outside an office or home network. These networks cover a wider area than office or home networks, but
the principles are the same. APs are located on the sides of buildings or on telephone poles throughout the
covered area. APs are connected to the internet via a wired network and broadcast a wireless signal
throughout the area. Users connect to their desired destination by connecting to the nearest AP, which
forwards the connection through its internet connection.
Introduction to Wireless LAN
Wireless LAN stands for Wireless Local Area Network. It is also called LAWN (Local Area Wireless
Network). WLAN is one in which a mobile user can connect to a Local Area Network (LAN) through a
wireless connection.
The IEEE 802.11 group of standards defines the technologies for wireless LANs. For path sharing, 802.11
standard uses the Ethernet protocol and CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision
avoidance). It also uses an encryption method i.e. wired equivalent privacy algorithm.
Wireless LANs provide high speed data communication in small areas such as building or an office.
WLANs allow users to move around in a confined area while they are still connected to the network.
In some instance wireless LAN technology is used to save costs and avoid laying cable, while in other
cases, it is the only option for providing high-speed internet access to the public. Whatever the reason,
wireless solutions are popping up everywhere.
Examples of WLANs that are available today are NCR's waveLAN and Motorola's ALTAIR.
Advantages of WLANs
o Flexibility: Within radio coverage, nodes can communicate without further restriction. Radio
waves can penetrate walls, senders and receivers can be placed anywhere (also non-visible, e.g.,
within devices, in walls etc.).
o Planning: Only wireless ad-hoc networks allow for communication without previous planning,
any wired network needs wiring plans.
o Design: Wireless networks allow for the design of independent, small devices which can for
example be put into a pocket. Cables not only restrict users but also designers of small notepads,
PDAs, etc.
o Robustness: Wireless networks can handle disasters, e.g., earthquakes, flood etc. whereas,
networks requiring a wired infrastructure will usually break down completely in disasters.
 o Cost: The cost of installing and maintaining a wireless LAN is on average lower than the cost of
installing and maintaining a traditional wired LAN, for two reasons. First, after providing
wireless access to the wireless network via an access point for the first user, adding additional
users to a network will not increase the cost. And second, wireless LAN eliminates the direct
costs of cabling and the labor associated with installing and repairing it.
o Ease of Use: Wireless LAN is easy to use and the users need very little new information to take
advantage of WLANs.
Disadvantages of WLANs
o Quality of Services: Quality of wireless LAN is typically lower than wired networks. The main
reason for this is the lower bandwidth due to limitations is radio transmission, higher error rates
due to interference and higher delay/delay variation due to extensive error correction and
detection mechanisms.
o Proprietary Solutions: Due to slow standardization procedures, many companies have come up
with proprietary solutions offering standardization functionality plus many enhanced features.
Most components today adhere to the basic standards IEEE 802.11a or 802.11b.
o Restrictions: Several govt. and non-govt. institutions world-wide regulate the operation and
restrict frequencies to minimize interference.
o Global operation: Wireless LAN products are sold in all countries so, national and international
frequency regulations have to be considered.
o Low Power: Devices communicating via a wireless LAN are typically power consuming, also
wireless devices running on battery power. Whereas the LAN design should take this into account
and implement special power saving modes and power management functions.
o License free operation: LAN operators don't want to apply for a special license to be able to use
the product. The equipment must operate in a license free band, such as the 2.4 GHz ISM band.
o Robust transmission technology: If wireless LAN uses radio transmission, many other electrical
devices can interfere with them (such as vacuum cleaner, train engines, hair dryers, etc.).Wireless
LAN transceivers cannot be adjusted for perfect transmission is a standard office or production
environment.
WIRELESS MAC ISSUES

The three important issues are:

1. Half Duplex operation –> either send or receive but not both at a given time
2. Time varying channel
3. Burst channel errors
1. Half Duplex Operation
In wireless, it‘s difficult to receive data when the transmitter is sending the data, because: When node is
transmitting, a large fraction of the signal energy leaks into the receiver path. The transmitted and
received power levels can differ by orders of magnitude. The leakage signal typically has much higher
power than the received signal -―Impossible to detect a received signal, while transmitting data‖.
Collision detection is not possible, while sending data. As collision cannot be detected by the sender, all
proposed protocols attempt to minimize the probability of collision - Focus on collision avoidance.
2. Time Varying Channel
Three mechanisms for radio signal propagation
 Reflection – occurs when a propagating wave impinges upon an object that has very large
dimensions than the wavelength of the radio wave e.g. reflection occurs from the surface of the earth and
from buildings and walls
 Diffraction – occurs when the radio path between the transmitter and the receiver is obstructed by
a surface with sharp edges
 Scattering – occurs when the medium through which the wave travels consists of objects with
 The received signal by a node is a superposition of time-shifted and attenuated versions of the
transmitted signals the received signal varies with time .The time varying signals (time varying
channel) phenomenon also known as multipath propagation. The rate of variation of channel is
determined by the coherence time of the channel Coherence time is defined as time within which
When a node‘s received signal strength drops below a certain threshold the node is said to be in
fade .Handshaking is widely used strategy to ensure the link quality is good enough for data
communication. A successful handshake between a sender and a receiver (small message) indicates a
good communication link.
3. Burst Channel Errors
As a consequence of time varying channel and varying signals strengths errors are introduced in the
transmission (Very likely) for wire line networks the bit error rate (BER) is the probability of packet error
is small .For wire line networks the errors are due to random For wireless networks the BER is as high.
For wireless networks the errors are due to node being in fade as a result errors occur in a long burst.
Packet loss due to burst errors - mitigation techniques

 Smaller packets
 Forward Error Correcting Codes
 Retransmissions (Acks)

Location Dependent Carrier Sensing

Location Dependent Carrier Sensing results in three types of nodes that protocols need to deal with
Hidden Nodes: Even if the medium is free near the transmitter, it may not be free near the intended
receiver

Exposed Nodes: Even if the medium is busy near the transmitter, it may be free near the intended
receiver
Capture: Capture occurs when a receiver can cleanly receive a transmission from one of
two simultaneous transmissions
Hidden Node/Terminal Problem
A hidden node is one that is within the range of the intended destination but out of range of sender Node
B can communicate with A and C both A and C cannot hear each other When A transmits to B, C cannot
detect the transmission using the carrier sense mechanism C falsely thinks that the channel is idle
Exposed Nodes
An exposed node is one that is within the range of the sender but out of range of destination .when a
node‘s received signal strength drops below a certain threshold the node is said to be in
fade .Handshaking is widely used strategy to ensure the link quality is good enough for data
communication. A successful handshake between a sender and a receiver (small message) indicates a
good communication link.
In theory C can therefore have a parallel transmission with any node that cannot hear the transmission
from B, i.e. out of range of B. But C will not transmit to any node because its an exposed node. Exposed
nodes waste bandwidth.
Capture
Capture is said to occur when a receiver can cleanly receive a transmission from one of two simultaneous
transmissions both within its range Assume node A and D transmit simultaneously to B. The signal
strength received from D is much higher than that from A
 Use this
chart to compare the major differences among WLANs, WMANs, WPANs and WWANs.
3. Wireless PAN
Wireless personal area networks cover a very limited area -- typically a maximum of 100 meters for most
applications -- using protocols like Bluetooth and Zigbee. Bluetooth enables hands-free phone calls,
connects a phone to earpieces or transmits signals between smart devices. Zigbee connects stations along
an IoT network. Infrared technology is limited to line of sight, such as connecting TV remotes to
televisions.
Wireless developers have constantly improved technology by discovering new ways to transmit signals to
users. These advances enable higher data rates and increasing range for each of these wireless
technologies.
4. Wireless WAN
Wireless WANs use cellular technology to provide access outside the range of a wireless LAN or
metropolitan network. These networks enable users to make phone calls to others. WANs can support
either speech or data transfer using the same technology. Users can also connect to the internet to access
websites or server-based applications.
IEEE 802.11 Standards For WLAN
IEEE is basically used for WLAN i.e wireless local area network. It provides time bounded and
asynchronous services for different downloading and uploading speed with time limitation. This is
the standard protocol used all over the world. 802.11 comes under the most popular IEEE specification
for wireless LAN. It covers the physical and data link layers. This post includes Wireless
Communication Notes on IEEE 802.11 Standards for WLAN for the students to provide a help for
Communication students to perform well in their exams and interviews.
802.x belongs to different families of IEEE protocol where x denotes types of services. Different
protocols used for different services are
 802.15 is used for bluetooth.
 802.16 is used for Wi-Max.
IEEE 802.11 defines two types of services which are
1) Basic Service Set (BSS)
2) Extended Service Set (ESS)
Basic Service Set (BSS): IEEE 802.11 has defined the BSS as the basic building block of wireless LAN.
A BSS is made of stationary or moving wireless stations and a central base station called as the access
point (AP).
 BSS can exist with and without AP. BSS without access point cannot send data to another BSS. So, it is
known as a stand alone network or ad hoc architecture. In this type of architecture stations can form a
network without using AP.
Extended Service Set (ESS): An extended service set consists of two or more BSSs with access points.
The BSS in this system are connected to each other via a distribution system which is generally a wired
LAN. The distribution system connects the access points to each other. The distribution system can be
any type LAN such as Ethernet. thus ESS contains two types of station:
 Mobile Stations
 Stationary of non-moving stations

Out of these, the non-moving stations are the access points which are a part of the wired LAN whereas
the mobile stations are those contained in the BSS. The BSSs are connected to each other to form a
network called infrastructure network. In such networks the station close to each other can communicate
taking help of access points.
But if two stations are located in two different BSS wish to communicate with each other, than they have
to do do through access points. This type of communication is very similar to that in the cellular
communication. The BSS acts as a cell and AP as base station.
Types of Stations in ESS are as follow:
There are three types of stations are defined by IEEE 802.11 depending on their mobility in the wireless
LAN as
1) No transition Mobility : It is defined as a station which is non-moving (stationary) or moving only
inside a BSS.
2) BSS Transition Mobility : A station having BSS transition mobility is the one which can move from
BSS to another but does not move outside one ESS.
3) ESS transition Mobility : A station having ESS transition mobility is the one which can move from
one ESS to another. But IEEE 802.11 does not guarantee communication when the station is moving.
IEEE 802.11 Architecture
The components of an IEEE 802.11 architecture are as follows −
 Stations (STA) − Stations comprises of all devices and equipment that are connected to the wireless
LAN. A station can be of two types−
o Wireless Access Point (WAP) − WAPs or simply access points (AP) are generally wireless
routers that form the base stations or access.
o Client. Clients are workstations, computers, laptops, printers, smartphones, etc.
 Each station has a wireless network interface controller.
 Basic Service Set (BSS) − A basic service set is a group of stations communicating at the physical
layer level. BSS can be of two categories depending upon the mode of operation−
o Infrastructure BSS − Here, the devices communicate with other devices through access points.
o Independent BSS − Here, the devices communicate in a peer-to-peer basis in an ad hoc manner.
 Extended Service Set (ESS) − It is a set of all connected BSS.
 Distribution System (DS) − It connects access points in ESS.
 Frame Format of IEEE 802.11
The main fields of a frame of wireless LANs as laid down by IEEE 802.11 are −
 Frame Control − It is a 2 bytes starting field composed of 11 subfields. It contains control
information of the frame.
 Duration − It is a 2-byte field that specifies the time period for which the frame and its
acknowledgment occupy the channel.
 Address fields − There are three 6-byte address fields containing addresses of source, immediate
destination, and final endpoint respectively.
 Sequence − It a 2 bytes field that stores the frame numbers.
 Data − This is a variable-sized field that carries the data from the upper layers. The maximum size
of the data field is 2312 bytes.
 Check Sequence − It is a 4-byte field containing error detection information.

IEEE 802.11 Mac Frame

 Difficulty Level : Easy
 Last Updated : 25 Mar, 2023
Prerequisite – Basics of Wi-fi MAC layer provides functionality for several tasks like control medium
access, can also offer support for roaming, authentication, and power conservation. The basic services
provided by MAC are the mandatory asynchronous data service and optional time-bounded service. IEEE
802.11 defines two MAC sub-layers:-
1. Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) – DCF uses CSMA/CA as access method as wireless
LAN can’t implement CSMA/CD. It only offers asynchronous service.
2. Point Coordination Function (PCF) – PCP is implemented on top of DCF and mostly used for time-
service transmission. It uses a centralized, contention-free polling access method. It offers both
asynchronous and time-bounded service.
 MAC Frame: The MAC layer frame consists of 9 fields. The following figure shows the basic structure
of an IEEE 802.11 MAC data frame along with the content of the frame control

field.
 Frame Control(FC) – It is 2 bytes long field which defines type of frame and some control
information. Various fields present in FC are:
1. Version: It is a 2 bit long field which indicates the current protocol version which is fixed to be 0
for now.
2. Type: It is a 2 bit long field which determines the function of frame i.e management(00),
control(01) or data(10). The value 11 is reserved.
3. Subtype: It is a 4 bit long field which indicates sub-type of the frame like 0000 for association
request, 1000 for beacon.
4. To DS: It is a 1 bit long field which when set indicates that destination frame is for DS(distribution
system).
5. From DS: It is a 1 bit long field which when set indicates frame coming from DS.
6. More frag (More fragments): It is 1 bit long field which when set to 1 means frame is followed by
other fragments.
7. Retry: It is 1-bit long field, if the current frame is a retransmission of an earlier frame, this bit is set
to 1.
8. Power Mgmt (Power management): It is 1-bit long field that indicates the mode of a station after
successful transmission of a frame. Set to 1 the field indicates that the station goes into power-save
mode. If the field is set to 0, the station stays active.
9. More data: It is 1-bit long field that is used to indicate receiver that a sender has more data to send
than the current frame. This can be used by an access point to indicate to a station in power-save
mode that more packets are buffered or it can be used by a station to indicate to an access point after
being polled that more polling is necessary as the station has more data ready to transmit.
10. WEP: It is 1 bit long field which indicates that the standard security mechanism of 802.11 is
applied.
11. Order: It is 1 bit long field, if this bit is set to 1 the received frames must be processed in strict
order.
 Duration/ID – It is 4 bytes long field which contains the value indicating the period of time in which
the medium is occupied(in µs).
 Address 1 to 4 – These are 6 bytes long fields which contain standard IEEE 802 MAC addresses (48
bit each). The meaning of each address depends on the DS bits in the frame control field.
 SC (Sequence control) – It is 16 bits long field which consists of 2 sub-fields, i.e., Sequence number
(12 bits) and Fragment number (4 bits). Since acknowledgement mechanism frames may be duplicated
hence, a sequence number is used to filter duplicate frames.
 Data – It is a variable length field which contain information specific to individual frames which is
transferred transparently from a sender to the receiver(s).
 CRC (Cyclic redundancy check) – It is 4 bytes long field which contains a 32 bit CRC error detection
sequence to ensure error free frame.
features of the IEEE 802.11 MAC frame:
Frame Control Field: The frame control field contains information about the type of frame, the data rate,
and the power management status.
Duration Field: The duration field specifies the length of time that the channel will be occupied by the
transmission.
Address Fields: The address fields specify the source and destination MAC addresses of the Wi-Fi
devices involved in the communication.
Sequence Control Field: The sequence control field is used to identify and manage the transmission
sequence of the frames.
Frame Body: The frame body contains the actual data being transmitted between Wi-Fi devices, such as
IP packets, TCP segments, or UDP datagrams.
Frame Check Sequence: The frame check sequence (FCS) is used to check the integrity of the data
transmitted in the frame and to detect any transmission errors.
Management, Control, and Data Frames: The IEEE 802.11 MAC frame defines three types of frames:
management frames, control frames, and data frames. Management frames are used for network
management, control frames are used for coordination between Wi-Fi devices, and data frames are used
for the transmission of actual data.
Fragmentation: The IEEE 802.11 MAC frame supports fragmentation, which allows large data packets
to be divided into smaller fragments for transmission.
Acknowledgments: The IEEE 802.11 MAC frame uses acknowledgments to confirm the successful
transmission of frames and to request the retransmission of any frames that were not successfully
received.

Bluetooth – What is Bluetooth?

• Bluetooth is, with the infrared, one of the major wireless technologies developed to achieve WPAN.
Bluetooth is a wireless LAN technology used to connect devices of different functions such as
telephones, computers (laptop or desktop), notebooks, cameras, printers and so on. Bluetooth is an
example of personal area network.
• Bluetooth project was started by SIG (Special Interest Group) formed by four companies IBM, Intel,
Nokia and Toshiba for interconnecting computing and communicating devices using short-range, lower-
power, inexpensive wireless radios.
• The project was named Bluetooth after the name of Viking king – Harald Blaat and who unified
Denmark and Norway in 10th century.
• Nowadays, Bluetooth technology is used for several computer and non computer application:
1. It is used for providing communication between peripheral devices like wireless mouse or keyboard
with the computer.
2. It is used by modern healthcare devices to send signals to monitors.
3. It is used by modern communicating devices like mobile phone, PDAs, palmtops etc to transfer data
rapidly.
4. It is used for dial up networking. Thus allowing a notebook computer to call via a mobile phone.
5. It is used for cordless telephoning to connect a handset and its local base station.
6. It also allows hands-free voice comml1nication with headset.
7. It also enables a mobile computer to connect to a fixed LAN.
8. It can also be used for file transfer operations from one mobile phone to another.
9. Bluetooth uses omni directional radio waves that can through walls or other non-metal barriers.
Bluetooth devices have a built-in short range radio transmitter. The rate provided is 1Mbps and uses 2.4
GHz bandwidth.
Bluetooth is that when the device is with in the scope of a other devices automatically start the
transfer information without the user noticing. a small network between the devices is created and the
user can accessed as if there were cables.
Bluetooth architecture defines two types of networks:
1. Piconet
2. Scattemet
1. Piconet
• Piconet is a Bluetooth network that consists of one primary (master) node and seven active secondary
(slave) nodes.
• Thus, piconet can have up to eight active nodes (1 master and 7 slaves) or stations within the distance
of 10 meters.
• There can be only one primary or master station in each piconet.
• The communication between the primary and the secondary can be one-to-one or one-to-many.

• All communication is between master and a slave. Salve-slave communication is not possible.
• In addition to seven active slave station, a piconet can have up to 255 parked nodes. These parked
nodes are secondary or slave stations and cannot take part in communication until it is moved from
parked state to active state.
2.Scatternet

• Scattemet is formed by combining various piconets.

• A slave in one piconet can act as a master or primary in other piconet.
• Such a station or node can receive messages from the master in the first piconet and deliver the
message to its slaves in other piconet where it is acting as master. This node is also called bridge slave.
• Thus a station can be a member of two piconets.
• A station cannot be a master in two piconets.

Bluetooth layers and Protocol Stack

• Bluetooth standard has many protocols that are organized into different layers.
• The layer structure of Bluetooth does not follow OS1 model TCP/IP model or any other known model.
 ,
• The different layers and Bluetooth protocol architecture. Radio Layer
• The Bluetooth radio layer corresponds to the physical layer of OSI model.
• It deals with ratio transmission and modulation.
• The radio layer moves data from master to slave or vice versa.
• It is a low power system that uses 2.4 GHz ISM band in a range of 10 meters.
• This band is divided into 79 channels of 1MHz each. Bluetooth uses the Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum (FHSS) method in the physical layer to avoid interference from other devices or networks.
• Bluetooth hops 1600 times per second, i.e. each device changes its modulation frequency 1600 times
per second.
• In order to change bits into a signal, it uses a version of FSK called GFSK i.e. FSK with Gaussian
bandwidth filtering.
BasebandLayer

• Baseband layer is equivalent to the MAC sublayer in LANs.

• Bluetooth uses a form of TDMA called TDD-TDMA (time division duplex TDMA).
• Master and slave stations communicate with each other using time slots.
• The master in each piconet defines the time slot of 625 µsec.
• In TDD- TDMA, communication is half duplex in which receiver can send and receive data but not at
the same time.
• If the piconet has only no slave; the master uses even numbered slots (0, 2, 4, …) and the slave uses
odd-numbered slots (1, 3, 5, …. ). Both master and slave communicate in half duplex mode. In slot 0,
master sends & secondary receives; in slot 1, secondary sends and primary receives.
• If piconet has more than one slave, the master uses even numbered slots. The slave sends in the next
odd-numbered slot if the packet in the previous slot was addressed to it.
• In Base-band layer, two types of links can be created between a master and slave. These are:
1. Asynchronous Connection-less (ACL)
• It is used for packet switched data that is available at irregular intervals.
• ACL delivers traffic on a best effort basis. Frames can be lost & may have to be re-transmitted.
• A slave can have only one ACL link to its master.
• Thus ACL link is used where correct delivery is preferred over fast delivery.
• The ACL can achieve a maximum data rate of 721 kbps by using one, three or more slots.
2. Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO)
• sco is used for real time data such as sound. It is used where fast delivery is preferred over accurate
delivery.
• In an sco link, a physical link is created between the master and slave by reserving specific slots at
regular intervals.
• Damaged packet; are not re-transmitted over sco links.
• A slave can have three sco links with the master and can send data at 64 Kbps.
Logical Link, Control Adaptation Protocol Layer (L2CAP)
• The logical unit link control adaptation protocol is equivalent to logical link control sub-layer of LAN.
• The ACL link uses L2CAP for data exchange but sco channel does not use it.
• The various function of L2CAP is:
1. Segmentation and reassembly
• L2CAP receives the packets of up to 64 KB from upper layers and divides them into frames for
transmission.
• It adds extra information to define the location of frame in the original packet.
• The L2CAP reassembles the frame into packets again at the destination.
2. Multiplexing
• L2CAP performs multiplexing at sender side and de-multiplexing at receiver side.
• At the sender site, it accepts data from one of the upper layer protocols frames them and deliver them
to the Base-band layer.
• At the receiver site, it accepts a frame from the base-band layer, extracts the data, and delivers them to
the appropriate protocol1ayer.
3. Quality of Service (QOS)
• L2CAP handles quality of service requirements, both when links are established and during normal
operation.
• It also enables the devices to negotiate the maximum payload size during connection establishment.
Bluetooth Frame Format
The various fields of blue tooth frame format are:

1. Access Code: It is 72 bit field that contains synchronization bits. It identifies the master.
2. Header: This is 54-bit field. It contain 18 bit pattern that is repeated for 3 time.
The header field contains following sub-fields:
(i) Address: This 3 bit field can define up to seven slaves (1 to 7). If the address is zero, it is used for
broadcast communication from primary to all secondaries.
(ii)Type: This 4 bit field identifies the type of data coming from upper layers.
(iii) F: This flow bit is used for flow control. When set to 1, it means the device is unable to receive
more frames.
(iv) A: This bit is used for acknowledgement.
(v) S: This bit contains a sequence number of the frame to detect re-transmission. As stop and wait
protocol is used, one bit is sufficient.
(vi) Checksum: This 8 bit field contains checksum to detect errors in header.
3. Data: This field can be 0 to 2744 bits long. It contains data or control information coming from upper
layers
the types of multiple access protocol that is subdivided into the different process as:
A. Random Access Protocol
In this protocol, all the station has the equal priority to send the data over a channel. In random access
protocol, one or more stations cannot depend on another station nor any station control another station.
Depending on the channel's state (idle or busy), each station transmits the data frame. However, if more
than one station sends the data over a channel, there may be a collision or data conflict. Due to the
collision, the data frame packets may be lost or changed. And hence, it does not receive by the receiver
end.
Following are the different methods of random-access protocols for broadcasting frames on the channel.
o Aloha
o CSMA
o CSMA/CD
o CSMA/CA
ALOHA Random Access Protocol
It is designed for wireless LAN (Local Area Network) but can also be used in a shared medium to
transmit data. Using this method, any station can transmit data across a network simultaneously when a
data frameset is available for transmission.
Aloha Rules
1. Any station can transmit data to a channel at any time.
2. It does not require any carrier sensing.
3. Collision and data frames may be lost during the transmission of data through multiple stations.
4. Acknowledgment of the frames exists in Aloha. Hence, there is no collision detection.
5. It requires retransmission of data after some random amount of time.

Pure Aloha
Whenever data is available for sending over a channel at stations, we use Pure Aloha. In pure Aloha,
when each station transmits data to a channel without checking whether the channel is idle or not, the
chances of collision may occur, and the data frame can be lost. When any station transmits the data frame
to a channel, the pure Aloha waits for the receiver's acknowledgment. If it does not acknowledge the
receiver end within the specified time, the station waits for a random amount of time, called the backoff
time (Tb). And the station may assume the frame has been lost or destroyed. Therefore, it retransmits the
frame until all the data are successfully transmitted to the receiver.
1. The total vulnerable time of pure Aloha is 2 * Tfr.
2. Maximum throughput occurs when G = 1/ 2 that is 18.4%.
3. Successful transmission of data frame is S = G * e ^ - 2 G.
As we can see in the figure above, there are four stations for accessing a shared channel and transmitting
data frames. Some frames collide because most stations send their frames at the same time. Only two
frames, frame 1.1 and frame 2.2, are successfully transmitted to the receiver end. At the same time, other
frames are lost or destroyed. Whenever two frames fall on a shared channel simultaneously, collisions can
occur, and both will suffer damage. If the new frame's first bit enters the channel before finishing the last
bit of the second frame. Both frames are completely finished, and both stations must retransmit the data
frame.
Slotted Aloha
The slotted Aloha is designed to overcome the pure Aloha's efficiency because pure Aloha has a very
high possibility of frame hitting. In slotted Aloha, the shared channel is divided into a fixed time interval
called slots. So that, if a station wants to send a frame to a shared channel, the frame can only be sent at
the beginning of the slot, and only one frame is allowed to be sent to each slot. And if the stations are
unable to send data to the beginning of the slot, the station will have to wait until the beginning of the slot
for the next time. However, the possibility of a collision remains when trying to send a frame at the
beginning of two or more station time slot.
1. Maximum throughput occurs in the slotted Aloha when G = 1 that is 37%.
2. The probability of successfully transmitting the data frame in the slotted Aloha is S = G * e ^ - 2
G.
3. The total vulnerable time required in slotted Aloha is Tfr.

CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access)

It is a carrier sense multiple access based on media access protocol to sense the traffic on a channel (idle
or busy) before transmitting the data. It means that if the channel is idle, the station can send data to the
channel. Otherwise, it must wait until the channel becomes idle. Hence, it reduces the chances of a
collision on a transmission medium.
CSMA Access Modes
1-Persistent: In the 1-Persistent mode of CSMA that defines each node, first sense the shared channel
and if the channel is idle, it immediately sends the data. Else it must wait and keep track of the status of
the channel to be idle and broadcast the frame unconditionally as soon as the channel is idle.
Non-Persistent: It is the access mode of CSMA that defines before transmitting the data, each node must
sense the channel, and if the channel is inactive, it immediately sends the data. Otherwise, the station
must wait for a random time (not continuously), and when the channel is found to be idle, it transmits the
frames.
P-Persistent: It is the combination of 1-Persistent and Non-persistent modes. The P-Persistent mode
defines that each node senses the channel, and if the channel is inactive, it sends a frame with
a P probability. If the data is not transmitted, it waits for a (q = 1-p probability) random time and
resumes the frame with the next time slot.
O- Persistent: It is an O-persistent method that defines the superiority of the station before the
transmission of the frame on the shared channel. If it is found that the channel is inactive, each station
waits for its turn to retransmit the data.

CSMA/ CD
It is a carrier sense multiple access/ collision detection network protocol to transmit data frames. The
CSMA/CD protocol works with a medium access control layer. Therefore, it first senses the shared
channel before broadcasting the frames, and if the channel is idle, it transmits a frame to check whether
the transmission was successful. If the frame is successfully received, the station sends another frame. If
any collision is detected in the CSMA/CD, the station sends a jam/ stop signal to the shared channel to
terminate data transmission. After that, it waits for a random time before sending a frame to a channel.
CSMA/ CA
It is a carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance network protocol for carrier transmission of
data frames. It is a protocol that works with a medium access control layer. When a data frame is sent to a
channel, it receives an acknowledgment to check whether the channel is clear. If the station receives only
a single (own) acknowledgments, that means the data frame has been successfully transmitted to the
receiver. But if it gets two signals (its own and one more in which the collision of frames), a collision of
the frame occurs in the shared channel. Detects the collision of the frame when a sender receives an
acknowledgment signal.
Following are the methods used in the CSMA/ CA to avoid the collision:
Interframe space: In this method, the station waits for the channel to become idle, and if it gets the
channel is idle, it does not immediately send the data. Instead of this, it waits for some time, and this time
period is called the Interframe space or IFS. However, the IFS time is often used to define the priority of
the station.
Contention window: In the Contention window, the total time is divided into different slots. When the
station/ sender is ready to transmit the data frame, it chooses a random slot number of slots as wait time.
If the channel is still busy, it does not restart the entire process, except that it restarts the timer only to
send data packets when the channel is inactive.
Acknowledgment: In the acknowledgment method, the sender station sends the data frame to the shared
channel if the acknowledgment is not received ahead of time.
B. Controlled Access Protocol
It is a method of reducing data frame collision on a shared channel. In the controlled access method, each
station interacts and decides to send a data frame by a particular station approved by all other stations. It
means that a single station cannot send the data frames unless all other stations are not approved. It has
three types of controlled access: Reservation, Polling, and Token Passing.
C. Channelization Protocols
It is a channelization protocol that allows the total usable bandwidth in a shared channel to be shared
across multiple stations based on their time, distance and codes. It can access all the stations at the same
time to send the data frames to the channel.
Following are the various methods to access the channel based on their time, distance and codes:
1. FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
2. TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
3. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
FDMA
It is a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) method used to divide the available bandwidth into
equal bands so that multiple users can send data through a different frequency to the subchannel. Each
station is reserved with a particular band to prevent the crosstalk between the channels and interferences
of stations.

TDMA
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is a channel access method. It allows the same frequency
bandwidth to be shared across multiple stations. And to avoid collisions in the shared channel, it divides
the channel into different frequency slots that allocate stations to transmit the data frames. The
same frequency bandwidth into the shared channel by dividing the signal into various time slots to
transmit it. However, TDMA has an overhead of synchronization that specifies each station's time slot by
adding synchronization bits to each slot.
CDMA
The code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method. In CDMA, all stations can
simultaneously send the data over the same channel. It means that it allows each station to transmit the
data frames with full frequency on the shared channel at all times. It does not require the division of
bandwidth on a shared channel based on time slots. If multiple stations send data to a channel
simultaneously, their data frames are separated by a unique code sequence. Each station has a different
unique code for transmitting the data over a shared channel. For example, there are multiple users in a
room that are continuously speaking. Data is received by the users if only two-person interact with each
other using the same language. Similarly, in the network, if different stations communicate with each
other simultaneously with different code language.
Layers in the TCP/IP Suite
The four layers of the TCP/IP model are the host-to-network layer, internet/network layer, transport layer
and the application layer. The purpose of each layer in the TCP/IP protocol suite is detailed below.

The above image represents the layers of TCP/IP protocol suite.

Physical Layer
TCP/IP does not define any specific protocol for the physical layer. It supports all of the standard and
proprietary protocols.
 At this level, the communication is between two hops or nodes, either a computer or router. The
unit of communication is a single bit.
 When the connection is established between the two nodes, a stream of bits is flowing between
them. The physical layer, however, treats each bit individually.
The responsibility of the physical layer, in addition to delivery of bits, matches with what mentioned for
the physical layer of the OSI model, but it mostly depends on the underlying technologies that provide
links.
Data Link Layer
TCP/IP does not define any specific protocol for the data link layer either. It supports all of the standard
and proprietary protocols.
 At this level also, the communication is between two hops or nodes. The unit of communication
however, is a packet called a frame.
 A frame is a packet that encapsulates the data received from the network layer with an added
header and sometimes a trailer.
 The head, among other communication information, includes the source and destination of frame.
 The destination address is needed to define the right recipient of the frame because many nodes
may have been connected to the link.
 The source address is needed for possible response or acknowledgment as may be required by
some protocols.
LAN, Packet Radio and Point-to-Point protocols are supported in this layer
Network Layer
At the network layer, TCP/IP supports the Internet Protocol (IP). The Internet Protocol (IP) is the
transmission mechanism used by the TCP/IP protocols.
 IP transports data in packets called datagrams, each of which is transported separately.
 Datagrams can travel along different routes and can arrive out of sequence or be duplicated.
IP does not keep track of the routes and has no facility for reordering datagrams once they arrive at their
destination.
Transport Layer
There is a main difference between the transport layer and the network layer. Although all nodes in a
network need to have the network layer, only the two end computers need to have the transport layer.
 The network layer is responsible for sending individual datagrams from computer A to computer
B; the transport layer is responsible for delivering the whole message, which is called a segment,
from A to B.
 A segment may consist of a few or tens of datagrams. The segments need to be broken into
datagrams and each datagram has to be delivered to the network layer for transmission.
  Since the Internet defines a different route for each datagram, the datagrams may arrive out of
order and may be lost.
 The transport layer at computer B needs to wait until all of these datagrams to arrive, assemble
them and make a segment out of them.
Traditionally, the transport layer was represented in the TCP/IP suite by two protocols: User Datagram
Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
A new protocol called Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) has been introduced in the last
few years.
Application Layer
The application layer in TCP/IP is equivalent to the combined session, presentation, and application
layers in the OSI model.
 The application layer allows a user to access the services of our private internet or the global
Internet.
 Many protocols are defined at this layer to provide services such as electronic mail file transfer,
accessing the World Wide Web, and so on.
 The protocols supported in this layer are TELNET, FTP and HTTP.

Applications of Wireless Communication

Following is a list of applications in wireless communication:
Vehicles
Many wireless communication systems and mobility aware applications are used for following purpose:
o Transmission of music, news, road conditions, weather reports, and other broadcast
information are received via digital audio broadcasting (DAB) with 1.5Mbit/s.
o For personal communication, a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) phone
might be available offering voice and data connectivity with 384kbit/s.
o For remote areas, satellite communication can be used, while the current position of the car is
determined via the GPS (Global Positioning System).
o A local ad-hoc network for the fast exchange of information (information such as distance
between two vehicles, traffic information, road conditions) in emergency situations or to help
each other keep a safe distance. Local ad-hoc network with vehicles close by to prevent guidance
system, accidents, redundancy.
o Vehicle data from buses, trucks, trains and high speed train can be transmitted in advance
for maintenance.
o In ad-hoc network, car can comprise personal digital assistants (PDA), laptops, or mobile phones
connected with each other using the Bluetooth technology.

Emergency
Following services can be provided during emergencies:
 o Video communication: Responders often need to share vital information. The transmission of
real time situations of video could be necessary. A typical scenario includes the transmission of
live video footage from a disaster area to the nearest fire department, to the police station or to the
near NGOs etc.
o Push To Talk (PTT): PTT is a technology which allows half duplex communication between
two users where switching from voice reception mode to the transmit mode takes place with the
use of a dedicated momentary button. It is similar to walkie-talkie.
o Audio/Voice Communication: This communication service provides full duplex audio channels
unlike PTT. Public safety communication requires novel full duplex speech transmission services
for emergency response.
o Real Time Text Messaging (RTT): Text messaging (RTT) is an effective and quick solution for
sending alerts in case of emergencies. Types of text messaging can be email, SMS and instant
message.
Business
Travelling Salesman
o Directly access to customer files stored in a central location.
o Consistent databases for all agents
o Mobile office
o To enable the company to keep track of all the activities of their travelling employees.
In Office
o Wi-Fi wireless technology saves businesses or companies a considerable amount of money on
installations costs.
o There is no need to physically setup wires throughout an office building, warehouse or store.
o Bluetooth is also a wireless technology especially used for short range that acts as a complement
to Wi-Fi. It is used to transfer data between computers or cellphones.
Transportation Industries
o In transportation industries, GPS technology is used to find efficient routes and tracking vehicles.
Replacement of Wired Network
o Wireless network can also be used to replace wired network. Due to economic reasons it is often
impossible to wire remote sensors for weather forecasts, earthquake detection, or to provide
environmental information, wireless connections via satellite, can help in this situation.
o Tradeshows need a highly dynamic infrastructure, since cabling takes a long time and frequently
proves to be too inflexible.
o Many computers fairs use WLANs as a replacement for cabling.
o Other cases for wireless networks are computers, sensors, or information displays in historical
buildings, where excess cabling may destroy valuable walls or floors.
Location dependent service
It is important for an application to know something about the location because the user might need
location information for further activities. Several services that might depend on the actual location can
be described below:
Follow-on Services:
o Location aware services: To know about what services (e.g. fax, printer, server, phone, printer
etc.) exist in the local environment.
o Privacy: We can set the privacy like who should get knowledge about the location.
o Information Services: We can know about the special offers in the supermarket. Nearest hotel,
rooms, cabs etc.
Infotainment: (Entertainment and Education)
o Wireless networks can provide information at any appropriate location.
o Outdoor internet access.
 o You may choose a seat for movie, pay via electronic cash, and send this information to a service
provider.
o Ad-hoc network is used for multiuser games and entertainment.
Mobile and Wireless devices
Even though many mobile and wireless devices are available, there will be many more devices in the
future. There is no precise classification of such devices, by sizes, shape, weight, or computing power.
The following list of given examples of mobile and wireless devices graded by increasing performance
(CPU, memory, display, input devices, etc.)
Sensor: Wireless device is represented by a sensor transmitting state information. 1 example could be a
switch, sensing the office door. If the door is closed, the switch transmits this information to the mobile
phone inside the office which will not accept incoming calls without user interaction; the semantics of a
closed door is applied to phone calls.
Embedded Controller: Many applications already contain a simple or sometimes more complex
controller. Keyboards, mouse, headsets, washing machines, coffee machines, hair dryers and TV sets are
just some examples.
Pager: As a very simple receiver, a pager can only display short text messages, has a tiny display, and
cannot send any messages.
Personal Digital Assistant: PDAs typically accompany a user and offer simple versions of office
software (calendar, notepad, mail). The typically input device is a pen, with built-in character recognition
translating handwriting into characters. Web browsers and many other packages are available for these
devices.
Pocket computer: The next steps towards full computers are pocket computers offering tiny keyboards,
color displays, and simple versions of programs found on desktop computers (text processing,
spreadsheets etc.)
Notebook/laptop: Laptops offer more or less the same performance as standard desktop computers; they
use the same software - the only technical difference being size, weight, and the ability to run on a
battery. If operated mainly via a sensitive display (touch sensitive or electromagnetic), the device are also
known as notepads or tablet PCs.
Broadcasting in computer network is a group communication, where a sender sends data to receivers
simultaneously. This is an all − to − all communication model where each sending device transmits data
to all other devices in the network domain.
The ways of operation of broadcasting may be −
 A high level operation in a program, like broadcasting in Message Passing Interface.
 A low level networking operation, like broadcasting on Ethernet.
Broadcasting is shown in the following figure −

Advantages of Broadcasting
Broadcast helps to attain economies of scale when a common data stream needs to be delivered to all, by
minimizing the communication and processing overhead. It ensures better utilization of resources and
faster delivery in comparison to several unicast communication.
Disadvantages of Broadcasting
Broadcasting cannot accommodate a very large amount of devices. Also it does not allow personalisation
of the messages according to the individual preferences of the devices.
Mobile IP
This is an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard communications protocol designed to
allow mobile devices' (such as laptop, PDA, mobile phone, etc.) users to move from one network to
another while maintaining their permanent IP (Internet Protocol) address.
Defined in RFC (Request for Comments) 2002, mobile IP is an enhancement of the internet protocol (IP)
that adds mechanisms for forwarding internet traffic to mobile devices (known as mobile nodes) when
they are connecting through other than their home network.

The following case shows how a datagram moves from one point to another within the Mobile IP
framework.
o First of all, the internet host sends a datagram to the mobile node using the mobile node's home
address (normal IP routing process).
o If the mobile node (MN) is on its home network, the datagram is delivered through the normal IP
(Internet Protocol) process to the mobile node. Otherwise the home agent picks up the datagram.
o If the mobile node (MN) is on foreign network, the home agent (HA) forwards the datagram to
the foreign agent.
o The foreign agent (FA) delivers the datagram to the mobile node.
o Datagrams from the MN to the Internet host are sent using normal IP routing procedures. If the
mobile node is on a foreign network, the packets are delivered to the foreign agent. The FA
forwards the datagram to the Internet host.
In the case of wireless communications, the above illustrations depict the use of wireless transceivers to
transmit the datagrams to the mobile node. Also, all datagrams between the Internet host and the MN use
the mobile node's home address regardless of whether the mobile node is on a home or foreign network.
The care-of address (COA) is used only for communication with mobility agents and is never seen by the
Internet host.
Components of Mobile IP
The mobile IP has following three components as follows:
1. Mobile Node (MN)
The mobile node is an end system or device such as a cell phone, PDA (Personal Digital assistant), or
laptop whose software enables network roaming capabilities.
2. Home Agent (HA)
The home agent provides several services for the mobile node and is located in the home network. The
tunnel for packets towards the mobile node starts at home agent. The home agent maintains a location
registry, i.e. it is informed of the mobile node's location by the current COA (care of address). Following
alternatives for the implementation of an HA exist.
 o Home agent can be implemented on a router that is responsible for the home network. This is
obviously the best position, because without optimization to mobile IP, all packets for the MN
have to go through the router anyway.
o If changing the router's software is not possible, the home agent could also be implemented on
an arbitrary node in the subset. One biggest disadvantage of this solution is the double crossing
of the router by the packet if the MN is in a foreign network. A packet for the mobile node comes
in via the router; the HA sends it through the tunnel which again crosses the router.
3. Foreign Agent (FA)
The foreign agent can provide several services to the mobile node during its visit to the foreign network.
The FA can have the COA (care or address) acting as a tunnel endpoint and forwarding packets to the
MN. The foreign agent can be the default router for the MN.
Foreign agent can also provide security services because they belong to the foreign network as opposed to
the MN which is only visiting.
In short, FA is a router that may function as the point of attachment for the mobile node when it roams to
a foreign network delivers packets from the home agent to the mobile node.
4. Care of Address (COA)
The Care- of- address defines the current location of the mobile node from an IP point of view. All IP
packets sent to the MN are delivered to the COA, not directly to the IP address of the MN. Packet
delivery toward the mobile node is done using a tunnel. To be more precise, the COA marks the endpoint
of the tunnel, i.e. the address where packets exit the tunnel.
There are two different possibilities for the location of the care of address:
1. Foreign Agent COA: The COA could be located at the foreign agent, i.e. the COA is an IP
address of the foreign agent. The foreign agent is the tunnel endpoint and forwards packets to the
MN. Many MN using the FA can share this COA as common COA.
2. Co-located COA: The COA is co-located if the MN temporarily acquired an additional IP
address which acts as a COA. This address is now topologically correct, and the tunnel endpoint
is at the mobile node. Co-located address can be acquired using services such as DHCP. One
problem associated with this approach is need for additional addresses if MNs request a COA.
This is not always a good idea considering the scarcity of IPv4 addresses.
5. Correspondent Node (CN)
At least one partner is needed for communication. The correspondent node represents this partner for the
MN. The correspondent node can be a fixed or mobile node.
6. Home Network
The home network is the subset the MN belongs to with respect to its IP address. No mobile IP support is
needed within this network.
7. Foreign network
The foreign network is the current subset the MN visits and which is not the home network.
Process of Mobile IP
The mobile IP process has following three main phases, which are:
1. Agent Discovery
During the agent discovery phase the HA and FA advertise their services on the network by using the
ICMP router discovery protocol (IROP).
Mobile IP defines two methods: agent advertisement and agent solicitation which are in fact router
discovery methods plus extensions.
o Agent advertisement: For the first method, FA and HA advertise their presence periodically
using special agent advertisement messages. These messages advertisement can be seen as a
beacon broadcast into the subnet. For this advertisement internet control message protocol
(ICMP) messages according to RFC 1256, are used with some mobility extensions.
o Agent solicitation: If no agent advertisements are present or the inter arrival time is too high, and
an MN has not received a COA, the mobile node must send agent solicitations. These
solicitations are again bases on RFC 1256 for router solicitations.
2. Registration
The main purpose of the registration is to inform the home agent of the current location for correct
forwarding of packets.

Registration can be done in two ways depending on the location of the COA.
o If the COA is at the FA, the MN sends its registration request containing the COA to the FA
which is forwarding the request to the HA. The HA now set up a mobility binding containing the
mobile node's home IP address and the current COA.
Additionally, the mobility biding contains the lifetime of the registration which is negotiated during the
registration process. Registration expires automatically after the lifetime and is deleted; so a mobile node
should register before expiration. After setting up the mobility binding, the HA send a reply message back
to the FA which forwards it to the MN.
o If the COA is co-located, registration can be very simpler. The mobile node may send the
request directly to the HA and vice versa. This by the way is also the registration procedure for
MNs returning to their home network.
3. Tunneling
A tunnel is used to establish a virtual pipe for data packets between a tunnel entry and a tunnel endpoint.
Packets which are entering in a tunnel are forwarded inside the tunnel and leave the tunnel unchanged.
Tunneling, i.e., sending a packet through a tunnel is achieved with the help of encapsulation.
Tunneling is also known as "port forwarding" is the transmission and data intended for use only within a
private, usually corporate network through a public network.
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) in Mobile Computing
Wireless Application Protocol or WAP is a programming model or an application environment and set of
communication protocols based on the concept of the World Wide Web (WWW), and its hierarchical
design is very much similar to TCP/IP protocol stack design. See the most prominent features of Wireless
Application Protocol or WAP in Mobile Computing:
o WAP is a De-Facto standard or a protocol designed for micro-browsers, and it enables the mobile
devices to interact, exchange and transmit information over the Internet.
o WAP is based upon the concept of the World Wide Web (WWW), and the backend functioning
also remains similar to WWW, but it uses the markup language Wireless Markup Language
(WML) to access the WAP services while WWW uses HTML as a markup language. WML is
defined as XML 1.0 application.
o In 1998, some giant IT companies such as Ericson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet founded
the WAP Forum to standardize the various wireless technologies via protocols.
o After developing the WAP model, it was accepted as a wireless protocol globally capable of
working on multiple wireless technologies such as mobile, printers, pagers, etc.
o In 2002, by the joint efforts of the various members of the WAP Forum, it was merged with
various other forums of the industry and formed an alliance known as Open Mobile Alliance
(OMA).
o WAP was opted as a De-Facto standard because of its ability to create web applications for
mobile devices.
Working of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP Model
The following steps define the working of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP Model:
o The WAP model consists of 3 levels known as Client, Gateway and Origin Server.
o When a user opens the browser in his/her mobile device and selects a website that he/she wants to
view, the mobile device sends the URL encoded request via a network to a WAP gateway using
WAP protocol.
o The request he/she sends via mobile to WAP gateway is called as encoding request.
o The sent encoding request is translated through WAP gateway and then forwarded in the form of
a conventional HTTP URL request over the Internet.
o When the request reaches a specified Web server, the server processes the request just as it would
handle any other request and sends the response back to the mobile device through WAP
gateway.
o Now, the WML file's final response can be seen in the browser of the mobile users.

WAP Protocol Stack

It specifies the different communications and data transmission layers used in the WAP model:
Application Layer: This layer consists of the Wireless Application Environment (WAE), mobile device
specifications, and content development programming languages, i.e., WML.
Session Layer: The session layer consists of the Wireless Session Protocol (WSP). It is responsible for
fast connection suspension and reconnection.
Transaction Layer: The transaction layer consists of Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP) and runs on
top of UDP (User Datagram Protocol). This layer is a part of TCP/IP and offers transaction support.
Security Layer: It contains Wireless Transaction Layer Security (WTLS) and responsible for data
integrity, privacy and authentication during data transmission.
Transport Layer: This layer consists of Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP). It provides a consistent
data format to higher layers of the WAP protocol stack.
Advantages of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
Following is a list of some advantages of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP:
o WAP is a very fast-paced technology.
o It is an open-source technology and completely free of cost.
 o It can be implemented on multiple platforms.
o It is independent of network standards.
o It provides higher controlling options.
o It is implemented near to Internet model.
o By using WAP, you can send/receive real-time data.
o Nowadays, most modern mobile phones and devices support WAP.
Disadvantages of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
Following is a list of some disadvantages of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP:
o The connection speed in WAP is slow, and there is limited availability also.
o In some areas, the ability to connect to the Internet is very sparse, and in some other areas,
Internet access is entirely unavailable.
o It is less secured.
o WAP provides a small User interface (UI).
Applications of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
The following are some most used applications of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP:
o WAP facilitates you to access the Internet from your mobile devices.
o You can play games on mobile devices over wireless devices.
o It facilitates you to access E-mails over the mobile Internet.
o Mobile hand-sets can be used to access timesheets and fill expenses claims.
o Online mobile banking is very popular nowadays.
o It can also be used in multiple Internet-based services such as geographical location, Weather
forecasting, Flight information, Movie & cinema information, Traffic updates etc. All are
possible due to WAP technology.
1. WAP Architecture
i. It provides a scalable and extensible environment for application development of mobile
ii. This is achieved using layered design of protocol stack. The layers resemble the layers of OSI model.
iii. Each layer is accessible by layers above as well as by other services and applications through a set of
well defined interface.
iv. External applications may access session, transaction, security and transport layers directly.

Fig3. WAP Architecture

2. Wireless Application Environment
i. WAE is the uppermost layer in the WAP stack. It is general purpose environment based on combination
of WWW and mobile telephony technologies.
ii. Its primary objective is to achieve interoperable environment that allows operators and service
providers to build applications that can reach wide variety of wireless platforms.
iii. It uses URL and URI for addressing. Language used is WML and WML script. WML script can be
used for validation of user input.
3. Wireless Telephony Application
i. WTA provides a means to create telephony services using WAP. It uses WTA Interface (WTAI) which
can be evoked from WML and for WML script.
ii. The Repository makes it possible to store WTA services in device which can be accessed without
accessing the network. The access can be based on any event like call disconnect, call answer etc.
iii. Sometimes, there can be notification to user based on which WTA services are accessed by users. The
notification is called WTA service indication.
4. Wireless Session Protocol.
i. WSP provides reliable, organized exchange of content between client and server.
ii. The core of WSP design is binary form of HTTP. All methods defined by HTTP 1.1 are supported.
iii. Capability negotiation is used to agree on common level of protocol functionality as well as to agree
on a set of extended request methods so that full compatibility to HTTP applications can be retained.
iv. An idle session can be suspended to free network resources and can be resumed without overload of
full-blown session establishment.
v. WSP also supports asynchronous requests. Hence, multiple requests will improve utilization of air
time.
5. Wireless Transaction Protocol
i. WTP is defined as light-weight transaction-oriented protocol suitable for implementation in thin clients.
ii. Each transaction has unique identifiers, acknowledgements, duplicates removal and retransmission.
iii. Class 1 and Class 2 enable user to confirm every received message, however, in class 0, there is no
acknowledgement.
iv. WTP has no security mechanisms and no explicit connection set-up or tear-down phases.
6. Wireless Transport Layer Security
i. WTLS is security protocol based on industry standard transport layer security (TLS). It provides
transport layer security between a WAP client and the WAP Gateway/ Proxy.
ii. The goals of WTLS are data integrity, privacy, authentication, Denial-of-service protection.
iii. It has features like datagram support, optimized handshake and dynamic key refreshing.
7. Wireless Datagram Protocol
i. WDP provides application addressing by port numbers, optional segmentation and reassembly, optional
error detection.
ii. It supports simultaneous communication instances from higher layer over a single underlying WDP
bearer service. The port number identifies higher level entity above WDP.
iii. The adaptation layer of WDP maps WDP functions directly on to a bearer based on its specific
characteristics.
iv. On the GSM SMS, datagram functionality is provided by WDP.
Protocol Stack
A protocol stack or protocol suite is the architecture of a protocol that follows the layered
architecture design principle.
The functionality of the whole protocol is broken down into component protocols that are separately
managed and can be treated and designed mostly independently from one another.
A protocol stack typically contains a set of protocols where each protocol in the stack performs a specific
task and is responsible for a well-defined function.
The protocols are often referred to as layers with each layer providing services to the layer above it and
receiving services from the layer below it.
A typical protocol stack will be structured in an n-tier architecture pattern like this:
 Protocol Stack Architecture

Bluetooth Low Energy Protocol Stack

As shown in the image above (Protocol Stack Architecture), a protocol stack is created by dividing a
protocol into n-multiple layers. In each layer, two entities communicate with each other using the
appropriate protocol for that layer. They do this by exchanging data units through a channel that connects
them.
Each of the protocols fulfills a portion of the overall Protocol’s functionality.
Peer-to-Peer Protocol
Protocols in a protocol stack are said to be peer-to-peer protocols.
This means that the protocol operates between two entities that are peers, at each layer.
For example, a protocol entity in the nth layer can only exchange data units with its peer entity at the
same level, according to the protocol of that layer.
Virtual Channels + 1 Real channel
As can be seen in the image below (Application Data Transfer through a Protocol Stack), the protocol
entities in the lowest level communicate with each other using a real channel. This channel is also called a
physical channel. The channels of the higher layers are virtual channels.
Since the higher layer’s channels are virtual, their messages (PDUs) must be transferred from a higher
layer to the one beneath it until the PDUs reach the physical layer. The physical layer will then be able to
transmit the messages through the real/physical channel.
User Data Transfer Through A Protocol Stack

Application Data Transfer through a Protocol Stack

The highest layer in the protocol stack is called the application layer because it interacts with the user,
while the lowest layer is called the physical layer because it has a real channel as opposed to virtual
channels used by higher layers.
The journey of the user data from device A to device B begins as follows:
1. The user of device A(also called an initiator) uses the application on that device to ask the n-th layer
protocol entity to transfer data to the application at the recipient side.
2. The n-th layer protocol entity adds its control information (PCI) to the data and passes the n-PDU
message to the next layer down.
3. The (n-1)th layer entity executes a similar action…
4. Data that were generated by the application at the initiator side are thus passed down from one layer to
the next lower layer, while each layer adds its own control information to the data.
5. When the data and control information added by all the layers reach the physical layer, it is all
transferred through the physical channel to the recipient side.
6. On the recipient side, data flows up from one layer to the next higher layer. The protocol entity in each
layer analyzes control information that was generated by its peer at the transmitting side. If everything
goes well, the protocol entity passes user data it sees to the entity in the next higher layer.
7. This process is repeated until the data originally sent by the initiating application arrives at the
application on the recipient side.
WAP - Environment
Wireless Application Environment (WAE), the uppermost layer in the WAP stack, provides an
environment that enables a wide range of applications to be used on the wireless devices. We have earlier
discussed about the WAP WAE programming model. In this chapter, we will focus on the various
components of WAE.
Components of WAE
Addressing Model
A syntax suitable for naming resources stored on servers. WAP use the same addressing model as the one
used on the Internet that is Uniform Resource Locators (URL).
Wireless Markup Language (WML)
A lightweight markup language designed to meet the constraints of a wireless environment with low
bandwidth and small handheld devices. The Wireless Markup Language is WAP's analogy to HTML used
on the WWW. WML is based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML).
WMLScript
A lightweight scripting language. WMLScript is based on ECMAScript, the same scripting language that
JavaScript is based on. It can be used for enhancing services written in WML in the way that it to some
extent adds intelligence to the services; for example, procedural logic, loops, conditional expressions, and
computational functions.
Wireless Telephony Application (WTA, WTAI)
A framework and programming interface for telephony services. The Wireless Telephony Application
(WTA) environment provides a means to create telephony services using WAP.
Hardware and Software Requirement
At minimum developing WAP applications requires a web server and a WAP simulator. Using simulator
software while developing a WAP application is convenient as all the required software can be installed
on the development PC.
Although, software simulators are good in their own right, no WAP application should go into production
without testing it with actual hardware. The following list gives a quick overview of the necessary
hardware and software to test and develop WAP applications −
 A web server with connection to the Internet
 A WML to develop WAP application
 A WAP simulator to test WAP application
 A WAP gateway
 A WAP phone for final testing.
Microsoft IIS or Apache on Windows or Linux can be used as the web server and Nokia WAP Toolkit
version 2.0 as the WinWAP simulator.
Please have look at WAP - Useful Resources to find out all the above components.
Configure Web Server for WAP
In the WAP architecture, the web server communicates with the WAP gateway, accepting HTTP requests
and returning WML code to the gateway. The HTTP protocol mandates that each reply must include
something called a Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type.
In normal web applications, this MIME type is set to text/html, designating normal HTML code. Images
on the other hand could be specified as image/gif or image/jpeg for instance. With this content type
specification, the web browser knows the data type that the web server returns.
In WAP applications a new set of MIME types must be used, as shown in the following table −
File type MIME type
WML (.wml) text/vnd.wap.wml
WMLScript (.wmls) text/vmd.wap.wmlscript
WBMP (.wbmp) image/vnd.wap.wbmp
In dynamic applications, the MIME type must be set on the fly, whereas in static WAP applications, the
web server must be configured appropriately.