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The document outlines the syllabus for the Wireless and Mobile Technology course (MCA501) at the University of Mumbai, detailing various modules covering topics such as wireless technology fundamentals, wireless networks, cellular networks, mobile communication systems, and transport layers. It includes contributions from multiple professors and course writers, along with a structured content layout that specifies hours of study for each module. The course aims to equip students with knowledge about wireless communication technologies, protocols, and applications.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
25 views286 pages

PDF of Wireless and Mobile Technology

The document outlines the syllabus for the Wireless and Mobile Technology course (MCA501) at the University of Mumbai, detailing various modules covering topics such as wireless technology fundamentals, wireless networks, cellular networks, mobile communication systems, and transport layers. It includes contributions from multiple professors and course writers, along with a structured content layout that specifies hours of study for each module. The course aims to equip students with knowledge about wireless communication technologies, protocols, and applications.

Uploaded by

srbhardwajs
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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You are on page 1/ 286

T.Y.M.C.A.

SEMESTER - V (CBCS)

WIRELESS AND MOBILE


TECHNOLOGY

SUBJECT CODE : MCA501


© UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
Prof. Suhas Pednekar
Vice Chancellor
University of Mumbai, Mumbai.
Prof. Ravindra D. Kulkarni Prof. Prakash Mahanwar
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Director
University of Mumbai. IDOL, University of Mumbai.

Programme Co-ordinator : Prof. Mandar Bhanushe


Head, Faculty of Science & Technology,
IDOL, University of Mumbai - 400 098.
Course Co-ordinator : Mr. Shyam Mohan T
Dep. of MCA IDOL,
University of Mumbai, Mumbai.
Course Writers : Mr. Umesh Waghmare
Assistant Professor
MKSSS K.B.Joshi Institute of Infromation
& Technology, Karvenagar, Pune.
: Mrs. Asmita Ranade
Assistant Professor
: Mrs. Sabaansari
Assistant Professor
J.K College of Science and Commerce
: Professor Mitali Shewale
Assistant Professor
Somaiya Vidyavihar University
: Mrs. Kavita Chouk
Assistant Professor
Satish Pradhan Dnyanasadhanacollege,Thane
: Dr. Krishnasudha M.
Assistant Professor
Sri vasavicollege,erode
: Prof. Anjali Gaikwad Lakhamade
Assistant Professor
JES college of comm, sci and IT Jogeshwari
July 2022, Print I
Published by
Director
Institute of Distance and Open learning ,
University of Mumbai,Vidyanagari, Mumbai - 400 098.

DTP COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY


Mumbai University Press
Vidyanagari, Santacruz (E), Mumbai - 400098.
CONTENT
Chapter No. Title Page No.

Module I
1. Wireless Technology Fundamentals 1

2. Wireless Technology Fundamentals 23

Module II

3. Introduction to Wireless Networks 40

4. IEEE 802.11 & IEEE 802.16 56

5. Bluetooth 71

Module III

6. Principles of Cellular Network 87

7. Generation of Cellular Network 104

Module IV

8. Mobile Communication Systems GSM 122

9. Mobile Communication Systems CDMA 2000 150

Module V

10. Mobile Network Layer 172

Module VI

11. Mobile Transport Layer 195

12. Mobile Transport Layer 216

13. Mobile Transport Layer 230

Module VII

14. Application Layer 253

15. Application Layer 267

*****
SYLLABUS
Course Code Course Name
MCA501 Wireless and Mobile technology

Sr. Module Detailed Contents Hours


No.
1 Wireless Introduction to Mobile and wireless
Technology communications, Overview of radio
Fundamentals transmission frequencies, Signal
Antennas, Signal Propagation,
08
Multiplexing – SDM,FDM,
TDM,CDM, Modulation –
ASK,FSK,PSK, Advanced FSK,
Advanced PSK, OFDM, Spread
Spectrum – DSSS,FHSS, Wireless
Transmission Impairments – Free
Space Loss, Fading, Multipath
Propagation, Atmospheric Absorption,
Error Correction – Reed Solomon,
BCH, Hamming
code, Convolution Code (Encoding and
Decoding)
2. Wireless Wireless network, Wireless network
Networks Architecture, Classification of wireless
networks – WBAN, WPAN, WLAN, 06
WMAN, WWAN. IEEE 802.11, IEEE
802.16, Bluetooth – Standards,
Architecture and Services
3 Cellular Principles of cellular networks –
wireless cellular network organization,
Networks operation of cellular systems, Handoff. 06
Generation of cellular networks – 1G,
2G, 2.5G, 3G and 4G.
4 Mobile GSM – Architecture, Air Interface,
communicati Multiple Access Scheme, Channel
on systems Organization, Call Setup Procedure, 12
Protocol Signaling, Handover,
Security, GPRS – Architecture, GPRS
signaling, Mobility management,
GPRS roaming, network,
CDMA2000- Introduction, Layering
Structure, Channels,Logical Channels,
Forward Link and Reverse link
physical channels, W-CDMA –
Physical Layers, Channels, UMTS –
Network Architecture, Interfaces,
Network Evolution, Release 5, FDD
and TDD, Time Slots, Protocol
Architecture, Bearer Model
Introduction to LTE

5 Mobile Mobile IP – Dynamic Host


Network Configuration Protocol, Mobile Ad Hoc 06
Layer Routing Protocols– Multicast routing

6 Mobile TCP over Wireless Networks –


Transport Indirect TCP – Snooping TCP – 07
Layer Mobile TCP – Fast Retransmit / Fast
Recovery Transmission/Timeout
Freezing-Selective Retransmission –
Transaction Oriented TCP , TCP over
2.5 / 3G wireless Networks
7 Application WAP Model- Mobile Location based
Layer services -WAP Gateway – WAP
protocols – WAP user agent profile,
Caching model-wireless bearers for 07
WAP - WML – WMLScripts – WTA.

*****

2
MODULE I

1
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
FUNDAMENTALS
Unit Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Introduction to Mobile and wireless communications
1.3 Overview of radio transmission frequencies
1.4 Signal Antennas
1.5 Signal Propagation
1.6 Multiplexing – SDM, FDM, TDM, CDM
1.7 Modulation – ASK, FSK, PSK
1.8 Advanced FSK
1.9 Advanced PSK
1.10 OFDM
1.11 Spread Spectrum – DSSS, FHSS
1.12 Questions
1.13 References

1.0 OBJECTIVES
 Wireless Technology can be used for cellular telephony, wireless
access to the internet, wireless home networking, and so on.
 Connecting and communicating between two or more devices using a
wireless signal through wireless communication technologies and
devices.
 To understand the architectures of various access technologies and
methodologies.
 To understand various protocols and services.
 Demonstrating methods used by cybercriminals.
 Describe the characteristics of Wireless Technology.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Wireless Technology/communication is the transfer of information
between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor,
optical fibre or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most
common wireless technologies use radio waves.

1
Wireless and Mobile Interconnection of systems, people or things with the help of a
Technology communication media can be referred to as a network. The type of
communication which uses electromagnetic waves as communication
media for transmitting and receiving data or voice is called wireless
communication.

1.2 INTRODUCTION TO MOBILE AND WIRELESS


COMMUNICATIONS
Mobile Communication:
Is the use of technology that allows us to communicate with others in
different locations without the use of any physical connection (wires or
cables). Mobile communication makes our life easier, and it saves time
and effort.
It is an electric device used for full duplex two way radio
telecommunication over a cellular network of base stations known as cell
sites.

Wireless Communication:
Wireless networks are further classified as wireless personal area network,
wireless local area network, wireless metropolitan network and wireless
wide area network.

1) Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN):


Wireless network for interconnecting wireless devices centered around an
individual person's workspace using ISM bands is known as wireless
personal area network. Examples of WPAN are Bluetooth, Z-Wave,
ZigBee, UWB and Body Area Network. WPAN devices follow IEEE
802.15 standard.

Fig: Wireless Private Area Network

22
2) Bluetooth: Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
In Bluetooth networks, wireless users use a pairing or association process
to establish encryption and authentication between two devices. The
association process takes 1 to 4 seconds. Bluetooth was standardized as
IEEE 802.15.1. Bluetooth provides theoretical data transfer speeds of up
to 24 Mbit/s. Bluetooth devices form a master slave like structure while
pairing and use 48-bit hardware address of a master, shared 128-bit
random number, and a user-specified PIN of up to 128 bits.

Fig: Bluetooth communication network.


3) ZigBee:
ZigBee network operates in the ISM bands and its data transmission rates
vary from 20 to 900 kb/s. Two devices take about 30 milliseconds to get
associated. IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines the characteristics of ZigBee
devices. To provide network security, ZigBee runs in two different
security modes: Residential mode and Commercial mode.

Fig: ZigBee network 3


Wireless and Mobile 4) Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Network:
Technology
UWB network, IEEE 802.15.4a standard, uses low transmit-power and
cover small coverage area. To attack this type of networks, the attacker
should be close enough to the UWB network. The FCC in the US
authorizes the unlicensed use of UWB in the range of 3.1 to 10.6 GHz.

Fig: Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Network.

1.3 OVERVIEW OF RADIO TRANSMISSION


FREQUENCIES
Radio transmission all omnidirectional waves in the frequencies 3KHz to
1GHz are called radio waves. They are widely used for communications
since they are easy to generate, can travel long distances and can penetrate
buildings. Radio waves have omnidirectional antennas, i.e. antennas that
can send signals in all directions.
The properties of radio’s waves vary according to their frequencies.
However, radio waves at all frequencies are prone to interference from
electrical equipment’s like motors etc.

Low and Medium Frequency Radio Waves:


Low and medium frequency radio waves can pass through obstacles and
have ground propagation. However, the power diminishes rapidly
depending upon the distance from the source. This attenuation in power is
called the path loss. AM radio uses LF and MF bands.

High Frequency Radio Waves:


High frequency radio waves travel in straight lines and have sky
propagation. However, they are affected by interference’s and are affected
by rains. The military communicates in the HF and VHF bands. They are
also used for long distance broadcasting and FM radio.

44
Applications: Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
Some of the areas of applications of radio waves are:
 Broadcasting and multicasting
 Marine communication
 Wireless computer networks
 Cordless phones
 Fixed and mobile radio communications
 AM and FM radio
 Television

1.4 SIGNAL ANTENNAS


Antennas are much more than simple devices connected to every radio.
They’re the transducers that convert the voltage from a transmitter into a
radio signal. And they pick radio signals out of the air and convert them
into a voltage for recovery in a receiver.
Antennas are nonetheless critical for establishing and maintaining a
reliable radio connection. They may look complex and enigmatic to most
engineers, especially EEs working with wireless applications for the first
time—not to mention that they come in a seemingly infinite variety of
sizes and shapes.

How to work antenna?


The antenna at the transmitter generates the radio wave. A voltage at the
desired frequency is applied to the antenna. The voltage across the antenna
elements and the current through them create the electric and magnetic
waves, respectively. At the receiver, the electromagnetic wave passing
over the antenna induces a small voltage. Thus, the antenna becomes the
signal source for the receiver input.

Will the same antenna work for both transmit and receive?
Yes. We call that antenna reciprocity. Any antenna will work for either
transmit or receive. In many wireless applications, the antenna is switched
between the transmitter and receiver.

1.5 SIGNAL PROPAGATION


Signal Propagation is the movement of radio waves from a transmitter to a
receiver. When the waves travel (propagate) from one point to another,
they are, like light waves, affected by different phenomena such as light
reflection, absorption, or scattering. Radio propagation is the behaviour of
radio waves as they travel, or are propagated, from one point to another in
vacuum, or into various parts of the atmosphere. As a form of 5
Wireless and Mobile electromagnetic radiation, like light waves, radio waves are affected by the
Technology phenomena of reflection, refraction, diffraction, absorption, polarization,
and scattering.
Understanding the effects of varying conditions on radio propagation has
many practical applications, from choosing frequencies for amateur radio
communications, international shortwave broadcasters, to designing
reliable mobile telephone systems, to radio navigation, to operation of
radar systems.
Several different types of propagation are used in practical radio
transmission systems. Line-of-sight propagation means radio waves which
travel in a straight line from the transmitting antenna to the receiving
antenna.
Line of sight transmission is used for medium-distance radio transmission,
such as cell phones, cordless phones, walkie-talkies, wireless networks,
FM radio, television broadcasting, radar, and satellite communication
(such as satellite television). Line-of-sight transmission on the surface of
the Earth is limited to the distance to the visual horizon, which depends on
the height of transmitting and receiving antennas.

Fig: Signal Propagation.

1.6 MULTIPLEXING – SDM, FDM, TDM, CDM


Multiplexing:
Multiplexing is a technique used in the area of electronics and signal
processing. In mobile communication, telecommunications and computer
networks, Multiplexing is a method that can be used to combine multiple
analog or digital signals into one signal over a shared medium. The main
aim of using this method is to share a scarce resource.

66
Example: You can see a real-life example of Multiplexing in the Wireless Technology
telecommunication field where several telephone calls may be carried Fundamentals
using one wire. Multiplexing is also called muxing.
● Multiplexing is a technique that allows multiple simultaneous analogs
or digital signal transmission across a single data link.
● The main motive behind the development of Multiplexing is to
provide simple and easy communication, proper resource sharing and
its utilization.
This is the best way to utilize and share a limited resource equally among
multiple devices.

1) Space Division Multiplexing (SDM):


The Space Division Multiplexing or (SDM) is called a combination of
Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) and Time Division Multiplexing
(TDM).

Fig: Space Division Multiplexing.


It passes messages or data-parallel with the use of specific frequency at a
specific. It means a particular channel will be used against a specific
frequency band for some amount of time.

Advantages of SDM:
● In SDM, the data transmission rate is high.
● It uses Time and Frequency bands at its maximum potential.

Disadvantages of SDM:
● An inference may occur.
● It faces high inference losses.

Usage:
● It is used in GSM (Global Service for Mobile) Technology.

7
Wireless and Mobile 2) Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM):
Technology
Frequency division multiplexing or FDM is inherently an analog
technology. As the name specifies, in Frequency Division Multiplexing,
the frequency dimension spectrum is split into smaller frequency bands. It
combines several smaller distinct frequency ranges signals into one
medium and sends them over a single medium. In FDM, the signals are
electrical signals.
FDM's most common applications are traditional radio or television
broadcasting, mobile or satellite stations, or cable television.
For example: In cable TV, you can see that only one cable is reached to
the customer's locality, but the service provider can send multiple
television channels or signals simultaneously over that cable to all
customers without any interference. The customers have to tune to the
appropriate frequency (channel) to access the required signal.
In FDM, several frequency bands can work simultaneously without any
time constraint.

Fig: Frequency Division Multiplexing.


Advantages:
● The concept of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) applies to
both analog signals and digital signals.
● It facilitates you to send multiple signals simultaneously within a
single connection.

Disadvantages:
● It is less flexible.
● In FDM, the bandwidth wastage may be high.

Usage:
It is used in Radio and television broadcasting stations, Cable TV etc.
88
3) Time Division Multiplexing (TDM): Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
The Time Division Multiplexing or (TDM) is a digital or analog
technology (in rare cases) that uses time, instead of space or frequency, to
separate the different data streams. It is used for a specific amount of time
in which the whole spectrum is used.
The Time frames of the same intervals are divided so that you can access
the entire frequency spectrum at that time frame.

Fig: Time Division Multiplexing.


Advantages:
● It facilitates a single user at a time.
● It is less complicated and has a more flexible architecture.

Disadvantages:
● It isn't easy to implement.
Usage:
● It is mainly used in telephonic services.

4) Code Division Multiplexing (CDM):


The Code Division Multiplexing or (CDM) allots a unique code to every
channel so that each of these channels can use the same spectrum
simultaneously at the same time.

9
Wireless and Mobile
Technology

Fig: Code Division Multiplexing.


Advantages:
● It is highly efficient.
● It faces fewer Inferences.

Disadvantages:
● The data transmission rate is low.
● It is complex.

Usage:
● It is mainly used in Cell Phone Spectrum Technology (2G, 3G etc.).

1.7 MODULATION – ASK, FSK, PSK


Wireless Technology Modulation provides more information capacity,
high data security, quicker system availability with great quality
communication. Hence, digital modulation techniques have a greater
demand for their capacity to convey larger amounts of data than analog
ones.

There are many types of digital modulation techniques as Follows:


1) Amplitude Shift Keying:
The amplitude of the resultant output depends upon the input data whether
it should be a zero level or a variation of positive and negative, depending
upon the carrier frequency.
10
10
Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) is a type of Amplitude Modulation which Wireless Technology
represents the binary data in the form of variations in the amplitude of a Fundamentals
signal.
Following is the diagram for ASK modulated waveform along with its
input.

Any modulated signal has a high frequency carrier. The binary signal
when ASK is modulated, gives a zero value for LOW input and gives the
carrier output for HIGH input.

2) Frequency Shift Keying:


The frequency of the output signal will be either high or low, depending
upon the input data applied.
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) is the digital modulation technique in
which the frequency of the carrier signal varies according to the discrete
digital changes. FSK is a scheme of frequency modulation.
Following is the diagram for FSK modulated waveform along with its
input.

11
Wireless and Mobile The output of a FSK modulated wave is high in frequency for a binary
Technology HIGH input and is low in frequency for a binary LOW input. The binary
1s and 0s are called Mark and Space frequencies.

3) Phase Shift Keying:


The phase of the output signal gets shifted depending upon the input.
These are mainly of two types, namely BPSK and QPSK, according to the
number of phase shifts. The other one is DPSK which changes the phase
according to the previous value.
Phase Shift Keying (PSK) is the digital modulation technique in which the
phase of the carrier signal is changed by varying the sine and cosine inputs
at a particular time. PSK technique is widely used for wireless LANs, bio-
metric, contactless operations, along with RFID and Bluetooth
communications.
PSK is of two types, depending upon the phases the signal gets shifted.
They are:

A) Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK):


This is also called as 2-phase PSK (or) Phase Reversal Keying. In this
technique, the sine wave carrier takes two phase reversals such as 0° and
180°.
BPSK is basically a DSB-SC (Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier)
modulation scheme, for message being the digital information.
Following is the image of BPSK Modulated output wave along with its
input.

B) Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK):


This is the phase shift keying technique, in which the sine wave carrier
takes four phase reversals such as 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°.
If this kind of techniques are further extended, PSK can be done by eight
or sixteen values also, depending upon the requirement. The following
12
12
figure represents the QPSK waveform for two bits input, which shows the Wireless Technology
modulated result for different instances of binary inputs. Fundamentals

QPSK is a variation of BPSK, and it is also a DSB-SC (Double Sideband


Suppressed Carrier) modulation scheme, which sends two bits of digital
information at a time, called as bigots.
Instead of the conversion of digital bits into a series of digital streams, it
converts them into bit-pairs.

1.8 ADVANCED FSK


FSK is the digital modulation technique in which the frequency of the
carrier signal varies according to the digital signal changes. FSK is a
scheme of frequency modulation.
The output of a FSK modulated wave is high in frequency for a binary
High input and is low in frequency for a binary Low input. The binary 1s
and 0s are called Mark and Space frequencies.
The following image is the diagrammatic representation of FSK
modulated waveform.

13
Wireless and Mobile To find the process of obtaining this FSK modulated wave, let us know
Technology about the working of a FSK modulator.

FSK Modulator:
The FSK modulator block diagram comprises two oscillators with a clock
and the input binary sequence. Following is its block diagram.

The two oscillators, producing a higher and a lower frequency signal, are
connected to a switch along with an internal clock. To avoid the abrupt
phase discontinuities of the output waveform during the transmission of
the message, a clock is applied to both the oscillators, internally. The
binary input sequence is applied to the transmitter so as to choose the
frequencies according to the binary input.

AD:
FSK Demodulator:
There are different methods for demodulating a FSK wave. The main
methods of FSK detection are asynchronous detectors and synchronous
detectors. The synchronous detector is a coherent one, while an
asynchronous detector is a non-coherent one.

Asynchronous FSK Detector:


The block diagram of Asynchronous FSK detector consists of two band
pass filters, two envelope detectors, and a decision circuit. Following is
the diagrammatic representation.

14
14
Wireless Technology
Fundamentals

Space and Mark frequencies. The output from these two BPFs look like
ASK signal, which is given to the envelope detector. The signal in each
envelope detector is modulated asynchronously.
The decision circuit chooses which output is more likely and selects it
from any one of the envelope detectors. It also re-shapes the waveform to
a rectangular one.

1.9 ADVANCED PSK


PSK is the digital modulation technique in which the phase of the carrier
signal is changed by varying the sine and cosine inputs at a particular time.
PSK technique is widely used for wireless LANs, bio-metric, contactless
operations, along with RFID and Bluetooth communications.
PSK is of two types, depending upon the phases the signal gets shifted.
They are:

1) Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK):


This is also called as 2-phase PSK or Phase Reversal Keying. In this
technique, the sine wave carrier takes two phase reversals such as 0° and
180°.
BPSK is basically a Double Side Band Suppressed Carrier (DSBSC)
DSBSC modulation scheme, for message being the digital information.

2) Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK):


This is the phase shift keying technique, in which the sine wave carrier
takes four phase reversals such as 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°.
If this kind of techniques are further extended, PSK can be done by eight
or sixteen values also, depending upon the requirement.

15
Wireless and Mobile BPSK Modulator:
Technology
The block diagram of Binary Phase Shift Keying consists of the balance
modulator which has the carrier sine wave as one input and the binary
sequence as the other input. Following is the diagrammatic representation.

The modulation of BPSK is done using a balance modulator, which


multiplies the two signals applied at the input. For a zero binary input, the
phase will be 0° and for a high input, the phase reversal is of 180°.
Following is the diagrammatic representation of BPSK Modulated output
wave along with its given input.

The output sine wave of the modulator will be the direct input carrier or
the inverted 180°phaseshifted.

BPSK Demodulator:
The block diagram of BPSK demodulator consists of a mixer with local
oscillator circuit, a bandpass filter, a two-input detector circuit. The
diagram is as follows.
16
16
Wireless Technology
Fundamentals

Fi
g: BPSK Demodulator

1.10 ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION


MULTIPLEXING (OFDM)
In data communications and networking, orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of digital data modulation, whereas a
single stream of data is divided into several separate sub-streams for
transmission via multiple channels.
OFDM uses the principle of frequency division multiplexing (FDM),
where the available bandwidth is divided into a set of sub-streams having
separate frequency bands. OFDM was introduced in 1966 by Chang at
Bell Labs and was improved by Weinstein and Ebert in 1971.

Working Principle of OFDM:


OFDM is a specialised FDM having the constraint that the sub-streams in
which the main signal is divided, are orthogonal to each other. Orthogonal
signals are signals that are perpendicular to each other. A main property of
orthogonal signals is that they do not interfere with each other.
When any signal is modulated by the sender, its sidebands spread out
either side. A receiver can successfully demodulate the data only if it
receives the whole signal. In case of FDM, guard bands are inserted so
that interference between the signals, resulting in cross-talks, does not
occur. However, since orthogonal signals are used in OFDM, no
interference occurs between the signals even if their sidebands overlap.
So, guard bands can be removed, thus saving bandwidth. The criteria that
needs to be maintained is that the carrier spacing should be equal to the
reciprocal of the symbol period.
In order that OFDM works, there should be very accurate synchronization
between the communicating nodes. If frequency deviation occurs in the
sub-streams, they will not be orthogonal any more, due to which
interference between the signals will occur.

17
Wireless and Mobile The following diagram plots FDM versus OFDM, to depict the saving in
Technology bandwidth obtained by OFDM:

Applications:
OFDM is used in the following area:
● Wi-Fi
● DSL internet access
● 4G wireless communications
● digital television
● radio broadcast services.

1.11 SPREAD SPECTRUM – DSSS,FHSS


A collective class of signalling techniques are employed before
transmitting a signal to provide a secure communication, known as the
Spread Spectrum Modulation. The main advantage of spread spectrum
communication technique is to prevent ―interference‖ whether it is
intentional or unintentional.
The signals modulated with these techniques are hard to interfere and
cannot be jammed. An intruder with no official access is never allowed to
crack them. Hence, these techniques are used for military purposes. These

18
18
spread spectrum signals transmit at low power density and has a wide Wireless Technology
spread of signals. Fundamentals

Narrow-band and Spread-spectrum Signals:


Both the Narrow band and Spread spectrum signals can be understood
easily by observing their frequency spectrum as shown in the following
figures.

1) Narrow-band Signals:
The Narrow-band signals have the signal strength concentrated as shown
in the following frequency spectrum figure.

Following are some of its features:


● Band of signals occupy a narrow range of frequencies.
● Power density is high.
● Spread of energy is low and concentrated.
Though the features are good, these signals are prone to interference.

2) Spread Spectrum Signals:


The spread spectrum signals have the signal strength distributed as shown
in the following frequency spectrum figure.

19
Wireless and Mobile Following are some of its features:
Technology
● Band of signals occupy a wide range of frequencies.

● Power density is very low.

● Energy is wide spread.

With these features, the spread spectrum signals are highly resistant to
interference or jamming. Since multiple users can share the same spread
spectrum bandwidth without interfering with one another, these can be
called as multiple access techniques.

FHSS and DSSS:

Spread spectrum multiple access techniques uses signals which have a


transmission bandwidth of a magnitude greater than the minimum required
RF bandwidth.

These are of two types.

● Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

● Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

1) Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum (FHSS):

This is frequency hopping technique, where the users are made to change
the frequencies of usage, from one to another in a specified time interval,
hence called as frequency hopping. For example, a frequency was allotted
to sender 1 for a particular period of time. Now, after a while, sender 1
hops to the other frequency and sender 2 uses the first frequency, which
was previously used by sender 1. This is called as frequency reuse.

The frequencies of the data are hopped from one to another in order to
provide a secure transmission. The amount of time spent on each
frequency hop is called as Dwell time.

2) Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS):

Whenever a user wants to send data using this DSSS technique, each and
every bit of the user data is multiplied by a secret code, called as chipping
code. This chipping code is nothing but the spreading code which is
multiplied with the original message and transmitted. The receiver uses
the same code to retrieve the original message.

Comparison between FHSS and DSSS:

Both the spread spectrum techniques are popular for their characteristics.
To have a clear understanding, let us take a look at their comparisons.

20
20
FHSS DSSS Wireless Technology
Multiple frequencies are used Single frequency is used Fundamentals

Hard to find the user’s User frequency, once allotted is


frequency at any instant of timealways the same
Frequency reuse is allowed Frequency reuse is not allowed
Sender need not wait Sender has to wait if the
spectrum is busy
Power strength of the signal is Power strength of the signal is
high low
Stronger and penetrates through It is weaker compared to FHSS
the obstacles
It is never affected by It can be affected by interference
interference
It is cheaper It is expensive
This is the commonly used This technique is not frequently
technique used

Advantages of Spread Spectrum:


Following are the advantages of spread spectrum:
● Cross-talk elimination
● Better output with data integrity
● Reduced effect of multipath fading
● Better security
● Reduction in noise
● Co-existence with other systems
● Longer operative distances
● Hard to detect
● Not easy to demodulate/decode
● Difficult to jam the signal.

1.12 QUESTIONS
Q.1) Define Wireless Network with advantage & disadvantage.
Q.2) Explain in detail radio transmission frequencies.
Q.3) Define signal propagation.
Q.4) Define multiplexing , with their types.

21
Wireless and Mobile Q.5) Explain in-detail modulation & demodulation.
Technology
Q.6) Explain OFDM.
Q.7) Explain in detail FHSS.

1.13 REFERENCES
 Mobile Communications, Second Edition, Jochen Schiller, Pearson
Education

 Wireless Communications & Networks, Second Edition, William


Stallings, Pearson Education

 Wireless Communications and Networks, 3G and Beyond, Second


Edition, ITI SahaMisra, McGraw Hill Education

 Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures, Yi Bang Lin,


ImrichChlamtac, Wiley India.

 Wireless and Mobile Networks, Concepts and Protocols, Dr.


Sunilkumar S. Manvi,

 Mahabaleshwar S. Kakkasageri, Wiley India

 Multi-Carrier and Spread Spectrum Systems - From OFDM and MC-


CDMA to LTE and WiMAX, Second Edition, K. Fazel, S. Kaiser,
wiley publications

*****

22
22
2
WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
FUNDAMENTALS
Unit Structure
2.1 Wireless Transmission Impairments – Free Space Loss
2.2 Fadings.
2.3 Multipath Propagation .
2.4 Atmospheric Absorption.
2.5 Error Correction – Reed Solomon
2.6 BCH
2.7 Hamming code
2.8 Convolution Code (Encoding and Decoding)
2.9 Questions.
2.10 References.

2.1 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENTS –


FREE SPACE LOSS
Transmission impairment occurs when the received signal is different
from the transmitted signal. As we know, a signal can be transmitted as
Analog signal or it can be transmitted as a digital signal.

In Analog signals due to transmission impairment the resulting received


signal gets different amplitude or the shape. In the case of digitally
transmitted signals at the receiver side we get changes in bits (0's or 1's).

There are 3 ways causes of transmission impairments:

1. Noise

2. Distortion

3. Attenuation

1) Noise:

Noise is the major factor for the transmission distortion as any unwanted
signal gets added to the transmitted signal by which the resulting
transmitted signal gets modified and at the receiver side it is difficult to
remove the unwanted noise signal. These noises are various kinds like shot
noise, impulse noise, thermal noise etc.

23
Wireless and Mobile Noise is diagrammatically represented as follows:
Technology

Fig: Noise -transmission impairments

2) Distortion:
This kind of distortion is mainly appearing in case of composite signals in
which a composite signal has various frequency components in it and each
frequency component has some time constraint which makes a complete
signal.
But while transmitting this composite signal, if a certain delay happens
between the frequencies components, then there may be the chance that
the frequency component will reach the receiver end with a different delay
constraint from its original which leads to the change in shape of the
signal. The delay happens due to environmental parameters or from the
distance between transmitter and receiver etc.

Distortion is diagrammatically represented as follows:

Fig: Distortion -transmission impairments

3) Attenuation:
Attenuation is generally decreased in signal strength, by which the
received signal will be difficult to receive at the receiver end. This
attenuation happens due to the majority factor by environment as the
environment imposes a lot of resistance and the signal strength decreases
as it tries to overcome the resistance imposed.

24
24
The above picture shows that the signal loses power at its travel time. Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
Attenuation is diagrammatically represented as follows:

Fig: Attenuation- transmission impairments

2.2 FADINGS:
In wireless communications, fading is the deviation of the signal
attenuation affecting a certain propagation media. Discoloration may vary
with time, the geographical position or frequency of the radio, which is
often modelled as a random process. A fading channel is a communication
channel experiencing fading.

Multipath Fading:
In wireless systems, fading can be either due to multipath, called as
multipath fading or due to shadowing from obstacles affecting the wave
propagation, known as shadow fading. Here in this chapter, we will
discuss how multipath fading affects the reception of signals in CDMA.

Fig: Multipath feeding.

25
Wireless and Mobile Fading in CDMA System:
Technology
CDMA systems use a signal fast chip rate for spreading the spectrum. It
has a high time resolution, due to which it receives a different signal from
each path separately. The RAKE receiver prevents signal degradation by
summing all the signals.

Fig: Fading in CDMA System


Because CDMA has high time-resolution, different paths delay the CDMA
signals, which can be discriminated against. Therefore, energy from all
paths can be summed by adjusting their phases and path delays.
This is a principle of the RAKE receiver. By using a RAKE receiver, it is
possible to improve the loss of the received signal due to fading. It can
ensure a stable communication environment.

In CDMA systems, multi-path propagation improves the signal quality by


using RAKE receiver.

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26
2.3 MULTIPATH PROPAGATION: Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
Multipath propagation:
In wireless media, signals propagate using three principles, which are
reflection, scattering, and diffraction.
• Reflection occurs when the signal encounters a large solid surface,
whose size is much larger than the wavelength of the signal, e.g., a
solid wall.
• Diffraction occurs when the signal encounters an edge or a corner,
whose size is larger than the wavelength of the signal, e.g., an edge of
a wall.
• Scattering occurs when the signal encounters small objects of size
smaller than the wavelength of the signal.
One consequence of multipath propagation is that multiple copies of a
signal propagation along multiple different paths, arrive at any point at
different times. So the signal received at a point is not only affected by the
inherent noise, distortion, attenuation, and dispersion in the channel but
also the interaction of signals propagated along multiple paths.

Fig: Multipath Propagation.

Delay spread:
Suppose we transmit a probing pulse from a location and measure the
received signal at the recipient location as a function of time. The signal
power of the received signal spreads over time due to multipath
propagation.
The delay spread is determined by the density function of the resulting
spread of the delay over time. Average delay spread and root mean square
delay spread are the two parameters that can be calculated.

Doppler spread:
This is a measure of spectral broadening caused by the rate of change of
the mobile radio channel. It is caused by either relative motion between
the mobile and base station or by the movement of objects in the channel. 27
Wireless and Mobile When the velocity of the mobile is high, the Doppler spread is high, and
Technology the resulting channel variations are faster than that of the baseband signal,
this is referred to as fast fading. When channel variations are slower than
the baseband signal variations, then the resulting fading is referred to as
slow fading.

2.4 ATMOSPHERIC ABSORPTION

In Electronic Communication Some types of electromagnetic radiation


easily pass through the atmosphere, while other types do not. The ability
of the atmosphere to allow radiation to pass through it is referred to as its
transmissivity, and varies with the wavelength/type of the radiation. The
gases that comprise our atmosphere absorb radiation in certain
wavelengths while allowing radiation with differing wavelengths to pass
through.

The areas of the EM spectrum that are absorbed by atmospheric gases


such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone are known as absorption
bands.

Fig: Atmospheric absorption

In the figure, absorption bands are represented by a low transmission value


that is associated with a specific range of wavelengths.

28
28
The atmosphere is transparent to specific wavelengths of radiation, in Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
contrast to the absorption bands. These bands are called atmospheric
"windows" because they allow radiation to easily pass through the
atmosphere to the Earth's surface.Most remote sensing instruments on
aircraft or space-based platforms work in one or more of these windows,
with detectors making measurements tuned to specific frequencies
(wavelengths) that pass through the atmosphere. When the remote sensing
instrument is in line of sight with an object that reflects sunlight or emits
heat, the instrument collects and records radiant energy.While most
remote sensing systems are designed to collect reflected radiation, some
sensors, especially those on meteorological satellites, directly measure
absorption phenomena such as those associated with carbon dioxide
(CO2) and other gases.

2.5 ERROR CORRECTION – REED SOLOMON


When we transfer some data over a network then there are possibilities
that data get corrupted due to some network problem. Bits inside data
might get corrupted due to interference or some network problem. So there
is the risk of data being lost during transfer.
Data errors can happen when bits become corrupted. Error-correcting
codes (ECC) are a set of codes used to correct errors in data that has been
transmitted over a noisy channel. Error correction codes check the exact
number of bits that got corrupted as well as the location of the corrupted
bits, within the limits of the algorithm.

Reed - Solomon Code:


Reed - Solomon error correcting codes are one of the oldest codes that
were introduced in 1960s by Irving S. Reed and Gustave Solomon. It is a
subclass of non - binary BCH codes. BCH codes (Bose-Chaudhuri-
Hocquenghem codes) are cyclic ECCs that are constructed using
polynomials over data blocks.
Reed-Solomon codes are the code that was introduced by Irving S. Reed
and Gustave Solomon. Reed-Solomon code is a subclass of non-binary
BCH codes. The encoder of Reed-Solomon codes differs from a binary
encoder in that it operates on multiple bits rather than individual bits.
So basically, Reed-Solomon codes help in recovering corrupted messages
that are being transferred over a network. In Reed-Solomon codes, we
have:
 Encoder and
 Decoder
Reed-Solomon codes encoder receives data and before transferring it over
the noisy network it adds some parity bits with our original data bits.
On the other hand, we have a Reed-Solomon codes decoder that detects 29
Wireless and Mobile corrupted messages and recovers them from error.
Technology
Representation of n-bits Reed-Solomon codes:

n-bits representation of the Reed-Solomon codes


A Reed - Solomon encoder accepts a block of data and adds redundant bits
(parity bits) before transmitting it over noisy channels. On receiving the
data, a decoder corrects the error depending upon the code characteristics.

Application Areas of Reed-Solomon Codes:


The prominent application areas are:
 Storage areas like CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs
 High speed data transmission technologies such as DSL and WiMAX
 High speed modems
 QR Codes
 Broadcast systems such as satellite communications
 Storage systems such as RAID 6

Parameters of Reed - Solomon Codes:


 A Reed-Solomon code is specified as RS(n,k).
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30
 Here, n is the block length which is recognizable by symbols, holding Wireless Technology
the relation, n = 2m - 1. Fundamentals

 The message size is of k bits.


 So the parity check size is (n - k) bits
 The code can correct up to (t) errors in a codeword, where (2t = n - k).

The following diagram shows a Reed-Solomon codeword:

Generator Polynomial of Reed Solomon Code:


In coding systems with block codes, valid code words consists of
polynomials that are divisible by another fixed polynomial of short length.
This fixed polynomial is called generator polynomial.
In Reed Solomon code, generator polynomial with factors is constructed
where each root is a consecutive element in the Galois field. The
polynomial is of the form −
g(x) = (x - α) (x - α2) (x - α3) ......(x - α2t)where α is a primitive element.

Encoding using Reed Solomon Code:


The method of encoding in Reed Solomon code has the following steps:
 The message is represented as a polynomial p(x), and then multiplied
with the generator polynomial g(x).
 The message vector [x1,x2,x3.....xk] is mapped to a polynomial of
degree less than k such that px(αi) = xi for all i = 1,...k
 The polynomial is evaluated using interpolation methods like
Lagrange Interpolation.
 Using this polynomial, the other points αk + 1....αn, are evaluated.
 The encoded message is calculated as s(x) = p(x) * g(x). The sender
sends this encoded message along with the generator polynomial g(x).

Decoding using Reed Solomon Code:


At the receiving end, the following decoding procedure done:
 The receiver receives the message r(x) and divides it by the generator
polynomial g(x).
 If r(x)/g(x)=0, then it implies no error.
31
Wireless and Mobile  If r(x)/g(x)≠0, then the error polynomial is evaluated using the
Technology expression: r(x) = p(x) * g(x) + e(x)
 The error polynomial gives the error positions.

2.6 BCH
Binary-coded hexadecimal uses binary to express each digit of a
hexadecimal number. The following characters are used: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.

Examples:

Binary-coded hexadecimal
Hexadecimal
1 2 4 8

0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 0 0
2 0 1 0 0
3 1 1 0 0
4 0 0 1 0
5 1 0 1 0
6 0 1 1 0
7 1 1 1 0
8 0 0 0 1
9 1 0 0 1
A 0 1 0 1
B 1 1 0 1
C 0 0 1 1
D 1 0 1 1
E 0 1 1 1
F 1 1 1 1

Dial Output
0
1 ●
2 ●
3 ● ●
4 ●
32
32
5 ● ● Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
6 ● ●
7 ● ● ●
8 ●
9 ● ●
A ● ●
B ● ● ●
C ● ●
D ● ● ●
E ● ● ●
F ● ● ● ●

2.7 HAMMING CODE


Hamming code is a block code that is capable of detecting up to two
simultaneous bit errors and correcting single-bit errors. It was developed
by R.W. Hamming for error correction.
In this coding method, the source encodes the message by inserting
redundant bits within the message. These redundant bits are extra bits that
are generated and inserted at specific positions in the message itself to
enable error detection and correction. When the destination receives this
message, it performs recalculations to detect errors and find the bit
position that has error.

Encoding a message by Hamming Code:


The procedure used by the sender to encode the message encompasses the
following steps:
 Step 1: Calculation of the number of redundant bits.
 Step 2: Positioning the redundant bits.
 Step 3: Calculating the values of each redundant bit.
Once the redundant bits are embedded within the message, this is sent to
the user.

Step 1: Calculation of the number of redundant bits.


If the message contains m𝑚number of data bits, r𝑟number of redundant
bits are added to it so that m𝑟 is able to indicate at least (m + r+ 1)
different states. Here, (m + r) indicates location of an error in each of (𝑚 +
𝑟) bit positions and one additional state indicates no error. Since, r𝑟 bits
can indicate 2r𝑟 states, 2r𝑟 must be at least equal to (m + r + 1). Thus the
following equation should hold 2r ≥ m+r+1
33
Wireless and Mobile Step 2: Positioning the redundant bits.
Technology
The r redundant bits placed at bit positions of powers of 2, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8,
16 etc. They are referred in the rest of this text as r1 (at position 1), r2 (at
position 2), r3 (at position 4), r4 (at position 8) and so on.

Step 3: Calculating the values of each redundant bit.


The redundant bits are parity bits. A parity bit is an extra bit that makes
the number of 1s either even or odd. The two types of parity are −
 Even Parity: Here the total number of bits in the message is made
even.
 Odd Parity: Here the total number of bits in the message is made
odd.
Each redundant bit, ri, is calculated as the parity, generally even parity,
based upon its bit position. It covers all bit positions whose binary
representation includes a 1 in the ith position except the position of ri.
Thus:
 r1 is the parity bit for all data bits in positions whose binary
representation includes a 1 in the least significant position excluding 1
(3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and so on)
 r2 is the parity bit for all data bits in positions whose binary
representation includes a 1 in the position 2 from right except 2 (3, 6,
7, 10, 11 and so on)
 r3 is the parity bit for all data bits in positions whose binary
representation includes a 1 in the position 3 from right except 4 (5-7,
12-15, 20-23 and so on)

Decoding a message in Hamming Code:


Once the receiver gets an incoming message, it performs recalculations to
detect errors and correct them. The steps for recalculation are −
 Step 1: Calculation of the number of redundant bits.
 Step 2: Positioning the redundant bits.
 Step 3: Parity checking.
 Step 4: Error detection and correction

Step 1: Calculation of the number of redundant bits


Using the same formula as in encoding, the number of redundant bits are
ascertained.
2r ≥ m + r + 1 where m is the number of data bits and r is the number of
redundant bits.
34
34
Step 2: Positioning the redundant bits Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
The r redundant bits placed at bit positions of powers of 2, i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8,
16 etc.

Step 3: Parity checking


Parity bits are calculated based upon the data bits and the redundant bits
using the same rule as during generation of c1,c2 ,c3 ,c4 etc. Thus
c1 = parity(1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and so on)
c2 = parity(2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11 and so on)
c3 = parity(4-7, 12-15, 20-23 and so on)

Step 4: Error detection and correction


The decimal equivalent of the parity bits binary values is calculated. If it is
0, there is no error. Otherwise, the decimal value gives the bit position
which has error. For example, if c1c2c3c4 = 1001, it implies that the data
bit at position 9, decimal equivalent of 1001, has error. The bit is flipped
to get the correct message.

Fig: Hamming code error detection.

2.8 CONVOLUTION CODE (ENCODING AND


DECODING)
Errors and Error Correcting Codes:
Errors can occur when bits get corrupted while being transmitted over the
network, due to interference and network problems. Error correction code
(ECC) is a set of numbers generated by a particular algorithm for detecting
and removing errors in data transmitted over noisy channels. The error
correction code confirms the exact number of corrupted bits and the
location of the corruption.Bits within the limits of the algorithm. ECC can
be divided into two types: block codes and convolutional codes.

35
Wireless and Mobile Binary Convolutional Codes:
Technology
In convolutional codes, messages consist of streams of data of any length
and output bits are generated by applying boolean functions to these
streams.In block codes, data consists of a block of data of a specific
length, however, in convolutional ciphers, the input data bits are not
divided into a block but rather fed as streams of data bits, which are
transformed into output bits based on the logical function of the encoder.

Fig: Convolutional Codes

Encoding by Convolutional Codes:


For generating a convolutional code, the information is passed
sequentially through a linear finite-state shift register. The shift register
comprises of (-bit) stages and Boolean function generators.
A convolutional code can be represented as (n,k, K) where
 k is the number of bits shifted into the encoder at one time. Generally,
k = 1.
 n is the number of encoder output bits corresponding to k information
bits.
 The code-rate, Rc = k/n .
 The encoder memory, a shift register of size k, is the constraint
length.
 n is a function of the present input bits and the contents of K.
 The state of the encoder is given by the value of (K - 1) bits.

36
36
Example of Generating a Convolutional Code: Wireless Technology
Fundamentals
Let us consider a convolutional encoder with k = 1, n = 2 and K = 3.
The code-rate, Rc = k/n = 1/2 .

The input string is streamed from right to left into the encoder.
When the first bit, 1, is streamed in the encoder, the contents of encoder
will be −

When the next bit, 1 is streamed in the encoder, the contents of encoder
will be −

When the next bit, 0 is streamed in the encoder, the contents of encoder
will be −

37
Wireless and Mobile
Technology

When the last bit, 1 is streamed in the encoder, the contents of encoder
will be −

Representing Convolution Encoder with State Transition Diagram


and State Table:
From the above example, we can see that any particular binary
convolutional encoder is associated with a set of binary inputs, a set of
binary outputs and a set of states. The transitions and the output may be
effectively represented by a state transition diagram and a state table.

For the binary convolution encoder given in the example:


The set of inputs = {0, 1}
The set of outputs = { 00, 10, 11}
The set of states = { 00, 01, 10, 11}
We can see that in the initial state, 00, when the input 1 was given, the
next state became 10 and the corresponding output was 11. In this state 10,
when the input 1 was given, the next state was 11 and the encoder outputs
were 10. In the same manner we get the other transitions. When this is
tabulated, we get the state transition table as follows −

38
38
The corresponding state transition diagram will be: Wireless Technology
Fundamentals

2.9 QUESTIONS
Q.1) Explain in-detail wireless transmission impairments.
Q.2) Explain in detail multipath propagation.
Q.3) Define & explain Fading.
Q.4) Define Atmospheric Absorption.
Q.5) Explain in-detail Error Correction.
Q.6) Explain BCH & Give suitable e.g.
Q.7) Explain in detail Hamming code.
Q.8) Explain Convolution Code in detail.

2.10 REFERENCES
1. Mobile Communications, Second Edition, Jochen Schiller, Pearson
Education
2. Wireless Communications & Networks, Second Edition, William
Stallings, Pearson Education
3. Wireless Communications and Networks, 3G and Beyond, Second
Edition, ITI SahaMisra, McGraw Hill Education
4. Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures, Yi Bang Lin,
ImrichChlamtac, Wiley India.
5. Wireless and Mobile Networks, Concepts and Protocols, Dr.
Sunilkumar S. Manvi, Mahabaleshwar S. Kakkasageri, Wiley India
6. Multi-Carrier and Spread Spectrum Systems - From OFDM and MC-
CDMA to LTE and WiMAX, Second Edition, K. Fazel, S. Kaiser,
wiley publications
*****
39
MODULE II

3
INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS
NETWORKS
Unit Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction to Wireless Networks
3.2 Wireless Network Architecture
3.3 Classification of Wireless Networks
3.3.1 Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN)
3.3.2 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN)
3.3.3 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN)
3.3.4 Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN)
3.4 Exercises
3.5 Additional References

3.0 OBJECTIVES
This chapter would make you understand the following concepts:
 Introduction to Wired Network and Wireless Networks, Comparison
of wired and wireless networks, Issues in wireless Networks, ISM
Band, Essential components of a wireless network.
 Wireless Network Architecture – Standalone Architecture (Ad-hoc
mode), Centrally Coordinated Architecture (Infrastructure mode),
Hybrid Architecture (Heterogenous mode)
 Classification of Wireless Networks based on coverage
 WPAN
 WLAN
 WMAN
 WWAN

3.1 INTRODUCTION TO WIRELESS NETWORKS


We know that a ‘Network’ is nothing but an interconnected collection of
autonomous electronic devices like computers, laptops, mobile handsets,
tablets etc. Interconnected devices are able to exchange information via
wired media (twisted pair cable, coaxial cables, fibre optics) or using
wireless connection (microwaves, communication satellites etc.). Actually,
40
digital wireless communication has come a long way. Nikola Tesla Introduction to Wireless
demonstrated radio communications in 1893. In year 1901, the Italian Networks
scientist Guglielmo Marconi also demonstrated a ship-to-shore (approx.
distance 3200km) wireless telegraph using Morse Code (encoded in an
analog signal). After the second world war, many international wireless
communications projects were undertaken in European countries like
Germany, Austria, Netherlands etc. Innovations in electronic technologies
have led to radio, television, mobile telephone and communication
satellites. Modern digital wireless systems are way more advanced than
they were a few decades back. The impact of wireless communication has
been deep.

At physical level, there are two types of networks:


Wired Network:
Here, fixed and wired devices use fixed networks. It uses wires or cables
to link devices to the Internet or other network. Most of the wired
networks use Ethernet cables to transfer data between connected devices.
A single router can be used to connect all the devices in a small wired
network. A wired network has few major disadvantages which wireless
technology addresses such as mobility and heavy dependence on cabling
and wires.

Wireless Network:
This type of network communicates through radio frequencies (RF
signals). Here, no cable restricts the user. This provides the freedom of
movement. User can roam along with the device between different
wireless networks. User mobility and Device mobility are important
features of wireless network. User mobility means user is mobile and
telecommunication services follow him/her. In device portability, device
moves with or without user and still the communication is possible. E.g.,
mobile phone system where the device is handed from one radio
transmitter to another as signal becomes too weak.
Digital and adaptive modulation and access multiplexing makes a wireless
network extremely portable. Examples of wireless networks include cell
phone networks, wireless local area networks (WLAN), wireless sensor
networks, satellite communication networks and terrestrial microwave
networks.
41
Wireless and Mobile
Technology

Comparison between Wired Network and Wireless Network:


 Wireless communication consumes lot of energy as compared to
wired network. The mobile and wireless devices of tomorrows world
will be more powerful, more lightweight and will provide new
interfaces to the user and to new networks. More the features, more
power these devices will need. Power required in fixed wired network
is less as compared to wireless devices and networks.
 Wired networks are more reliable and stable. Even though wireless
technologies are continuously refining themselves, they still lack on
reliability as provided by wired networks. Wired networks are not
prone to interference thereby providing reliability and stability.
Wireless networks are frequently subjected to electromagnetic
interference. This can be caused by other networks or other equipment
that generate radio signals that are close to radio frequencies used for
wireless communication. Interference can degrade the signal quality
making it unreliable.
 Wired connections are more secure as compared to wireless
connections. Security technologies like firewalls help in monitoring
and facilitating a more secure network infrastructure proving data
protection.
 Wired networks provide faster data transfer rates than wireless ones.
Wired networks do not have dark spots, interference affecting the data
speeds. The wireless spectrum is shared by all the devices in the range
of its transmitters. So individual user rate is lower as compared to
specified in the standard.
 In wired networks, the communicating device is restricted to one
location. Mobility is the most pressing issue in wired networks. For
mobility we can use extension cables or more switches but it makes
the wired network inconvenient to use with a huge mess of cables and
wires. Wireless networks do not suffer from this inconvenience.

42
42
 Installation of a wired network can be time consuming as it involves Introduction to Wireless
setting up hardware like cables, ports, switches, hubs etc. Setting up a Networks
wireless network is easier.
 Maintenance of a wired network can be challenging as wired network
is more prone to breakage and wear & tear. So, maintenance of a
wired network can be a costly affair when compared with a wireless
network.
 Space is another important characteristic of wireless networks.
Difficult-to-wire areas (like river, stream etc.) can also come under
communication network because of wireless connections.

Issues to deal with in a wireless network:


 Coverage and Interference: For maximum coverage we need to
have intelligent placement of access points and routers. We also have
to carefully choose the frequencies to avoid interference. 2.4 GHz – 5
GHz frequencies are so widely used that you are bound to get
interference which will weaken your original signal.
 Privacy: Air medium is used to send data from one device to another
in wireless networks. It means we do not have any way of securing
our physical layer. So, we need to have strong authentication and
encryption mechanisms in place.
 Regulations: Each country implements its own set of rules and
regulations related to signalling and allowed frequencies. We are
bound to follow these regulations and work in the prescribed
framework.

ISM Band:
We are not allowed to transmit on any frequency we like. The
International Telecommunication Union – Radiocommunication Sector
(ITU-R) has prescribed a set of frequencies which we can use for
transmission in wireless networks. These frequency bands are called ISM
(Industrial, Scientific and Medical) bands. Anyone who wants to
implement a wireless network can use these prescribed frequencies
without requiring any license for its usage. This has a drawback as
everyone is using them, we are likely to experience interference.

The ISM band has following frequencies:


 902-928 MHz: This low frequency is not used for Wi-Fi.
 2.4 – 2.4835 GHz: This frequency range is used in 802.11b, 802.11g
and 802.11n standards.
 5 GHz: This is used in 802.11a and 802.11n standard.

43
Wireless and Mobile 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n
Technology
Frequency 5 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz and 5
GHz
Channels 8 non- 14 14 Depends
overlapping
Data Rate Up to Up to Up to Up to 300 – 600
54Mbps 11Mbps 54Mbps Mbps

Essential elements of a wireless network:


The key hardware components of a wireless network include the
following:

Access Point:
The most important entity in a wireless network is the Access Point (AP)
device. The more generic name for AP is base station. The fundamental
duty of this device is to broadcast the radio signals into a frequency which
the communicating devices can identify and respond to. AP can handle
many different connections between various devices, all transmitting and
receiving simultaneously. But if more devices are working with an AP, the
slower they will function. System software with the AP bridges together
the wireless network and distribution sides of the AP. The system software
differentiates APs by providing varying degrees of management,
installation and security functions.

Network Adapter:
To connect an AP to create a wireless connection, devices must be
integrated with Wireless Network Adapters. Mostly the devices which
provide wireless functionality come with built-in adapters. If the device
does not have a built-in adapter, then an add-on adapter can be plugged in
into an USB port or expansion slot.

44
44
Introduction to Wireless
Networks

Radio NICs:
Radio NICs, also known as radio cards, operate from within the computer
device and provide wireless connectivity (mostly in wireless LANs). It
often implements 802.11 standard. These cards come in variety of forms
like ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) card, PCI (Peripheral
Component Interconnect) network card, USB (Universal Serial Bus) card
etc. PCs generally use ISA and PCI cards. PDAs (like digital cameras) and
laptops use CF (Compact Flash) cards.

Wireless Router:
A router along with AP (this unit is known as wireless router) disperse the
wireless signals to the devices. It is the heart of the wireless network. You
will need a wireless router when you build an all-wireless network for
your home or office. They use IP as well as internal protocols like
Network Address Translation (NAT) protocol, Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Routers are mostly used for small setups
45
Wireless and Mobile like home or small office etc. They are seldom used in larger settings like
Technology hospitals or company head office etc.

Wireless Antennas:
APs, repeaters and wireless routers have omnidirectional antennas which
increase the communication range of the radio signals. Omnidirectional
antennas satisfy most coverage requirements but we can also use directive
antenna to cover long, narrow area. To use extra directive antenna, AP
requires an external antenna connector.

Wireless Repeaters:
Wireless repeater helps in extending the reach/coverage of the network.
For this, it connects to a router or AP. Few APs have built-in repeater
mode. A repeater regenerates a network signal by boosting its energy. So,
it is also called as signal booster. It serves as a two-way relay station for
wireless radio signals. It is not physically connected to any part of the
network, instead it receives radio signals from APs, end-user device or
another repeater. Repeaters provide connectivity to remote areas that
normally would not have wireless network access. The wireless repeater
when placed appropriately fills the holes in the coverage thereby enabling
seamless roaming.

46
46
Introduction to Wireless
Networks

User Devices:
Users of wireless networks operate using host of devices like PCs, laptops,
PDAs, barcode scanners, patient monitoring devices etc. These devices are
commonly equipped with wireless connectivity because of their portable
nature. They may have specialized hardware also.

3.2 WIRELESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURE


Basically, there are three architectures available:

Standalone Architecture (Ad-hoc mode):


Here, all the devices which are a part of the wireless network
communicate with each other in peer-to-peer mode. No Access point is
needed for transmission between the devices.
This type of architecture is best suitable for small group of devices which
are physically in close proximity with each other. So, devices cannot
communicate with each other if they are not within same radio range. In
ad-hoc mode, the complexity of each device (node/station) is higher as
every node has to implement medium access mechanisms, mechanisms to
handle hidden or exposed terminal issues, priority mechanisms to provide
a certain quality of service.
This mode is quite popular with personal digital accessories like digital
cameras, printers, headsets etc. which connect to one another as and when
needed. Ad-hoc mode is also common in case of sensor networks. A set of
sensors may be randomly deployed to perform some activities over a
given area. They may communicate with one another as needed.

47
Wireless and Mobile
Technology

If a greater number of devices are added then it may affect the network
performance. In this type of network, the configuration of the network is
static and does not respond to changing network conditions. It’s a tough
job for a network administrator to manage an ad-hoc network as
disconnections of devices may happen more frequently. One more
limitation of this network is its inability to bridge to a wired LAN and to
access internet without special gateways.
As it does not need APs, it reduces the cost of setting it up. It can be a very
good backup option if centrally coordinated wireless network is
malfunctioning. This type of network is quite flexible as it can be set up
for unexpected meetings etc.

Centrally Coordinated Architecture (Infrastructure mode):


In this type of architecture, all devices are connected to wireless network
with the help of Access points. Mostly APs are connected to Internet with
the help of broadband modem. AP does not just provide access to the
medium, but it also acts as a bridge to other wireless and wired networks.
Here, resilience is assured while more users get connected to the network
simultaneously. This architecture helps in simplifying network
management and addressing operation concerns. It provides more security,
ease of management, scalability and stability. It also provides access to
other networks, include forwarding functions, medium access control etc.
The design of infrastructure-based wireless network is simple as most of
the network functionality lies with the APs. This architecture incurs extra
cost due to deployment of APs. This network can be expanded by adding
extra APs. Network can be reconfigured by wireless centralized controller
based on the changes in RF footprint. Wireless networks with
infrastructure topology are the most well-developed with specific
applications.
Infrastructure-based networks are not flexible in case of disaster situations
where no infrastructure is left. (E.g., cellular phone network which is
infrastructure-based collapses when a huge disaster like floods,
earthquakes strike.)
48
48
Introduction to Wireless
Networks

Hybrid Architecture (Heterogeneous mode):


It is a mixture of infrastructure and ad-hoc modes. For example, an ad-hoc
network of mobile stations may be created for emergency purposes in a
disaster area. Some of these mobile stations can also simultaneously
connect to a cellular network forming a bridge between the ad-hoc
network and the fixed network. Cellular telephone network and Wi-Fi
networks are examples of hybrid or heterogeneous networks which are
having mixed technologies. Mobile stations in such networks are able to
seamlessly roam from Wi-Fi network to cellular telephone network and
vice versa.

3.3 CLASSIFICATION OF WIRELESS NETWORKS


Today no one is interested in point-to-point wireless links, instead we
want wireless networks which offer portable access to networks and
applications. Wireless networks can be classified based on coverage.
Coverage is the geographical area where a MS can communicate with the
wireless network of interest.
If the coverage is as large as a district, then the wireless network is called
as Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN). Example of WWAN is the
cellular telephone network that spans over districts and states.
For smaller geographical area like a building or a small campus, the
wireless network is called as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).
WLANs based on Wi-Fi are examples of local area networks.
Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) is the one that spans a very
small area like space around a person and his devices. Here, a device only
communicates with other device only if it is range. Example is
communication of headset via Bluetooth with PC.
A Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) is a form of network
which is intended to spread over a limited geographical area like a city or
its suburb. 49
Wireless and Mobile The networks can also be classified based on licensed and unlicensed
Technology spectrum. Most WLAN, WPAN and WMAN use unlicensed spectrum
with some regulations on the transmission power levels and fair usage. On
the other hand, WWANs use licensed spectrum that is allocated to the
service provider by governmental regulatory authorities (in India it is
TRAI Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).
So, now let us see each type of network in detail.

3.3.1 Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN):


Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) connect devices within a very
small geographical area which is usually within a person’s reach (called as
Personal Operating Space POS, within a radius 10m). For e.g., Connection
between a Bluetooth headset and a laptop. This network is created
spontaneously and unobtrusively as and when the portable devices need to
communicate with one another. Three wireless standards are leading the
way for WPANs – Bluetooth, IrDA (Infrared Data Association) and IEEE
802.15.

The IEEE 802.15 Working Group for Wireless Personal Area Networks
was formed to develop standards for short range wireless PANs. Devices
on a PAN may include portable and mobile devices like PCs, PDAs, cell
phones, pagers, and electronic devices. In case of Bluetooth, a Master
device initiates communications and polls all responding Slave devices for
data as and when needed. Here, the network is supposed to be plug-and-
play. So self-configuration and service discovery are the major issues. As
there is on base station or APs here, the devices have to discover one
another and also each other’s capabilities. This is achieved using specific
self-configuration mechanisms and service discovery protocols.
Mechanisms are also needed to authenticate devices to one another and
establish keys for encrypted communications.

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50
Many different situations where WPAN is used are: Introduction to Wireless
Networks
 Connection of peripheral devices: Peripheral devices like keyboard,
mouse, joystick, headset, speakers etc. are connected wirelessly to
PC/computer.
 Support of ad-hoc networking: For e.g., few students may join a
lecture, with the teacher distributing data to their personal digital
assistants (PDAs). Wireless networks can support this type of
interaction as PDAs may have Bluetooth chips built-in them.
 Bridging of networks: Mobile phone could have a Bluetooth chip.
This mobile phone can act as a bridge between local piconet (A
piconet is a collection of Bluetooth devices which are synchronized to
same hopping pattern) and a GSM network. For e.g., on arrival at an
airport, a person’s mobile phone could receive an e-mail via GSM and
the same can be forwarded to his laptop which is still in his bag.
Using a piconet, a fileserver can update information stored on a laptop
or PDA while the person is entering the office.

Comparison of WPAN technologies:

Standard Frequency Operating Important Feature


Range
IrDA 875nm 1-2 meters Requires line-of-sight
wavelength communication
Bluetooth 2.4 GHz 10 meters to Automatic device
100 meters discovery, can
communicate through
physical obstacles.
IEEE 2.4 GHz 10 meters to Uses Bluetooth as the
802.15 100 meters foundation, coexists with
802.11 devices

3.3.2 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN):


WLANs consists of Mobile Stations (MS) and Base Stations (BS) which
are also called as Access Points (AP). APs connect to a fixed LAN which
connects to Internet via a router. The area which an AP covers is called as
Cell. Basic Service Set (BSS) consists of an AP, the cell it covers and all
the MSs connected to it. Extended Service Set (ESS) is set of all APs on
the same network and all the MSs connected to them. The wired network
that connects the APs is called as Distribution System (DS).

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

When a MS powers up, it creates and association with an AP. A MS


registers with an AP on the LAN. The AP is responsible for picking up the
packet intended for a MS and transmit it on air. All MSs in the BSS
receive the packet. Only the intended destination MS will keep the packet,
rest will discard it. APs communicate through DS when a MS hands off
from one AP to another. Handoff management scheme is very simple here.
This is the basic WLAN architecture.
WLANs are restricted in their diameter to buildings, a campus, single
rooms etc.
Two main standards exist for wireless local area networks – IEEE 802.11
and HiperLAN (High performance radio Local Area Network). WLANs
offer high flexibility and ease of network installation w.r.t to wired LAN.
A WLAN should provide full connectivity among attached stations along
with broadcast capability.

Advantages of WLANS are:


 Flexibility: Devices within radio coverage can communicate without
any physical obstacles. As radio signals can penetrate walls,
stations/devices can be placed anywhere.
 License-free operation: Operators do not need to apply for a special
license to be able to use the product. The equipment operates in a
license-free band such as 2.4 GHz band.
 No need of planning: Wireless network can be setup without
previous planning. Wired networks require wiring plans and layouts.
 Design: Wireless networks allow for the design of small, independent
devices which can easily fit into one’s pocket. Wireless networking
technology can be introduced without being visible.
 Robustness: Wireless networks are robust in nature. For e.g., in case
of natural calamities like earthquake, wired infrastructure may
52
52
completely break down whereas wireless network can still remain Introduction to Wireless
functional. Networks

 Easy to use: Wireless LANs are less complex as compared to


WWANs. They do not require complex management.
 Cost: No additional cost is incurred if the number of users increase.
When using a wired network, additional user has to be provided with
facility for plugging into the network which increases the cost.
Moreover, in wired networks, constant plugging and unplugging will
sooner or later damage the plugs. Wireless connections do not wear
out.

 Disadvantages of WLAN are:


 Quality of Service: Quality of service provided in WLANs is low as
compared to wired network. The main reasons for this are lower
bandwidth (radio transmission has its limitations), higher error rates
due to interference, higher delay due to error detection mechanisms.
 Safety and Security: Radio signals used in WLAN can interfere with
other high-tech equipment. The open radio interface makes
eavesdropping easier in WLANs than wired networks. All wireless
standards must provide encryption, privacy techniques and support for
anonymity.

3.3.3 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN):


A wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) is a form of network
which is intended to spread over a limited geographical area like a city or
its suburb. It generally covers an area larger than WLAN. It can be used to
connect several WLANs. In many cases, a WMAN is used to replace
existing wired broadband access, so it is also called as Wireless Local
Loop (WLL). WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access) is example of WMAN technology. WMAN can also work as
backup for wired networks.
Usually, a WAMN is owned by a single entity such as an Internet Service
Provider (ISP), government entity or a large corporation. Access to
WMAN is restricted to authorised users or subscriber devices.

53
Wireless and Mobile 3.3.4 Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN):
Technology
Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN) are wireless networks that cover
a very large geographical area like a state or a country. The wireless
connections between APs are usually point-to-point microwave links using
parabolic dishes using 2.4 GHz to 5.8 GHz bandwidth. Components of a
WWAN are base station gateways, access points and wireless bridging
relays.
A cellular telephone network is an example of a WWAN with
infrastructure mode. It also has by far the most complex architecture of all
wireless networks. WWAN services are typically delivered to smart
phones and other handheld devices sold by cellular service providers.

Comparison of WLAN, WMAN, WPAN and WWAN:


Network Coverage Performance Standards Applications
Type
Within a Bluetooth, Cable replacement
WPAN person’s Moderate Zigbee, IEEE for peripheral
reach 802.15, IrDA devices
Within a IEEE 802.11,
Mobile extension
WLAN building High Wi-Fi and
of wired networks
or campus HiperLAN
Fixed wireless
Within a connections
IEEE 802.16,
WMAN city or its High between homes
WiMAX
suburb and businesses and
the Internet
CPDP and
Mobile access to
World Cellular 2G,
WWAN Low Internet from
wide 2.5G, 3G, 4G
outdoor areas
and 5G

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54
3.4 EXERCISES Introduction to Wireless
Networks
1. What is the primary purpose of having Access Points and Network
Adapters?
2. Compare Wired network with Wireless Network
3. Write a short on ISM bands.
4. What are the essential components that comprise a wireless network?
5. Write a short note on Ad-hoc network.
6. Discuss Infrastructure-based network in detail
7. Compare WPAN with WLAN
8. Compare WLAN with WWAN
9. Discuss WLAN along with their advantages and disadvantages.

3.5 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES


1. Mobile Communications by Jochen H. Schiller – Pearson Education
2. Next Generation Wireless LANs by Eldad Perahia and Robert Stacey
– Cambridge University Press
3. Wireless Networks by Clint Smith and Daniel Collins – McGraw Hill
4. https://study-ccna.com/wireless-network-overview-types
5. https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/The-4-different-
types-of-wireless-networks

*****

55
4
IEEE 802.11 & IEEE 802.16
Unit Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction to IEEE 802.11 standard
4.2 IEEE 802.11 System Architecture
4.3 IEEE 802.11 Protocol Architecture
4.4 IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control Mechanisms
4.5 IEEE 802.11 MAC Frame Format
4.6 IEEE 801.11 MAC Management
4.7 Introduction to IEEE 802.16 standard
4.8 IEEE 802.16 Services
4.9 Amendments to IEEE 802.16 standard
4.10 Exercises
4.11 Additional References

4.0 OBJECTIVES
This chapter would make you understand the following concepts:
● Introduction to IEEE 802.11 standard.
● IEEE 802.11 System Architecture – Access Points, DS, BSS, ESS,
IBSS
● IEEE 802.11 Protocol Architecture – Physical Layer, Medium Access
Layer
● IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control mechanisms - Basic
DFWMAC-DCF using CSMA/CA, DFWMAC-DCF with RTS/CTS
extension, DFWMAC-PCF with Polling
● IEEE 802.11 MAC Frame Format – Control Frames, Data Frames
● IEEE 802.11 MAC Management – Synchronization, Power
Management, Roaming, MIB
● Introduction to IEEE 802.16 standard
● IEEE 802.16 Services
● Amendments to IEEE 802.16 standard

4.1 INTRODUCTION – IEEE 802.11 STANDARD


Two main standards exist for WLAN – IEEE 802.11 and HiperLAN (High
performance radio local area network).

56
IEEE 802.11 is the standard for wireless local area networks promoted by IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 1990, a special 802.16
devoted IEEE 802.11 working group was formed to develop a MAC
protocol and physical medium specification. This technology can be used
to implement wireless ad hoc networks as well as wireless infrastructure
networks. This standard provides specifications for a simple and robust
WLAN which offers time-bounded and asynchronous services. The 2.4
GHz ISM band available in most parts of the world was chosen for the
original standard. The original standard has been enhanced to 802.11a
(54Mbps at 5 GHz) and 802.11b (most popular standard) for higher data
rates.

4.2 IEEE 802.11 SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE


The below given diagram depicts the model of an infrastructure-based
network developed by IEEE 802.11 working group. In given diagram AP
stands for Access Points, STA stands for Stations, BSS stands for Basic
Service Set and ESS stands for Extended Service Set.
Several nodes known as Stations (STA) are connected to Access Points
(AP). Stations are the terminals with access mechanisms to wireless
medium and radio contact to the AP. Basic Service Set consists of stations
executing the same MAC protocol and access points which are within the
same radio coverage. BSS may be isolated or it may be connected to a
Distribution System (DS).

The given diagram shows two Basic Service Sets BSS1 and BSS2
connected via a distribution system. The AP functions as relay point or as
a bridge. If one station wants to communicate with another station in the
same BSS, a MAC frame is sent by the source station to AP which is then
forwarded by AP to destination station. Similarly, if a station wants to
communicate with a remote station, then a MAC frame is first sent from
local source station to AP which then relays it over distributed system on
57
Wireless and Mobile its way to remote destination. The DS handles data transfer between
Technology different APs. APs are responsible for synchronization within a BSS and
provide time-bounded service.
The Distribution System (DS) can be a switch, a wired network or a
wireless network. The DS connects multiple BSSs via the access points to
form a single large network thereby expanding the wireless coverage area.
This extended network now forms Extended Service Set (ESS). Each ESS
has its own ID (ESSID) which is the name of the network and it is used to
separate different networks. One requires the ESSID to access WLAN.
The distribution system connects the wireless networks via the access
points with a portal which forms the interworking unit to other LANs.
The below given diagram depicts the model of an ad-hoc wireless network
developed by IEEE 802.11 working group. This network is known as ‘ad-
hoc’ as it does not depend on a pre-existing infrastructure or APs as in
infrastructure-based wireless networks. Here there are independent BSSs
(IBSS). A single IBSS consists of a set of stations which use the same
radio frequency. The nodes within a single IBSS communicate with each
other directly (without any intervention of AP). We can create ad-hoc
networks in virtually any environment at any given time as it does not
need setting up any extra hardware.

4.3 IEEE 802.11 PROTOCOL ARCHITECTURE


IEEE 802.11 standard defines Physical Layer (PHY) and Medium
Access Layer (MAC):
The fundamental tasks of MAC layer are medium access, fragmentation of
user data and encryption. The MAC layer provides contention-based as
well as contention-free access control on variety of physical layers. This
standard provides two physical layer specifications for radio (frequency
hopping spread spectrum and direct sequence spread spectrum) and one
specification for infrared.
The physical layer (PHY) is divided into two sub-layers Physical Layer
Convergence Protocol layer (PLCP) and Physical Medium Dependent
Layer (PMD). PLCP provides a common Service Access Point (SAP)
independent of the underlying transmission mechanism to the MAC layer.
PMD is responsible for modulation and encoding/decoding of signals.

58
58
Apart from the PHY and MAC layers, the standard also defines IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
Management layers and Station management. MAC Management controls 802.16
authentication mechanisms, encryption, synchronization of a station with
AP (association and re-association of a station to an AP and roaming
between various APs). The main job of PHY management is channel
tuning. Station management interacts with both management layers and
controls bridging and interaction with DS in case of AP.

4.4 IEEE 802.11 MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL


MECHANISMS
The basic access method used in MAC layer is Distributed Coordination
Function (DCF) which is based on CSMA/CA MAC protocol. Apart from
DCF, it also implements Point Coordination Function (PCF) as an
additional access method. PCF ensures frame transmissions in a
contention-free way. DCF only provides asynchronous service whereas
PCF offers both asynchronous and time-bound service but requires an
access point to control medium access and to avoid contention. MAC
mechanisms are also called as Distributed Foundation Wireless Medium
Access Control (DFWMAC).

Basic DFWMAC-DCF using CSMA/CA:


The basic access mechanism (DCF access mechanism) includes a set of
delays. A single delay is known as Interframe Space IFS.
In this basic access mechanism, the station before initiating a transmission,
senses the channel/medium to determine whether it is idle or busy. If the
channel is busy then it can be due to data or control frames transmitted by
other stations. If the channel is idle for an interval that exceeds the
Distributed Interframe Space (DIFS), the station continues with its
transmission.
To ensure fair access to the shared channel, a station that has just finished
transmitting a packet and is ready to transmit more, should perform the
‘backoff procedure’ before transmitting next packet. A random interval
referred to as ‘backoff interval’ is selected which initiates the backoff
timer. The backoff timer is decreased for as long as the channel is detected
to be idle. It is stopped when a transmission is sensed on the channel and
reactivated when channel becomes idle again for more than a DIFS.
59
Wireless and Mobile The station transmits when the backoff timer reaches zero. A technique
Technology known as ‘Exponential Backoff’ is implemented to ensure that backoff
maintains stability. This technique provides a way to handle heavy load.
Repeated failed attempts to transmit results in longer and longer backoff
times, which helps to smooth out the load. Without such backoff, stations
attempting to transmit at the same time will keep on causing repeated
collisions.
The below given flowchart explains the steps in transmission at MAC
layer:

The time immediately following an idle DIFS is slotted. A station is


allowed to transmit only at the beginning of each slot. Once the receiver
receives the packet without any errors, then immediate positive
acknowledgement ACK is sent to ensure successful reception of the
packet. The ACK is sent after a time interval Short Interframe Space SIFS
which is less than DIFS. If the ACK is not received, the packet is
considered to have been lost in the transit and a retransmission is
60
60
scheduled. An ACK is not sent if the received packet is corrupted. After IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
an erroneous frame is detected, the channel must remain idle for at least an 802.16
Extended Interframe Space EIFS interval before the stations reactivate
the backoff procedure.
PCF Interframe Space PIFS is a waiting time between DIFS and SIFS
and is used for time-bound service. PIFS is defined as SIFS + one time
slot. An AP which polls other stations has to wait for PIFS for accessing
the medium.

DFWMAC-DCF With RTS/CTS Extension:


The basic access mechanism can be extended by an RTS/CTS (Request
to send/Clear to send) mechanism. RTS/CTS mechanism solves the
Hidden Station problem during the transmission of data. Hidden station
problem is a transmission problem that arises when two or more stations
which are not in range of each other transmit simultaneously to a common
third station thereby causing collision of the frames at the third station.
After gaining an access to the medium (after waiting for DIFS) and before
initiating the transmission of packet itself, a short control packet RTS is
sent to the destination station announcing of the upcoming transmission.
This RTS packet consists of destination station address and time required
to transmit the whole data frame and its acknowledgement. Every other
station receiving this RTS packet sets its Net Allocation Vector NAV
based on the time interval specified in the packet. The NAV specifies the
point when the station can try accessing the medium at the earliest. The
destination station replies by sending a CTS control packet to notify the
readiness to receive the data after waiting for SIFS. CTS packet repeats
the time interval field. All the stations receiving CTS packet adjusts their
NAV. Note that the stations receiving CTS need not be the same ones
receiving the corresponding RTS packet. With this all the stations within
the range of source and destination station are notified to wait for more
time before accessing the channel.
Finally, the source station sends data packet after SIFS. The destination
waits for SIFS before acknowledging the received data packet. The
transmission is said to be complete now, thereby modifying NAV in each
node. NAV in each node now marks the medium as free.

61
Wireless and Mobile In this mechanism, collisions can occur when two stations start sending
Technology RTS simultaneously. This mechanism results in non-negligible overhead
leading to wastage of bandwidth and higher delays.

DFWMAC-PCF With Polling:


This mechanism which provides a time-bound service, includes Polling by
the centralized polling master / point coordinator. PCF uses point
coordinator which is implemented in AP. The point coordinator uses PIFS
while issuing polls.
Consider a wireless network with time-sensitive traffic where multiple
stations are controlled by point coordinator. Point coordinator issues polls
in a round-robin fashion to all the stations which are configured for
polling. A station responds using SIFS when a poll is issued. If point
coordinator gets a response, it issues another poll using PIFS. If it does not
get a response during the expected time interval, then it again issues a poll.
If this continues then, all the asynchronous traffic will be locked out as
there are repeated polls issued by point coordinator. To avoid this
scenario, superframe interval is defined. The point coordinator in AP splits
the access time into super frame periods which is contention-free period +
contention period. During the first section of this interval, point
coordinator issues polls in round-robin fashion to all the stations which are
configured for polling. Point coordinator then idles for the remainder
section of the superframe interval, thereby allowing a contention period
for asynchronous traffic. The contention period can be used for the two
access mechanisms mentioned above.

The above diagram depicts the usage of superframe. At the beginning of


the superframe interval, the point coordinator issues polls for certain time
interval. This interval varies as responding stations issue variable size
frames. The remaining of the superframe interval is available for
contention-based access. At the end of the superframe interval, the point
coordinator contends for access to the channel using PIFS. If the medium
is free, then point coordinator gets immediate access and again a
superframe interval cycle follows. If the medium is busy at the end of the
superframe interval, then the point coordinator waits for the medium to
become idle. This creates a shortened superframe interval for the next
cycle.

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The problem with this method is overhead when the nodes have nothing to IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
transmit, but the AP polls them permanently. 802.16

4.5 IEEE 802.11 MAC FRAME FORMAT


The below given diagram shows the basic structure of IEEE 802.11
standard MAC data frame where no security features are included. The
fields are as follows:
1. Frame Control: This field indicates the type of frame and includes
control information.
2. Duration/Connection ID: If this 2-byte field contains value less than
32768 then it is used as Duration field indicating the time interval for
which the medium is going to remain busy. This value is used for
setting NAV in RTC/CTS mechanism. If this field contains value
above 32768 then it is used for association or connection identifier.
3. Address (1 to 4): The number and meaning of the 48-bit address
fields depend on the context. The meaning of each address depends on
the DS subfield of the frame control field. It is explained in detail later
on.
4. Sequence: In this 2-byte field, 4 bits contains information used for
fragmentation and reassembly and remaining 12 bits are used to
number the frames sent by the transmitter and receiver. This field
helps in eliminating duplicates.
5. Data: This field contains arbitrary data unit called as MSDU (MAC
Service Data Unit) or a fragment of MSDU (max size 2312 bytes) or
MAC control information. MSDU is LLC protocol data unit.
6. Frame Check Sequence: This field contains 4-byte CRC used in
error detection of the received frame.

Frame Control field (2-byte field) has following subfields:


1. Protocol Version: This 2-bit field currently contains value 0 which is
the current 802.11 protocol version.
2. Type: This field helps to differentiate the frame as Control frame
(Bits 01), Management frame (Bits 00) or Data frame (Bits 10). The
value 11 is currently reserved for future use.
63
Wireless and Mobile 3. Subtype: This field further identifies the function of the frame. The
Technology below given table gives the valid type and subtype combinations.
Type Type Subtype Subtype Description
Value Description Value
0000 Association Request – Sent by a station to
AP to request an association with this
BSS.
0001 Association Response – Returned by AP to
the station as a response to association
request.
0010 Reassociation Request – Sent by a station
which moves into new BSS and needs to
make an association with AP in new BSS.
0011 Reassociation Response - Returned by AP
to the station as a response to reassociation
request.
0100 Probe Request – Used to locate BSS info
from another station or AP.
Manageme
00 0101 Probe Response – Response to probe
nt
request.
1000 Beacon – transmitted periodically to allow
stations to locate and identify a BSS.
1001 Traffic Indication – Sent by a station to
indicate that it has buffered frames which
are waiting to be delivered to their
destination stations.
1010 Dissociation – Used by a station to end an
association.
1011 Authentication – Used to authenticate
stations.
1100 De-authentication – Sent by a station to
another station or AP to notify the
termination of secure communications.
1010 Power save-poll (PS Poll)
1011 Request to send (RTS)
1100 Clear to send (CTS)
01 Control
1101 Acknowledgement (ACK)
1110 Contention-Free (CF) end
1111 CF end + CF ACK
0000 Data
0001 Data + CF ACK
0011 Data + CF ACK + CF Poll
10 Data 0100 Null Function (No Data)
0101 CF ACK (no data)
0110 CF Poll (no data)
0111 CF ACK + CF Poll (no data)
64
64
4. To DS: This 1-bit field is set to 1 in a frame destined to the IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
distribution system. 802.16

5. From DS: This 1-bit field is set to 1 in a frame leaving the


distribution system.
6. More Fragments: This field is set to 1 if more fragments follow this
current frame.
7. Retry: This field is set to 1 if this is a retransmission of a previous
frame. With the help of this 1-bit field, the receiver can easily identify
and eliminate duplicate frames.
8. Power Management: This field is set to 1 if the station goes to sleep
mode (power saving mode) after successful transmission of the
current frame. If this field is set to 0, it indicates that the station will
remain in active mode.
9. More Data: This field indicates whether the source station has more
data to send. Each block of data may be sent as one frame or a group
of fragments in multiple frames.
10. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP): This field indicates whether the
standard security mechanisms are applied or not.
11. Order: If this field is set to 1, the destination station should process
the received frames in strict order.
MAC Address field: MAC frames are exchanged between various
stations, between stations and APs, between APs over DS. The subfields
‘To DS’ and ‘From DS’ help you differentiate between these cases and
control the meaning of four addresses used. The below given tables lists
the possible values of DS fields and its interpretation.

To DS From DS Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Address 4


0 0 DA SA BSSID -
0 1 DA BSSID SA -
1 0 BSSID SA DA -
1 1 RA TA DA SA

The Transmitter Address (TA) and Receiver Address (RA) are the MAC
addresses of the stations connected to the BSS (Basic Service Set) that are
sending and receiving data over WLAN. The Basic Service Set ID
(BSSID) identifies the WLAN over which the frame is transmitted. The
Source Address (SA) and Destination Address (DA) are the MAC
addresses of stations, that are the final source and destination of the frame
being transmitted. The SA may be identical to TA and DA may be
identical to RA.

65
Wireless and Mobile Control Frames:
Technology
Control frames help in reliable delivery of the packets. There are 6 control
frames defined in this standard. They are as follows –
PS Poll (Power Save Poll):
This frame is sent by any station which was in power saving mode to AP.
Its sole purpose is to request AP to transmit frame that was buffered for
this station while the station was in sleep mode.

RTS (Request to Send):


RTS packet is sent for alerting the potential destination and all the other
stations within the reception range about the upcoming data frame
transmission. This packet contains the receiver address of the destination
and transmitter address transmitting this RTS packet.

CTS (Clear to Send):


CTS packet is sent by the destination to the source station to grant
permission to transmit the data frame. This packet copies the transmitter
address from the received RTS packet into its receiver address field.

ACK (Acknowledgement):
ACK frame is used to acknowledge the error-free reception of a data,
management or PS Poll frame.

CF End (Contention Free End):


This frame is used to indicate the end of the contention free period which
is a part of PCF.

CF End + CF ACK:
This frame acknowledges CF End frame. This frame releases the stations
from the restrictions associated with Contention Free period.

Data Frames:
The four data carrying frames are:
● Data: This is the simplest data frame which carries data in contention
as well as contention free period.
● Data + CF ACK: This frame is sent only during the contention free
period. It carries data and acknowledgement of the previously
received data.
● Data + CF Poll: This frame is used by the point coordinator to
deliver data to a station and also to request the station to send the
buffered data frame.

66
66
● Data + CF ACK + CF Poll: This frame combines the functionality of IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
Data, CF ACK and CF poll frames into a single frame. 802.16

4.6 IEEE 802.11 MAC MANAGEMENT


MAC management plays an important role in integration of a wireless
station into a BSS, formation of ESS, synchronization of stations etc.

Synchronization:
This covers functions regarding synchronization of internal clocks, finding
a WLAN, generating beacon signals etc. Each node in wireless network
maintains an internal clock. Synchronization of these clocks needed for
power management and coordination of PCF. Within a BSS, timing is
conveyed by regularly transmitting a beacon frame. A beacon frame
contains a timestamp and information used for power management and
identification of BSS. The timestamp in beacon is used to stay
synchronized. In infrastructure-based networks AP sends the beacon
frame. The timestamp always reflects the real transmit time, not the
scheduled time. For ad-hoc networks, in the absence of AP, each station
maintains its own synchronization timer and transmits beacon frame after
the beacon interval.

Power Management:
This covers functions related to power conservation as wireless devices
are mostly battery powered. Power saving mechanisms involves two states
for a station – sleep and active/awake. If a source wants to communicate
with a sleeping receiver station, then it has to buffer the data. The sleeping
station should become active periodically and stay active for a certain time
period. During this time period, all source stations can announce the
destinations of the buffered frames. In infrastructure-based networks, the
AP buffers all the frames destined for sleeping destinations. In ad-hoc
networks, as there is no AP to buffer the frames, each station needs the
ability to buffer data if it wants to communicate with a sleeping station.

Roaming:
This covers functions regarding joining a network, changing APs and
scanning for APs. Roaming is nothing but moving between various APs
with uninterrupted service. If a station experiences poor quality link to its
AP, then the station starts scanning for another AP. Scanning can be
Passive or Active. Scanning involves searching for another new BSS. The
station then chooses the best AP for roaming (based on features like signal
strength etc) and sends an association request to the chosen AP. The new
AP responds by sending association response. If the response is successful
then the station gets associated with new AP otherwise it continues
scanning for new APs. The new AP (which responded positively) now
informs DS about the new station in its BSS. The DS then updates the
location of the station in its database. DS can also notify the old AP
regarding the change.
67
Wireless and Mobile Management Information Base (MIB):
Technology
Information regarding current state of a wireless station and AP are stored
within a MIB for internal and external access. Access to MIB can be done
using standard protocols like Simple Network Management Protocol
(SNMP).

4.7 INTRODUCTION - IEEE 802.16


IEEE 802.16 is a set of standards that define the specifications for
Wireless Broadband Technology. Commercially it is known as Worldwide
Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX). This standard specifies
the standards for both physical layer and medium access layer.

This standard is designed based on a simple abstract system model given


in below diagram:

IEEE 80.16 standard defines a communication channel between a


subscriber site (a single device or a LAN, PBX or IP-based network) and a
core network (e.g., public telephone network or Internet). This model
defines three interfaces. IEEE 802.16 standards are concerned with the air
interface between the subscriber’s transceiver station (STS) and base
transceiver station (BTS). This model also defines interfaces between
transceiver stations and the networks in their backgrounds which are STS
network interface (SNI) and BTS network interface (BNI). The air
interface specification allows the possibility of repeaters to bypass
obstructions and extend cell coverage.

The above diagram shows three categories of delay defined in 802.16


standard.

● Medium access delay: Once a transceiver station is ready to transmit,


the medium access delay measures the amount of time that the station
must wait before it can transmit.

● Transit delay: This is delay between SNI and BNI. It includes the
MAC delay combined with the processing at the MAC layer for
preparing transmission from STS or BTS and at the MAC layer for
reception at STS or BTS.

68
68
● End-to-End delay: The total delay between a subscriber terminal to IEEE 802.11 & IEEE
the ultimate service beyond the core network. This also includes 802.16
transit delay.

4.8 IEEE 802.16 SERVICES


IEEE 802.16 is designed to support the following services:
1. Digital audio/video multicast: Transmits one-way digital
audio/video streams to the subscribers. E.g., Broadcast Radio, Digital
Broadcast Cable TV, Digital Satellite TV etc.
2. Digital Telephony: Supports multiplexed digital telephony streams.
This service provides a replacement for wired access to the public
telephone network.
3. ATM: Provides a communications link that supports the transfer of
ATM cells as a part of an overall ATM network.
4. Internet Protocol: Supports the transfer of IP datagrams.
5. Bridged LAN: A bridge LAN service enables transfer of data
between two LANs with switching at MAC layer.
6. Frame relay: Frame relay uses variable-length frames in contrast to
the fixed length cells of ATM.

4.9 AMENDMENTS TO IEEE 802.16 STANDARD


The 802.16 standard is still a developing standard by IEEE. Various
committees are working on the amendments to this standard. These
amendments are either currently active or still in development. Following
are the few amendments:

802.16f:
This was published as the first amendment to 802.16 standard at the end of
year 2005. It defines a Management Information Base (MIB) for the MAC
and PHY layers and associated management procedures. This provides a
means for a Service Flow Database containing current service flow and
quality of service (QoS) information to be transmitted to base stations and
subscriber stations when a new subscriber station enters into a base station
network. The addition of this functionality allows for meshed and multi-
hop networking to be used.

802.16e:
This was published as the second amendment to 802.16 standard in
January 2006. It addressed PHY and MAC layers for fixed and mobile
wireless operations in the licensed radio bands. It provides a means for
higher layer handover between base stations thereby providing better
support for mobile substations.
69
Wireless and Mobile There are multiple proposed amendments to 802.16 standard that are still
Technology in development. All these are seeking to improve various aspects of the
existing standard.

Following table gives a glimpse of these ongoing projects:

Amendment Project Name


802.16i Mobile Management Information Base (Mobile MIB)
802.16j Mobile Multi-hop Relay
802.16k Bridging of 802.16

4.10 EXERCISES
1. Explain in brief what is IEEE 802.11 standard?
2. Explain the terms Access Points, Distribution System, Basic Service
Set, Extended Service Set and Independent BSS in detail.
3. What is the ad-hoc model developed by IEEE 802.11 working group?
4. Explain the Physical and MAC layer in the protocol stack of IEEE
802.11 standard.
5. Compare DCF with PCF
6. Explain the Distributed Foundation Wireless Medium Access Control
mechanisms in brief.
7. Explain the Frame Control field in detail.
8. What are the various types of Control Frames defined in this
standard?
9. Write a short note on MAC management.
10. Explain the different categories of delay w.r.t IEEE 802.16.
11. What are the various services provided by 802.16 standard?
12. What are the various ongoing research projects taken up by IEEE to
improve the various aspects of 802.16 standard?
4.11 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
● 802.11 Wireless Networks The Definitive Guide by Matthew Gast –
Oreily Publications
● Wireless Networking – Introduction to Bluetooth and WiFi by
Gordon Colbach
● WiMAX Forum – An industry group promoting the interoperability of
802.16 products
● www.tutorialspoint.com/the-802-16-architecture

*****

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5
BLUETOOTH
Unit Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction to Bluetooth standard
5.2 Bluetooth Network
5.3 Bluetooth Protocol Architecture
5.4 Bluetooth Device
5.5 Bluetooth Packet Format
5.6 Bluetooth Services
5.7 Future of Bluetooth Technology
5.8 Exercises
5.9 Additional References

5.0 OBJECTIVES
This chapter would make you understand the following concepts:
● Introduction to Bluetooth standard, History of Bluetooth, Bluetooth
standard documents
● Bluetooth Network, Bluetooth state transition, Connected State
● Bluetooth Protocol Architecture - Core protocols, Cable replacement
protocols, telephony control protocols and adopted protocols
● Bluetooth Device – SCO link and ACL link.
● Bluetooth Packet Format – Access Code, Packet Header, Payload
● Popular Bluetooth Services
● Future enhancements in Bluetooth technology

5.1 INTRODUCTION TO BLUETOOTH STANDARD


Bluetooth is a global standard for wireless connectivity. It is a technology
that eliminates the need for cables between communicating devices. It
provides fast, reliable and secure wireless transmission based on short-
range radio using globally available frequency (license-free 2.45GHz ISM
band). It can be used for communication between devices like PC,
mobiles, headsets, handheld computers, printers, keyboards, mouse, LANs
etc. The Bluetooth specifications are released by the Bluetooth Special
Interest Group (SIG). Moreover, in 1999 the IEEE 802.15 Working Group
for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) also publish and approve
Bluetooth standard specifications. This group develop standards for
wireless communications within a personal operating space (POS). A POS
is defined as an area of radius 10 meters around the device communicating
with other devices.
71
Wireless and Mobile History of Bluetooth:
Technology

In 1994, Ericsson in Sweden launched an initiative to study a low-power,


low-cost radio interface between mobile phones and their accessories. In
1998, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia formed SIG for the
promotion and development of Bluetooth technology. As biggies from the
computing and networking industry were in SIG, thousands of small
companies joined hands with SIG for the endorsement and expansion of
Bluetooth technology. In 2001, the first product hit the market. The name
‘Bluetooth’ has an interesting heritage behind it. Bluetooth is named after
the 10th century Viking King Harald Blatand (Blatand meaning Bluetooth
in Swedish). He was instrumental in uniting the Baltic region countries
like Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Similarly, Bluetooth also aims at
uniting the computing and telecommunication world thereby achieving
same greatness.

The striking features of Bluetooth technology are as given below:


● Cable replacement: Getting rid of different types of cables and wires
which were need for connectivity was one of the main reasons behind
developing this wireless technology.
● Small Size: Bluetooth device is very lightweight and small in size so
it can be easily attached to any electronic device without any
difficulty. In fact, Bluetooth radio can be built into a small microchip
and can be integrated in any electronic device where wireless
operation is needed.
● Low Power: The Bluetooth radio is a very economical technology,
limiting its output power exactly to what is required. As it is a short-
range device, it requires small batteries, so the power utilization is
very less.
● Worldwide Operation: We can use Bluetooth anywhere. The radio
operates in 2.45GHz band, which is license free and available to any
radio system in the world.
● Link Establishment: We can establish a link between 2 devices
almost instantly. For the link to be functional, devices need not be in
line-of-sight range.
● Robust Link: Here, under normal circumstances, we will not be
disturbed or interfered from other radio signals which are operating in

72
the same frequency range, as this technology provides us with a Bluetooth
robust link.
● Data or Voice: We can use this technology for data as well as voice
communication simultaneously.
● Range: Bluetooth is based on short-range radio transmission. The
normal range of Bluetooth radio is 10 meters but it can be extended to
100 meters with an optional amplifier.
● Bandwidth: A Bluetooth radio link has a maximum data transfer of
724 kbit/s. Data rate for voice channel is 64 kbit/s.
● Security: Authentication and Encryption ensure high level of
security. Link privacy is maintained and eavesdropping is prevented.

Bluetooth Standards Documents:


Documentation on Bluetooth is divided into two sections:
● Core Specifications: This describes how the technology works. It
includes details of Bluetooth protocol architecture, interoperability
with related technologies, testing requirements, various Bluetooth
timers and their associated values.
● Profile Specifications: This describes how the technology is to be
used. It includes how different parts of the core specifications can be
used to satisfy a desired functionality for a Bluetooth-enabled device.
The purpose of profile specification is to define a standard of
interoperability so that products from various vendors can work
together.

5.2 BLUETOOTH NETWORK


The Bluetooth system supports both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint
connections. The basic unit of networking in Bluetooth is a Piconet. A
piconet contains a master station and up to seven active slaves
simultaneously connected in an ad-hoc manner. The master determines the
hopping pattern in the piconet and slaves have to synchronize to this
pattern. Each piconet has a unique hopping pattern. There can be up to 256
parked slaves. Parked slaves are the devices who cannot actively
participate in the piconet but are known and they can be reactivated within
milliseconds. Devices in stand-by mode do not participate in the piconet.
If a parked device wants to communicate and there are already seven
active slaves, then one slave has to switch to parked mode to allow the
parked device to switch to active mode. The reason behind having only 8
active devices (1 Master + 7 Active Slaves) is the 3-bit address used in
Bluetooth.

73
Wireless and Mobile The below given diagram shows a simple Bluetooth piconet:
Technology

Independent piconets that have overlapping coverage areas may form a


Scatternet. Slaves in one piconet can be Master or Slave in another
piconet. Up to 10 fully loaded piconets can coexist in a scatternet. Any
device belonging to multiple piconets employ TDM (time division
multiplexing). This means that, a station can only transmit on the single
piconet to which its clock is synchronized at that time. To transmit in other
piconet, it has to modify its synchronization parameters.

Two piconets cannot have same master as then both piconets will have
same hopping pattern. Communication between various piconets takes
place by devices jumping back and forth between these piconets. Note that
scatternets are not yet supported by all devices.
The advantage of the piconet/scatternet scheme is that it allows multiple
devices to share and use the same physical area and make efficient use of
bandwidth.

Bluetooth State Transition:


Overall state flow of Bluetooth communication in a piconet is depicted in
below given state transition diagram.
74
Bluetooth

There are 2 major states:


● Standby: A device which is currently not a part of ant piconet is in
Standby mode (default mode). In this low-power mode only the
native-clock runs.
● Connection: The device is connected to a piconet as a master or a
slave. Once in this mode, both master and slave can send and receive
the data.
There are 7 interim substates which are used to add new slaves to the
piconet. They are as follows:
● Page: It is used by master to activate and connect to a slave. Master
sends page message by transmitting slave’s access code on different
hop frequencies.
● Page Scan: In this state device listens for a page with its access code.
● Master Response: Master receives a page response from a slave. The
device can now go to Connected state or return to Page state to page
other slaves.
● Slave Response: Slave responds to a page from master. If connection
setup is successful then device goes to Connected State otherwise it
returns to Page Scan state.
● Inquiry: Device has issued an inquiry, to discover the identity of the
devices within the range.
● Inquiry Scan: Device listens for inquiry.

75
Wireless and Mobile ● Inquiry Response: A device which had earlier issued inquiry
Technology receives an inquiry response.

Connected State:
Once the slave is in Connected state, it can be in one of the following
modes:
● Active: The slave actively participates in the piconet by listening,
transmitting and receiving packets. For maintaining synchronization,
the master periodically transmits to the slaves.
● Sniff: The slave listens (sniffs) only on specified slots for its
messages. It remains in reduced power status for the rest of the
duration thereby reducing its duty cycle. The sniff interval is
negotiated between master and slave.
● Hold: Here the device is in reduced power status. It does not support
ACL packets, supports only SCO packets. During periods of no
activity, the device is free to engage in another piconet exchanges.
● Park: In this mode, the device is still synchronized with the piconet
but does not participate in the traffic. It is a low power mode with
very little to no activity. Parked devices give up their active member
address (MAC address) and are given a parking member address.

5.3 BLUETOOTH PROTOCOL ARCHITECTURE


Bluetooth is defined by a layered protocol architecture consisting of Core
protocols, Cable replacement protocols, telephony control protocols and
adopted protocols.

The core protocols of Bluetooth include the following:


1. Bluetooth Radio:
It is the lowest layer which provides physical links among Bluetooth
devices. It specifies details of the air interface, including frequency, the
use of frequency hopping, modulation scheme and transmit power.
Bluetooth uses license-free frequency band at 2.4GHz allowing worldwide
operations. A frequency hopping/ time-division duplex scheme is used for
transmission with a fast-hopping rate of 1600 hops per second. The time

76
between two hops is called as slot which is of 625µs. Each slot uses a Bluetooth
different frequency. This bandwidth is sufficient to define 79 1MHz
physical channels. Modulation for Bluetooth is Gaussian FSK with a
binary one represented by a positive frequency deviation and binary zero
represented by a negative frequency deviation from the center frequency.
The minimum deviation is 115kHz. Bluetooth transceivers are available in
3 classes:
● Class 1: Maximum power is 100mW and minimum is 1mW. Power
control is mandatory. Designed for long range (approx. 100m)
● Class 2: Maximum power is 2.5mW, nominal power is 1mW and
minimum power is 0.25mW. Power control is optional. Designed for
ordinary range (approx. 10m)
● Class 3: Maximum power is 1mW.

2. Baseband:
This layer manages connection establishment within a piconet apart from
other services like addressing, packet formatting, timing and power
control. This layer specifications are the most complex of the Bluetooth
documents.

3. Link Manager Protocol (LMP):


This layer is responsible for the set-up and management of physical links,
monitoring the status of physical channel and assuring a prefixed quality
of service. It also deals with authentication, encryption, control and
negotiation of baseband packet sizes etc.

4. Logical Link Control and Adaption Control (L2CAP):


This layer adapts the upper layer protocols to the lower baseband layer.
This layer supports higher level protocol multiplexing, packet
segmentation and reassembly, and conveying the QoS information. It
provides both connectionless and connection-oriented services.

5. Service Discovery Protocol (SDP):


This provides a means for applications to discover which services are
provided by or available through a Bluetooth device. It also allows
applications to determine the features of those available services.
On the top of L2CAP is the cable replacement protocol RFCOMM. It
presents a virtual serial port which is designed to replace the cable
technology. As we know Serial port is one of the most popular
communication interfaces used with computing and communication
devices. RFCOMM enables the replacement of serial port cables with
minimum modifications to existing devices. It emulates EIA-232 (RS-232)
control signals over Bluetooth baseband layer.
The telephony control protocol like TCS BIN is a bit-oriented protocol. It
defines the call control signaling for the establishment of voice and data
77
Wireless and Mobile calls between Bluetooth devices. It also supports mobility and group
Technology management functions.
The adopted protocols like PPP, TCP/UDP/IP, OBEX, WAE/WAP are
adopted in the Bluetooth standard.

Core Protocols:
SDP – Service Discovery Protocol
L2CAP – Logical Link Control and Adaption Protocol
LMP – Link Manager Protocol

Cable Replacement Protocols:

RFCOMM – Radio Frequency Communications

Telephony Control Protocols:

AT – Attention Sequence (modem prefix)

TCS BIN – Telephony Control Specification – binary

Adopted Protocols:
IP – Internet Protocol
vCard/vCal – Virtual Card/ Virtual Calendar
OBEX – Object Exchange Protocol
WAE – Wireless Application Environment
WAP – Wireless Application Protocol
UDP – User Datagram Protocol
TCP – Transmission Control Protocol
PPP – Point-to-Point Protocol
78
5.4 BLUETOOTH DEVICE Bluetooth

A Bluetooth unit consists of a radio unit operating in 2.4GHz band. This


bandwidth is sufficient to define 79 1MHz different radio frequency (RF)
channels. The radio layer utilizes the Frequency Hopping Spread
Spectrum (FHSS) as its transmission mechanism. The FHSS system has
been selected to reduce the interference of nearby devices operating in the
similar frequency range and to make the link robust. The nominal hopping
rate between 2 immediate RF is 1600 hop/sec. A time-division duplex
(TDD) scheme of transmission is used. Using TDD prevents crosstalk
between transmit and receive operations in the transceiver. The channel is
divided into time slots, each 625µs in length and each slot corresponds to
a different RF hop frequency. The timeslots are numbered based on
master’s Bluetooth clock. The master always starts its transmission in
even-numbered slots. Odd-numbered slots are reserved for the beginning
of slave’s transmission. Normally, the transmission of a packet covers a
single slot, but packet lengths requiring 3 or 5 time slots are also allowed.
In case of multi-slot packets, the RF hop frequency used for the entire
packet is the RF hop frequency assigned to the time slot in which the
transmission began. That means for multi-slot packets, the radio remains
at the same frequency until the entire packet has been sent. Multi-slot
packets allow higher data rates as the elimination of the turn-around time
between packets and the reduction in header overhead.

There are two types of physical links that can be established between
Bluetooth devices – a synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) link and an
asynchronous connection-less (ACL) link.

Synchronous Connection-oriented (SCO) link:


This type of link is a point-to-point, symmetric connection between master
and a specific slave. It is used to carry delay-sensitive traffic like voice
data. Here, a couple of consecutive slots are reserved for master-to-slave
transmission and its immediate slave-to-master response. A master can
support up to 3 simultaneous SCO links to the same slave or to different
slaves. A slave supports up to 2 links from different masters or up to 3
links from the same master.

79
Wireless and Mobile Asynchronous Connection-less (ACL) link:
Technology
This is a connection between master and all slaves participating in the
piconet. An ACL channel supports point-to-multipoint transmissions from
master to slaves.

The above diagram depicts a pattern of transmissions in a piconet having


one master and two slaves. Slave 1 has both SCO and ACL links with the
master whereas Slave 2 has only ACL link with the master. Polling
scheme is used to manage the channel access. The master decides which
slave can have access to the medium by sending a packet. This packet may
contain data or it may be a simple poll packet. When a slave receives a
packet from the master, it is authorized to transmit the response in next
time slot as it is reserved for the same. In the above diagram, SCO link is
polled periodically by the master whereas ACL link is polled
asynchronously. Size of the packets on ACL link is restricted by the
existence of SCO link. Note that in the above diagram, the master sends a
multi-slot packet to Slave 2, which in turn can respond only with a single-
slot packet as the successive slots are reserved for SCO link.

5.5 BLUETOOTH PACKETS


The packet format used in Bluetooth is as follows:

It consists of 3 fields:
● Access Code: This field is used for timing synchronization, piconet
identification, offset compensation, paging and enquiry.
● Header: This field is used to determine the type of the packet. It also
carries protocol control information.
● Payload: Using this field data (or voice) of maximum 343 bytes can
be sent. The structure of this field depends on the link type. It also
contains payload header in most cases.
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Access Code: Bluetooth

As shown in the above diagram, Access code field consists of 4 bits


preamble, 64 bits synchronization and 4-bit trailer subfields. There are 3
types of access codes:
● Channel Access Code (CAC): It identifies a piconet.
● Device Access Code (DAC): It is used for paging and its successive
responses.
● Inquiry Access Code (IAC): It is used for inquiry purposes. There
are two types of IACs. The general IAC (GIAC) is a general inquiry
message used to discover the other Bluetooth devices in the range. A
dedicated IAC (DIAC) is used in dedicated group of Bluetooth units
that share common characteristics.
The access code is used for packet identification. Every packet exchanged
on the piconet is preceded by its access code.
The preamble is used for DC compensation. If the least significant bit in
Sync subfield is 0 then the pattern in preamble subfield is 0101. If the least
significant bit in Sync subfield is 1 then the pattern in preamble subfield is
1010.
If the most significant bit in Sync subfield is 0 then the pattern in trailer
subfield is 1010. If the most significant bit in Sync subfield is 1 then the
pattern in trailer subfield is 0101.
The 64-bit Sync subfield comprises of 3 components. Each Bluetooth
device has a unique 48-bit address. The 24 least significant bits from 48-
bit address are called as Lower Address Part (LAP). LAP is used in
forming Sync subfield. In case of CAC, LAP of the master is used. In case
of DAC, LAP of the paging device is used. In case of GIAC, a special
reserved value of LAP is used. Append 6-bit sequence 001101 to 24-bit
LAP if the most significant bit of LAP is 0, and append 110010 if the most
significant bit is 1. This forms a Barker sequence. LAP + Baker sequence
(6 bit) + 34-bit Error Correcting code forms the Sync subfield.

Packet Header:
The header consists of following 6 subfields:
● AM Address: This 3-bit subfield stands for Active Member Address.
It consists of the active address of the slave. Active address is the
temporary address assigned to a slave in a piconet. When a master
sends a packet to a specific slave then this subfield represents the
destination slave address. When a slave sends a packet to the master
then this subfield represents address of the source slave. This subfield
consists of value 0 when master broadcasts the packet to all slaves in
a piconet.
● Type: This 4-bit subfield determines the type of the packet.
81
Wireless and Mobile Type Physical Name No. of Description
Technology Link slots
0000 Common NUL 1 Has no payload. Used to return link
L information to the source regarding the
success of previous transmission ARQN
0001 Common POLL 1 Has no payload. Used by master to poll a
slave.
0010 Common FHS 1 Special control packet for exposing device
address and the sender’s clock.
0011 Common DM1 1 Supports control messages and can carry
user data.
0101 SCO HV1 1 Carries 10 bytes of information. Used
mainly for 64kbps voice.
0110 SCO HV2 1 Carries 20 bytes of information. Used
mainly for 64kbps voice.
0111 SCO HV3 1 Carries 30 bytes of information. Used
mainly for 64kbps voice.
1000 SCO DV 1 Combined data (150 bits) + voice (50 bits)
packet
0100 ACL DH1 1 Carries 28 bytes of information + 16-bit
CRC. Used for high-speed data.
1001 ACL AUX 1 Carries 30 bytes of information. Used for
1 high-speed data.
1010 ACL DM3 3 Carries 123 bytes of information + 16-bit
CRC
1011 ACL DH3 3 Carries 185 bytes of information + 16-bit
CRC
1110 ACL DM5 5 Carries 226 bytes of information + 16-bit
CRC
1111 ACL DH5 5 Carries 341 bytes of information + 16-bit
CRC

● Flow: Packets carry control, synchronous and asynchronous data.


This 1-bit subfield is used in case of asynchronous traffic. When a
packet with Flow=0 is received, then the destination should
temporarily pause the transmission of ACL packets on this link. When
a packet with Flow=1 is received then the halted transmission can
resume back.
● ARQN: This 1-bit subfield provides acknowledgement for ACL
traffic protected by CRC. If the received data is error-free than an
ACK (ARQN=1) is returned otherwise NAK (ARQN=0) is sent. If no
return response regarding acknowledgement is received then a NAK
is implicitly assumed. In case of negative acknowledgement, the
appropriate packet is retransmitted.
● SEQN: This 1-bit subfield helps in sequence numbering. Packets
which are sent are alternately numbered 1 or 0. This helps in
identifying duplicate packets at the receiving end.
● HEC: This 8-bit subfield stands for Header Error Control. This
consists of error detection code for protecting the packet header.
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Payload: Bluetooth

The packet can carry up to 343 bytes of payload. The format of payload
depends on the type of the link. For voice payloads, no header is defined.
Header is defined for all ACL packets and SCO DV packet. For data
payloads, this field consists of 3 sections:
● Payload Header: For single-slot packets, a 8-bit header is defined
whereas for multi-slot packets 16-bit header is defined.
● Payload Body: Contains user data.
● CRC: 16-bit CRC is used on all data payloads except AUX1 packet.

5.6 BLUETOOTH SERVICES


Bluetooth is one of most popular technologies of today’s world. It
eliminates the need for cables and offers virtually unlimited possibilities.
Following is the list of some basic services where Bluetooth technology is
an ideal solution:
● File transfer: Transfer of files, directories, documents, images and
streaming media formats is supported by this technology. It also
allows to browse folders on a remote device.
● Internet Bridge: Using Bluetooth technology, a PC can be connected
wirelessly to a mobile phone or cordless modem to provide a dial-up
networking and fax service. RFCOMM is used for data transfer and
fax transfer.
● LAN Access: Bluetooth technology enables devices on a piconet to
access a LAN. Once connection is established successfully, the device
functions as if it is directly connected (having a wired connection) to
the LAN.
● Synchronization: Bluetooth technology allows device-to-device
synchronization of phonebook, calendar, messages, notes etc. IrMC
(Infrared mobile communications) is used for transferring personal
management information from one device to another.
● Three-in-one phone: This technology allows telephone handsets to
act as cordless phones connecting to a voice base station, as a cellular
phone and also as an intercom device for connecting to other
telephones.
● Headset: The headset implementing Bluetooth technology can act as
a remote device’s audio I/O interface.
● In-Car Bluetooth System: It allows us to connect the mobile phone
to the vehicle’s sound system. So, we can make and receive phone
calls through the speaker system without actually using the mobile
device.

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Wireless and Mobile ● Cordless Desktop: Most of the peripheral devices like mouse,
Technology keyboard, printer, speakers etc. are connected to PC cordlessly using
Bluetooth.

5.7 FUTURE OF BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY


The Bluetooth SIG community continues to extend the capabilities of
Bluetooth technology. New trends suggest that the Bluetooth technology is
continuing its expansion from a personal communication solution to an
industrial-grade connectivity engine. In future versions data transfers
could double, responsiveness will increase and latency will be lowered.
Given below are some recent enhancements introduced in Bluetooth
technology –

Bluetooth LE Audio – LE (Low Energy):


Audio will enhance the performance of Bluetooth audio and adds support
for hearing aids. It also introduces Bluetooth Audio Sharing which is an
innovative new Bluetooth use case with the potential to change the way
we experience audio and connect with the world around us. Bluetooth
audio streaming has been around for decades and is still experiencing
steady growth. The desire for mobility and flexibility continues to increase
and Bluetooth technology is helping to drive it. LE audio will enable an
audio source device like a smartphone to broadcast one or more audio
streams to an unlimited number of audio sink devices like earbuds,
speakers, hearing aids etc. Market predictions show that 66% of all annual
Bluetooth headset shipments will be earbuds by year 2025. There will a
growth of 2.6 times in annual Bluetooth hearable shipments by 2025.

Bluetooth Direction Finding:


This allows to determine the direction of Bluetooth Low Energy (LE)
signal. This feature allows Bluetooth proximity solutions to add
directional capabilities which will enhance the user experience and
Bluetooth positioning systems to achieve centimeter-level accuracy.

Bluetooth Mesh Networking:


Mesh Networking enables the creation of large-scale device networks. It
can be used to control, monitor and automate systems where thousands of
devices need to communicate with one another. It also meets the
reliability, scalability and security requirements of commercial and
industrial use cases.

Bluetooth High Speed:


The LE 2M PHY doubles the data rate that can be achieved between LE
devices as compared to LE 1M PHY. The LE 2M PHY improves data
transfer performance and provides greater spectral efficiency for the
growing number of IoT devices that consumers are connecting to their
smartphones (like sports and fitness wearables, Bluetooth medical devices
etc).

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Bluetooth Long Range: Bluetooth

The LE Coded PHY multiples the range that can be achieved between LE
devices as compared to original LE 1M PHY. It allows whole home or
building coverage. The LE Coded PHY increases the achievable range
without increasing the transmit power and allows data recovery at the
receiver’s end without the need for retransmission.

5.8 EXERCISES
1. What is Bluetooth SIG?

2. What is the history behind the name ‘Bluetooth’?

3. What are the important characteristic features of Bluetooth


technology?

4. How many devices can communicate concurrently using Bluetooth?

5. List some technical aspects of Bluetooth technology.

6. What are the two types of Bluetooth standard documents?

7. Write a short note on Piconets and Scatternets.

8. Explain how FHS is used to avoid interference in Bluetooth


transmission?

9. Explain various states in piconet with the help of state transition


diagram.

10. Explain Connected state in detail.

11. What are Bluetooth profiles?

12. What are the core protocols of Bluetooth?

13. What are the two types of links that can be established between
Bluetooth devices?

14. Explain in brief the packet format used in Bluetooth technology.

15. Write a short note on Packet header of the packet in Bluetooth.

16. Explain the payload field in brief.

17. Which method is primarily used for voice transfer?

18. Name a few applications of Bluetooth technology.

19. What are the various future enhancements in Bluetooth technology


suggested by Bluetooth SIG?

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Wireless and Mobile 20. Under what frequency range does Bluetooth work?
Technology
21. Do Bluetooth devices need line-of-sight link to connect one device to
another?

5.9 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES


● ‘Wireless Networking – Introduction to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi’ by
Gordon Colbach
● ‘Bluetooth: Connect without cables’ by Jennifer Bray and Charles
Sturman – Prentice Hall PTR
● White papers - TCS
● www.erricson.com
● www.howstuffworks.com

*****

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MODULE III

6
PRINCIPLES OF CELLULAR NETWORK
Unit Structure
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Principles of Cellular Network
6.2.1 Cellular Network Organization
6.2.2 Frequency Reuse
6.2.3 Increasing Capacity
6.2.4 Operation of cellular System
6.2.5 Mobile Radio Propagation Effects
6.2.6 Handoff
6.2.6.1Types of Handoffs
6.2.6.2 Handoff Initiation
6.2.6.3 Power control
6.2.6.4 Effect of Handoff
6.3 Summary
6.4 Questions
6.5 References

6.0 OBJECTIVES
This chapter would make you understand the following concept:
 What is Cellular Technology
 Organizations of cellular Network
 Shapes of cell
 Importance of Frequency reuse
 Ways to increase capacity of the cellular system
 Operation of cellular network
 Handoff
 Effects of Handoff

6.1 INTRODUCTION
 Cellular technology is the basis of mobile wireless communications. It
is a basic technology for mobile phones, personal communication

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Wireless and Mobile systems, wireless internet and wireless Web applications, and much
Technology more.

 Cellular technology support user in the location where wired networks


is not easily accessible.

 Cellular Network is a form of some cells, cell covers a geographical


region which has a base station similar to 802.11 AP.

 All the base stations are connected to Mobile Switching Center which
connects cells to wide area network.

 There is certain radio spectrum that is allocated to base station and to


a particular region and that now needs to be shared.
The two techniques that are used for sharing mobile – to- base station
radio spectrum are:

Combined FDMA/TDMA:
It divide spectrum in frequency channel and divide each channel into time
slots.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA):


It allows reuse of same spectrum over all cells. Net capacity improvement.
Two frequency bands are used one of which is for forward channel (cell-
site to subscriber) and one for reverse channel (sub to cell-site).

6.2 PRINCIPLES OF CELLULAR NETWORK


 Cellular network is a technique that was developed to increase the
capacity available for mobile radio telephone service.

 It replaces high power transmitter/receiver systems that typical


supports 25 channels over 80km.

 The way to increase the capacity of the system is to use lower-power


systems with shorter radius and to use numerous
transmitters/receivers.

6.2.1 Cellular Network Organization:

 The essence of a cellular network is the use of multiple low-power


transmitters, on the order of 100 W or less.

 As the range of such transmitter is small, an area can be divided into


cells.

 Each cell can be operated by its own antenna.

 Each cell is allocated its own range of frequencies and is operated by


a base station that is consist of transmitter, receiver, and control unit.
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88
 Adjacent cells are assigned different frequencies to avoid interference Principles of Cellular
or crosstalk. Network

 However, cells that are far away from each other can use the same
frequency range.

Shapes of Cell:
Square:

 The first shape of the cells to cover an area is a matrix of square cells.

 However, square geometry is not ideal.

 A square cell has four neighbors at distance d and four at distance √2d
where d is the width of a square cell as shown in fig 6.2.1(a).

 It is better if all adjacent antennas are equidistant

 This simplifies the task of determining when to switch the user to an


adjacent antenna and which antenna to choose.

Hexagon:

 A hexagon cell shape is highly recommended for its easy coverage


and calculations.

 A hexagonal pattern provides for equidistant antennas as shown in


figure 6.2.1(b).

 The radius of a hexagon is defined to be the radius of the circle that


defines it.

 Distance from center to vertex equals to the length of side.

 For a cell radius R, the distance between the cell center and each
adjacent cell center is d = √3R.

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

6.2.2 Frequency Reuse:

 In a cellular system, each cell has a base transceiver.

 The transmission power is carefully controlled to allow


communication within the cell using a given frequency range.

 Frequency reusing is the process of using the same radio frequencies


within a given cell with minimal interference to establish
communication.

 However, it is not practically applicable to use the same frequency


range in two adjacent cells.

 The objective of frequency reuse is to use the same frequency range in


multiple cells which are at some distance from one another.

 Because of this the same frequency range can be used for multiple
simultaneous conversations in different cells.

 In a particular cell, multiple frequency range are assigned and the


number of ranges depends on the traffic expected.

The following parameters are used to characterize the frequency


reuse:
 D = minimum distance between centers of cells that use the same
frequency band which is called as cochannel.
90
90
 R = radius of a cell Principles of Cellular
Network
 d = distance between centers of adjacent cells (d =√(3 ) R)
 N = number of cells in a repetitive pattern (each cell in the pattern
uses a unique set of frequency bands) which is termed as reuse factor.
In a hexagonal cell pattern, the possible value of N is as follows:
N = I2+ J2 + (I x J), I,J = 0, 1,2,3, ...
Hence, possible values of N are 1,3,4,7,9,12,13,16,19,21, and so on.
The following relationship holds:

=
This can also be expressed as D/d = .

An important design issue is to determine the minimum separation


between two cells using the same frequency band so that the two cells do
not interfere with each other.

For these various patterns of frequency reuse are possible as shown in the
figure 6.2.2.
If the pattern consists of N cells and each cell is assigned the same number
of frequencies then each cell can have K/N frequencies, where K is the
total number of frequencies allotted to the system.
For AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), K = 395, and N = 7 is the
smallest pattern that can provide sufficient isolation between two uses of
the same frequency. This implies that there can be at most 57 frequencies
per cell on average

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

6.2.3 Increasing Capacity:

 As the customer of the system increases there is a need of increasing


the capacity of the system.

 Some of the approaches that have been used to increase the capacity
of the system are as follows:
1. Adding new channels: Typically, when a system is set up in a region,
not all of the channels are used. Therefore, growth and expansion can
be managed in an orderly fashion by adding new channels.
2. Frequency borrowing: In the simplest case, frequencies are taken
from adjacent cells by congested cells. The frequencies can also be
assigned to cells dynamically.
3. Cell splitting: The cell within a crowded area is subdivided into
smaller cells with new cell radius which is less than the previous one.
It requires a new base station and corresponding antenna with lower
height and lower transmitting power. This method is basically
addition of new cells to meet the additional need for coverage.
Generally, the original cells are about 6.5 to 13 km in size. The
smaller cells can themselves be split; however, l.5-km cells are close
to the practical minimum size as a general solution. Cell splitting is a
costly method due to the requirements of installation of towers and
antennas. The subdivision of large cells into small cells indicates that
the frequency reuse distance becomes smaller and the number of
channels within the same geographic area is increased providing large
system capacity. But smaller cells also require hand-off for moving
users that required large amount of signalling information to be used
92
92
and the overall spectral efficiency will be reduced. In the context of Principles of Cellular
cell splitting, the smallest cell is known as pico-cell, the medium size Network
cell is the micro-cell and the original large cell without splitting is
called the macro-cell.
Figure 6.2.3 indicates schematically how cells can be divided to provide
more capacity.

4. Cell sectoring: Another way of capacity increase is the sectoring of


cells. In general, within a cell the antennas are omni-directional. The
set of omni-directional antennas in a cell is replaced by directional
antennas with 600 or 1200 aperture. The cell is divided into sectors.
This method is more economical, because it uses the existing system
structures. This also reduces co-channel interference as with
directional antennas, a given cell will receive interference and
transmit only a fraction of available co-channel cells. The reduction of
co-channel interference is dependent on the angle of sectors. Cell
sectoring also splits the channel sets into smaller groups, reducing
trunk efficiency.
5. Microcells: As cells become smaller, antennas move from the tops of
tall buildings or hills, to the tops of small buildings or the sides of
large buildings, and finally to lamp posts, where they form microcells.
Each decrease in cell size is accompanied by a reduction in the
radiated power levels from the base stations and the mobile units.
Microcells are useful in city streets in congested areas, along
highways, and inside large public buildings.

6.2.4 Operation of Cellular System:

 Cellular network organization uses low power transmitter (100W or


less). The areas are divided into cells.

 Figure 6.2.4 shows the principal elements of a cellular system.


93
Wireless and Mobile  Base station is at center of each cell. The BS includes an antenna, a
Technology controller, and a number of transceivers, for communicating on the
channels assigned to that cell.

 The controller is used to handle the call process between the mobile
unit and the rest of the network.

 Base station is connected to mobile telecommunications switching


office (MTSO).

 One MTSO can be connected to multiple Base station. The link


between MTSO to BS is by wire or wireless.

 MTSO connects calls between mobile units. The MTSO is also


connected to the public telephone or telecommunications network and
can make a connection between a fixed subscriber to the public
network and a mobile subscriber to the cellular network.

 It assigns voice channel and performs handoffs and monitors calls for
billing information.

 Two types of channels are available between mobile station and base
station
1. Control channels: This channel is used to exchanged
information regarding setting up and maintaining calls.
2. Traffic channels: This channel is used to carry voice or data
connection between user.

 Both voice and control channels are further divided into forward
/downlink and reverse/uplink channels.

 A Forward channel is used to carry traffic from BS to the MS.

 A reverse channel is used to carry traffic from MS to the BS.

This network consists of:

 Mobile station (MS) is a device used for communication over the


network.

 Base station transceiver (BST) is a transmitter/receiver that are used


to transmit/receive signals over the network.

 Mobile switching center (MSC) is used to Sets up and maintain calls


made over the network.

 Base station controller (BSC) which provides a Communication


between a group of BSTs and a single MSC is controlled by the BSC

 Public switched telephone network (PSTN) Consist of Section of


the network that is land base.
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Principles of Cellular
Network

Steps in MTSO controlled call connecting mobile units:


1. Mobile unit initialization scans and choose strongest set up control
channel and automatically pick up a BS antenna of cell. Handshake is
used to spot user and register location. Scan is recurring to allow for
movement of change of cell.
2. Mobile originated call check if the set-up channel is free and Send
number on pre-selected channel.
3. In Paging MTSO attempts to connect to mobile unit. Depending on
called mobile number the paging message will be sent to BSs. By
using the setup channel Paging signal is transmitted.
4. In call accepted, the Mobile unit recognizes the number on the set-up
channel and responds to BS which in turn send response to MTSO.
Then the MTSO sets up a circuit between calling and called BSs and
select an available traffic channel within cells and notifies BSs. The
BSs notify mobile unit of channel.
5. In Ongoing call, the Voice/data is exchanged through respective BSs
and MTSO.
6. Handoff: If the signal strength decreases as the mobile moves out of
range from BTS it is called handoff. And the traffic channel changes
to the one assigned to new BS.

Other Functions:
1. Call blocking: On mobile-initiated call stage, if all the traffic
channels are busy, the mobile tries again and again. After numeral
retries, a busy tone will be returned.
2. Call termination: The User will hang up, MTSO is informed and the
traffic channels at two BSs are released.

95
Wireless and Mobile 3. Call drop: If the BS cannot maintain a required signal strength, then
Technology call drop will occur and the traffic channel is dropped and MTSO
informed.
4. Calls to/from fixed and remote mobile subscriber: Here the MTSO
connects to PSTN and can connect to mobile user and fixed
subscriber via PSTN. MTSO can also connect to remote MTSO via
PSTN or via dedicated line.

6.2.5 Mobile Radio Propagation Effects:

 Some complexities are introduced because of mobile radio


communication which were not found in wire communication or in
fixed wireless communication.

 Two general areas of concern are signal strength and signal


propagation effects

1. Signal strength:

 The strength of the signal between the base station and the mobile
unit must be strong enough to maintain signal quality at the
receiver but not so strong as to create too much cochannel
interference with channels in another cell using the same frequency
band.

 Human-made noise varies considerably, resulting in a variable


noise level.

 For example, automobile ignition noise in the cellular frequency


range is greater in the city than in a suburban area.

 Other signal sources vary from place to place.

 The signal strength varies as a function of distance from the BS to


a point within its cell. Moreover, the signal strength varies
dynamically as the mobile unit moves.

Fading:

 Signal propagation effects may interrupt the signal and causes


error. This is called fading.

 Even if signal strength is within an effective range, signal


propagation effects may disrupt the signal and cause errors.

6.2.6 Handoff:

 As the mobile unit moves from one cell to another there is a need of
changing the assignment of a mobile unit from one BS to another, this
procedure is called as handoff.

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Principles of Cellular
Network

Handoffs are caused in any of the following situations:

 Cell blocking probability: The probability of a new call being


blocked, due to heavy load on the BS traffic capacity. In this case, the
mobile unit is handed off to a neighbouring cell based not on signal
quality but on traffic capacity.

 Call dropping probability: The probability that, due to a handoff, a


call is terminated.

 Call completion probability: The probability that an admitted call is


not dropped before it terminates.

 Probability of unsuccessful handoff: The probability that a handoff


is executed while the reception conditions are not enough.

 Handoff blocking probability: The probability that a handoff cannot


be successfully completed.

 Handoff probability: The probability that a handoff occurs before


call termination.

 Rate of handoff: The number of handoffs per unit time

 Interruption duration: The duration of time during a handoff in


which a mobile unit is not connected to either base station.

 Handoff delay: The distance the mobile unit moves from the point at
which the handoff should occur to the point at which it does occur.
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Wireless and Mobile 6.2.6.1Types of Handoffs:
Technology
There are two types of handoffs:

1. Hard Handoff:

 In a hard handoff, an actual break in the connection occurs while


switching from one cell to another.

 The radio links from the mobile station to the existing cell is broken
before establishing a link with the next cell.

 It is generally an inter-frequency handoff. It is a “break before


make” policy.

 Hard handoff is used by the systems which use time division


multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access
(FDMA) such as GSM and General packet Radio Service.

2. Soft Handoff:

 In soft handoff, at least one of the links is kept when radio links are
added and removed to the mobile station.

 This ensures that during the handoff, no break occurs.

 This is generally adopted in co-located sites. It is a “make before


break” policy.

 Soft handoff is used by the Code division multiple access (CDMA)


where the cell uses same frequency band using different code
words.

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Principles of Cellular
Network

6.2.6.2 Handoff Initiation:


The principal parameter used to make the handoff decision is measured
signal strength from the mobile unit at the BS. Typically, the BS averages
the signal over a moving window of time to remove the rapid fluctuations
due to multipath effects.
The various handoff strategies that have been used to determine the instant
of handoff are as follows:

1. Relative signal strength:

 The mobile unit is handed off from Base station A to Base Station
B when the signal strength at B first exceeds that at A.

 If the signal strength at B subsequently falls below that of A, the


mobile unit is handed back to A. At this point, signal strength to
BS A is still adequate but is declining.

 Because signal strength fluctuates due to multipath effects, even


with power averaging, this approach can lead to a ping-pong effect
in which the unit is repeatedly passed back and forth between two
BSs.

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Wireless and Mobile 2. Relative signal strength with threshold:
Technology
 This method allows a Mobile unit to hand off only if the current
signal is sufficiently weak that is current signal is less than
threshold and the other signal is the stronger of the two.

 The effect of the threshold depends on its relative value as


compared to the signal strengths of the two BSs at the point at
which they are equal.

 If the threshold is higher than this value, say T1, this scheme
performs exactly like the relative signal strength scheme, so the
handoff occurs at position A.

 If the threshold is lower than this value, say T2, the Mobile unit
would delay handoff until the current signal level crosses the
threshold at position B.

 In the case of T3, the delay may be so long that the Mobile unit
drifts too far into the new cell. This reduces the quality of the
communication link from BS1 and may result in a dropped call.

 In addition, this results in additional interference to cochannel


users.

 Thus, this scheme may create overlapping cell coverage areas.

 A threshold is not used alone in actual practice because its


effectiveness depends on prior knowledge of the crossover signal
strength between the current and candidate BSs.

3. Relative Signal Strength with Hysteresis:

 This scheme allows a user to hand off only if the new BS is


sufficiently stronger (by a hysteresis margin, h) than the current
one.

 We can think of the handoff mechanism as having two states.


While the mobile unit is assigned to BS A, the mechanism will
generate a handoff when the relative signal strength reaches or
exceeds the H.

 Once the mobile unit is assigned to B, it remains so until the


relative signal strength falls below - H, at which point it is handed
back to A.

 The only disadvantage of this scheme is that the first handoff may
still be unnecessary if BS A still has sufficient signal strength.

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100
4. Relative signal strength with hysteresis and threshold: Principles of Cellular
Network
 Handoff occurs only if the current signal level drops below a
threshold, and if the target base station is stronger than the current
one by a hysteresis margin H.

5. Prediction techniques:

 The handoff decision is based on the expected future value of the


received signal strength.

6.2.6.3 Power control:

 The handoff decision is complicated by the use of power control


techniques, which enable the BS to dynamically adjust the power
transmitted by the mobile unit.

 Design issues making it advantageous to include dynamic power


control in cellular systems.

 For effective communication, the power received must be


sufficiently above the background noise.

 It is advantageous to minimize the power in the transmitted signal


from the mobile. Thus, it reduces co-channel interference, save
battery power and alleviate health concern.

Types of power control:

1. Open-loop power control:

 It depends only on mobile unit. There is no feedback from BS.


Open loop is not as accurate as closed loop, but it can react quicker
to change in signal strength.

2. Closed-loop power control:

 Based on performance metric the signal strength is adjusted in


reverse channel.BS makes power tuning decision and
communication to mobile on control channel.

6.2.6.4 Effect of Handoff:

 In cellular traffic models on complication is found that is effect of


handoff.

 Effect of hand off is depicted in figure 6.2.6.4.

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Technology

 The arrival rate of calls at a cell has two components: new calls
placed by mobile units in the cell (λ1) and calls handed off to the
cell for mobile units entering the cell while connected(λ2)

 The total arrival rate is λ= λ1+ λ2.

 Similarly, the completion rate consists of calls being terminated


and calls being handed off. The model must be adjusted
accordingly to obtain overall arrival rates and holding times.

6.3 SUMMARY
 Cellular technology is the basis of mobile wireless communications.

 Cellular network is a technique that was developed to increase the


capacity available for mobile radio telephone service.

 The essence of a cellular network is the use of multiple low-power


transmitters, on the order of 100 W or less.

 The Shapes of the cell can be square or hexagonal.

 Frequency reusing is the process of using the same radio frequencies


within a given cell with minimal interference to establish
communication.

 The objective of frequency reuse is to use the same frequency range in


multiple cells which are at some distance from one another.

 Some of the approaches to increase the capacity of the System are:


Adding new channels, Frequency borrowing, Cell splitting, Cell
sectoring and Microcells.

 Base station is at center of each cell. The BS includes an antenna, a


controller, and a number of transceivers, for communicating on the
channels assigned to that cell.

 Cellular network organization uses low power transmitter (100W or


less). The areas are divided into cells.
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 Base station is connected to mobile telecommunications switching Principles of Cellular
office (MTSO). Network

 As the mobile unit moves from one cell to another there is a need of
changing the assignment of a mobile unit from one BS to another, this
procedure is called as handoff.

 There are two types of hand off: Hard handoff and soft handoff.

6.4 QUESTIONS
1. What geometric shape is used in cellular system design?
2. Explain the frequency reuse in the context of a cellular network?
3. List five ways of increasing the capacity of a cellular system.
4. Explain the operation of cellular system.
5. Explain the difference between hard and soft handoff.
6. Explain the various situation in which hand off takes place.

6.5 REFERENCES
 Wireless communications and networks second edition by william
stallings

 Tutorialspoint.com

*****

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7
GENERATION OF CELLULAR NETWORK
Unit Structure
7.0 Objective
7.1 Introduction
7.2 1G – First Generation
7.2.1 Overview of AMPS: Spectral Allocation
7.2.2 Operation of AMPS
7.3 2-G Second Generation
7.3.1 Key Difference between First- and Second-Generation Cellular
System
7.3.2 key characteristics of three most important second-generation
system: GSM, IS-136 and IS - 95
7.3.3 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
7.3.4 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)
7.3.4.1 GSM Network Architecture
7.3.5 CDMA – Second Generation
7.3.6 IS-95
7.4 2.5-G (2.5 Generation)
7.4.1 High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD)
7.4.2 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
7.4.3 Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE)
7.5 Third Generation System (3G)
7.5.1 CDMA2000 1x EV-DO
7.6 Fourth Generation
7.7 Fifth Generation (5G)
7.8 Summary
7.9 Question
7.10 References

7.0 OBJECTIVE
This chapter would make you understand the following concept:
● Evolution of cellular technology from 1G to 5G.
● Key difference between first generation and second generation of
cellular network
● TDMA and CDMA
● GSM and IS -95

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● Third generation Generation of Cellular
Network
● Fourth generation
● Fifth generation

7.1 INTRODUCTION
● The aim of wireless communication is to provide high quality, reliable
communication just like wired communication and each new
generation of services represents a big step in that direction.
● This evolution journey was started in 1980 from 1G and it is still
continuing to 5G.
● Each of the Generations has its own standards that must be met.
● We required cellular network every day from minute to minute to
fulfil our need for information.
● The cellular network is required to provides connectivity and
flexibility to our general operation.

7.2 1G – FIRST GENERATION


● The original cellular telephone networks provide analog traffic
channels which are now referred to as first-generation systems.
● In the early 1980’s, the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) was
the most common first-generation system that has been developed by
AT&T.
● This approach is also common in South America, Australia, and
China.
● 1G is an analog technology and the phones generally had poor battery
life and voice quality was large without much security, and would
sometimes experience have dropped calls.
● The maximum speed of 1G is 2.4 Kbps.
● First-generation cellular systems provide for the support of multiple
users with frequency division multiple access (FDMA).

7.2.1 Overview of AMPS: Spectral Allocation:


● In North America, two 25-MHz bands are allocated to AMPS.
● One 25-MHz band is used for transmission from the base station to
the mobile unit (869-894 MHz).
● The other 25-MHz band is used for transmission from the mobile unit
to the base station (824-849 MHz).

105
Wireless and Mobile ● Each of these bands is split into two to inspire competition between
Technology two operators.
● An operator is allocated only 12.5 MHz in each direction for its
system.
● The channels are spaced 30 kHz apart.
● The total of 416 channels per operator is allocated. Out of this, 395
channels are allocated to carry calls and 21 are allocated for control.
● The control channels are data channels operating at 10 kbps. The
conversation channels carry the conversations in analog using
frequency modulation.
● Control information is also sent on the conversation channels in bursts
as data.
● This number of channels is not enough for most major markets, so
some way must be found either to use less bandwidth per
conversation or to reuse frequencies.
● For AMPS, frequency reuse is used.
The following table shows the AMPS Parameter

Base station transmission band 869 to 894 MHz


Mobile unit transmission band 824 to 849 MHz
Spacing between forward and reverse 45 MHz
channels
Channel bandwidth 30kHz
Number of full-duplex voice channels 790
Number of full-duplex control channels 42
Mobile unit maximum power 3 watts
Cell size, radius 2 to 20 Km
Modulation voice channel FM,12 – kHz peak deviation
Modulation control channel FM,8 – kHz peak deviation
Data Transmission rate 10 kbps
Error Control coding BCH (48,36,5) and (40,28,5)

7.2.2 Operation of AMPS:


When a call is placed, the following sequence of events occurs:
1. The subscriber starts a call by typing in the telephone number of the
called party and presses the send key.
2. The Mobile telecommunications switching office (MTSO) verifies
that the telephone number is valid and that the user is authorized to
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place the call. Some service providers require the user to enter a PIN Generation of Cellular
(personal identification number) as well as the called number to Network
theft.
3. The MTSO issues a message to the user's cell phone indicating which
traffic channels to use for sending and receiving.
4. The MTSO sends out a ringing signal to the called party.
5. All of these operations from steps 2 to step 4 occurs within 10 s of
starting the call.
6. When the called party answers, the MTSO establishes a circuit
between the two parties and starts billing information.
7. When one party hangs up, the MTSO releases the circuit, frees the
radio channels, and completes the billing information.

7.3 2-G SECOND GENERATION


● The first major upgrade in cell phone was achieved when they went
from 1G to 2G.
● The main difference between the two mobile telephone systems that is
1G and 2G is that the radio signals used by 1G network are analog,
while 2G networks are digital.
● Main motive of this generation was to provide secure and reliable
communication channel.
7.3.1 Key Difference between First- and Second-Generation Cellular
System:
The key difference between the two generation are as follows:

1. Digital traffic channels:


● The most important difference between 1 G and 2G is that first-
generation systems are almost purely analog, whereas second
generation systems are digital.
● The first-generation systems are designed to support voice channels
using FM. In first generation System digital traffic is supported only
by the use of a modem that converts the digital data into analog form.
● Second generation systems provide digital traffic channels. These
readily support digital data. In second generation voice traffic is first
encoded in digital form before transmitting.
● In second-generation systems, the user traffic that is data or digitized
voice must be converted to an analog signal for transmission between
the mobile unit and the base station.

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Wireless and Mobile 2. Encryption:
Technology
● It is a relatively simple to encrypt all of the traffic to prevent
eavesdropping in second generation system as all of the user traffic as
well as control traffic is digitized.
● All second-generation systems provide this capability whereas first-
generation systems send user traffic in the clear, providing no
security.

3. Error detection and correction:


● The digital traffic stream of second-generation systems also offers the
use of error detection and correction techniques.

4. Channel access:
● In first-generation systems, each cell supports a number of channels.
At any given time, a channel is allocated to only one user.
● Second generation systems also provide multiple channels per cell,
but each channel is dynamically shared by a number of users using
time division multiple access (TDMA) or code division multiple
access (CDMA).
7.3.2 key characteristics of three most important second-generation
system: GSM, IS-136 and IS – 95:
Beginning around 1990, a number of different second-generation systems
have been organized. Following are the lists of some key characteristics of
three of the most important of second-generation systems.
Characteristics GSM IS-136 IS -95
Year introduced 1990 1991 1993
Access method TDMA TDMA CDMA
Base station transmission 935 to 960 869 to 894 869 to 894 MHz
band MHz MHz
Mobile station transmission 890 to 915 824 to 849 824 to 849 MHz
band MHz MHz
Spacing between forward and 45 MHz 45 MHz 45 MHz
reverse channel
Channel Bandwidth 200 kHz 30 kHz 1250 kHz
Number of duplex channels 125 832 20
Mobile Unit maximum 20W 3W 0.2W
power
Users per channel 8 3 35
Modulation GMSK π/4 DQPSK QPSK
Carrier bit rate 270.8 kbps 48.6kbps 9.6 kbps
Speech coder RPE – LTP VSELP QCELP
Speech coding bit rate 13 kbps 8 kbps 8,4,2,1 kbps
Frame size 4.6 ms 40 ms 20 ms

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Error control coding Convolution Convolution Convolutional 1/2 Generation of Cellular
al ½ rate al 1/2 rate rate forward; Network
1/3 rate reverse

7.3.3 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA):


● Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is a digital cellular
telephone communication technology.
● It enables many users to share the same frequency without
interference.
● This technology divides a signal into different timeslots, and increases
the data carrying capacity.
● In other words, TDMA enables multiple users to share the same
frequency by dividing each cellular channel into different time slots.
● In effect, a single frequency supports multiple and simultaneous data
channels.
● So, with a two-time slot TDMA, two users can share the same
frequency. With a three-time slot TDMA, three users can share the
same frequency and so on.
● Like FDMA in TDMA also each cell is allocated a number of
channels, half reverse and half forward.

7.3.4 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)


● The countries of Europe used a number of incompatible first-
generation cellular phone technologies before the development of
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).
● GSM was developed to provide a common second-generation
technology for Europe so that the same subscriber units could be used
throughout the continent.
● GSM was first emerged in 1990 in Europe. Similar systems have now
been implemented in North and South America, Asia, North Africa,
the Middle East, and Australia.

7.3.4.1 GSM Network Architecture:


A GSM network consist of many functional units. The figure 7.3.4.1
shows the functional elements in the GSM System.

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The GSM network can be broadly divided into the following:

1. Mobile Station:
● A mobile station communicates with a base station transceiver in the
same cell in which the mobile unit is located through the Um
interface, also known as the air interface.
● The mobile equipment (ME) refers to the physical terminal, such as a
telephone or PCS (personal communications service) device, which
includes the radio transceiver, digital signal processors, and the
subscriber identity module (SIM).
● The SIM is a portable device in the form of a smart card or plug-in
module that stores the subscriber's identification number,
● The SIM provides personal mobility so that the user can have access
to all subscribed services irrespective of both the location of the
terminal and the use of a specific terminal. You need to insert the SIM
card into another GSM cellular phone to receive calls at that phone,
make calls from that phone, or receive other subscribed services.

2. Base Station Subsystem:


● A base station subsystem (BSS) consists of a base station controller
and one or more base transceiver stations.
● Each base transceiver station (BTS) defines a single cell; it includes a
radio antenna, a radio transceiver, and a link to a base station
controller.
● A BTS is usually placed in the center of a cell. Its transmitting power
defines the size of a cell.

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110
● Each BTS has between 1 and 16 transceivers, depending on the Generation of Cellular
density of users in the cell. Network

● The BSC manages the radio resources for one or more BTSs. It
handles radio channel setup, frequency hopping, and handovers.
● The BSC is the connection between the mobile and the MSC. The
BSC also translates the 13 Kbps voice channel used over the radio
link to the standard 64 Kbps channel used by the Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSDN) or ISDN.
● It assigns and releases frequencies and time slots for the MS. The
BSC also handles intercell handover.
● The function of the BSC is to allocate the necessary time slots
between the BTS and the MSC

3. Network Subsystem:
● The network subsystem (NS) provides the link between the cellular
network and the public switched telecommunications networks.
● The NS controls handoffs between cells in different BSSs,
authenticates users and validates their accounts, and includes
functions for enabling worldwide roaming of mobile users.
● The operations and maintenance center (OMC) is connected to all
equipment in the switching system and to the BSC. The
implementation of OMC is called the operation and support system
(OSS).
● The central element of the NS is the mobile switching center (MSC).
● MSC is supported by four databases that it controls:

1. Home location register (HLR) database:


● The HLR stores information, both permanent and temporary, about
each of the subscribers that "belongs" to it.
● When an individual buys a subscription in the form of SIM, then all
the information about this subscription is registered in the HLR of that
operator.

2. Visitor location register (VLR) database:


● The VLR is a database that contains temporary information about
subscribers that is needed by the MSC in order to service visiting
subscribers.

3. Authentication center database (AuC):


● The Authentication Center is a protected database that stores a copy
of the secret key stored in each subscriber's SIM card, which is used
for authentication and ciphering of the radio channel. The AuC 111
Wireless and Mobile protects network operators from different types of fraud found in
Technology today's cellular world.

4. Equipment identity register database (EIR):


● The Equipment Identity Register (EIR) is a database that contains a
list of all valid mobile equipment on the network, where its
International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) identifies each MS.
An IMEI is marked as invalid if it has been reported stolen or is not
type approved.

7.3.5 CDMA – Second Generation:


● Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a spread spectrum-based
technique for multiplexing that provides an alternative to TDMA for
second generation cellular network.
● As with FDMA, each cell is allocated a frequency bandwidth, which
is split into two parts, half for reverse channel that is from mobile unit
to base station and half for forward channel that is from base station
to mobile unit.
● For full duplex communication, a mobile unit uses both reverse and
forward channels.
● Transmission is in the form of direct-sequence spread spectrum (DS-
SS), which uses a chipping code to increase the data rate of the
transmission, resulting in an increased signal bandwidth.
● Multiple access is provided by assigning orthogonal chipping codes to
multiple users, so that the receiver can recover the transmission of an
individual unit from multiple transmissions.

Advantages of CDMA for cellular system are as follows:


1. Frequency diversity:
Because the transmission is spread out over a larger bandwidth,
frequency-dependent transmission damages such as noise bursts and
selective fading have less effect on the signal.

2. Multipath resistance:
In addition to the ability of DS-SS to overcome multipath fading by
frequency diversity, the chipping codes used for CDMA not only exhibit
low cross correlation but also low autocorrelation. Therefore, a version of
the signal that is delayed by more than one chip interval does not interfere
with the dominant signal as much as in other multipath environments.

3. Privacy:
Because spread spectrum is obtained by the use of noise like signals,
where each user has a unique code, privacy is inherent.

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4. Graceful degradation: Generation of Cellular
Network
With FDMA or TDMA, a fixed number of users can access the system
simultaneously. However, with CDMA, as more users access the system
simultaneously, the noise level and hence the error rate increases; only
gradually does the system degrade to the point of an unacceptable error
rate.

Drawbacks of CDMA for cellular network are as follows:


1. Self-jamming:
Unless all of the mobile users are perfectly synchronized, the arriving
transmissions from multiple users will not be perfectly aligned on chip
boundaries. Thus, the spreading sequences of the different users are not
orthogonal and there is some level of cross correlation. This is distinct
from either TDMA or FDMA, in which for reasonable time or frequency
guard bands, respectively, the received signals are orthogonal or nearly so.

2. Near-far problem:
Signals closer to the receiver are received with less tempering than signals
farther away. Given the lack of complete orthogonality, the transmissions
from the more remote mobile units may be more difficult to recover. Thus,
power control techniques are very important in a CDMA system.

3. Soft handoff:
A smooth handoff from one cell to the next requires that the mobile unit
acquires the new cell before it gives up the old cell. This is referred to as a
soft handoff and is more complex than the hard handoff used in FDMA
and TDMA schemes.

7.3.6 IS-95:
● The most widely used second-generation CDMA scheme is IS-95,
which is largely deployed in North America.
● Some key parameters of the IS-95 system are shown in section 7.3.2.
● The transmission structures on the forward and reverse links differ
and are described below.

IS-95 Forward Link:


● The forward link consists of up to 64 logical CDMA channels each
occupying the same 1228-kHz bandwidth.
● The forward link supports four types of channels:

1. Pilot (channel 0):


A continuous signal on a single channel. This channel allows the mobile
unit to acquire timing information, provides phase reference for the
demodulation process, and provides a means for signal strength 113
Wireless and Mobile comparison for the purpose of handoff determination. The pilot channel
Technology consists of all zeros.

2. Synchronization (channel 32):


A 1200-bps channel used by the mobile station to obtain identification
information about the cellular system (system time, long code state,
protocol revision, etc.).

3. Paging (channels 1 to 7):


Contain messages for one or more mobile stations.

4. Traffic (channels 8 to 31 and 33 to 63):


The forward channel supports 55 traffic channels. The original
specification supported data rates of up to 9600 bps. A subsequent revision
added a second set of rates up to 14,400 bps.
Note that all of these channels use the same bandwidth.

IS-95 Reverse Link:


● The reverse link consists of up to 94 logical CDMA channels each
occupying the same 1228-kHz bandwidth.
● The reverse link supports up to 32 access channels and up to 62 traffic
channels.
● The traffic channels in the reverse link are unique to each mobile unit.
● Each mobile unit has a unique long code mask based on its electronic
serial number.
● The access channel is used by a mobile unit to initiate a call, to
respond to a paging channel message from the base station, and for a
location update.

7.4 2.5-G (2.5 GENERATION)


● 2G evolved into 2.5G (GPRS denoted by G).
● 2.5G describes the state of wireless technology and capability usually
associated with General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) that is
between the second and third generations of wireless technology.
● The second generation or 2G-level of wireless is usually identified as
Global System for Mobile (GSM) service and the third generation or
3G-level is usually identified as Universal Mobile
Telecommunication Service (UMTS).
● While the terms 2G and 3G are officially defined while 2.5G is not. It
was invented for marketing purposes only.

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● 2.5G provides some of the benefits of 3G and can use some of the Generation of Cellular
existing 2G infrastructure in GSM and CDMA networks. Network

● The generally renowned 2.5G technology is GPRS.


Some of the technologies that are considering 2.5G explained below.

7.4.1 High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD):


● High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) is a simple improvement
in GSM.
● Against GSM, it provides more than one time slot per frame to a user,
therefore data rates increase.
● HSCSD allows a phone to use two, three or four slots per frame to
achieve rates of 57.6, 43.2 and 28.8 kbps, respectively.
● HSCSD provides support for asymmetric link means that the
downlink rate can be different from that of the uplink.
● A problem with HSCSD is the fact that it decreases battery life, due to
the fact that increased slot use makes terminals spend more time in
transmission and reception modes.
● On the other hand, due to the fact that reception requires significantly
less consumption than transmission, HSCSD can be efficient for web
browsing, which involves much more downloading than uploading.
● It is a development of Circuit Switched Data (CSD).
● The first innovation in HSCSD was to allow different error correction
methods to be used for data transfer.
● The second innovation in the HSCSD radio interface was the
possibility to use multiple time slots at the same time.

7.4.2 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS):


● General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is standard of 2.5G wireless
communications which is a packet based wireless communication
service that promises data rates from 56 to 114 Kbps and continuous
connection to the Internet for mobile phone and computer users.
● The higher data rates will allow users to take part in video
conferences and interact with multimedia web sites and similar
applications using mobile handheld devices as well as notebook
computers.
● GPRS is based on GSM communication and will complement existing
services such circuit switched cellular phone connections and the
Short Message Service (SMS).
● GPRS will also complement Bluetooth, a newly standard of wireless
radio connections. 115
Wireless and Mobile ● In addition to the Internet Protocol (IP), GPRS supports X.25, a
Technology packet-based protocol that is used mainly in Europe. GPRS is an
evolutionary step toward Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE)
and Universal Mobile Telephone Service.

7.4.3 Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE):


● EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) (also known as
Enhanced GPRS or EGPRS) is a data system used on top of GSM
networks.
● Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) is a digital mobile
phone technology which works as a secure improvement to 2G and
2.5G networks.
● This technology is working in TDMA and GSM networks.
● EDGE (also called EGPRS) is a superset to GPRS and can function
on any network with GPRS deployed on it.
● In addition to Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK), EDGE uses
8 Phase Shift Keying (8PSK) for its upper five of the nine modulation
and coding schemes.
● EDGE is producing a 3bit word for every change in carrier phase.
This effectively triples the gross data rate offered by GSM.
● EDGE, like GPRS, uses a rate adaptation algorithm that adapts the
modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used to the quality of the radio
channel, and thus the bit rate and robustness of data transmission.

7.5 THIRD GENERATION SYSTEM (3G)


● The objective of the third-generation (3G) of wireless communication
is to provide fairly high-speed wireless communications to support
multimedia, data, and video in addition to voice.
● The lTU's International Mobile Telecommunications for the year
2000 (IMT-2000) initiative has defined the lTU's view of third-
generation capabilities as:
⮚ Voice quality comparable to the public switched telephone network
⮚ 144 kbps data rate available to users in high-speed motor vehicles
over large area
⮚ 384 kbps available to pedestrians standing or moving slowly over
small areas
⮚ Support (to be phased in) for 2.048 Mbps for office use
⮚ Symmetrical and asymmetrical data transmission rates
⮚ Support for both packet switched and circuit switched data services
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⮚ An adaptive interface to the Internet to reflect efficiently the common Generation of Cellular
asymmetry between inbound and outbound traffic Network

⮚ More efficient use of the available spectrum in general


⮚ Support for a wide variety of mobile equipment
⮚ Flexibility to allow the introduction of new services and technologies

7.5.1 CDMA2000 1x EV-DO:


● The first 3G wireless system to be deployed commercially is known
as CDMA2000 1x EV-DO, also known as CDMA/HDR (CDMA high
data rate) and as IS-856.
● Its focused is to offer near-broadband packet data speeds for wireless
access to the internet.
● The 1x prefix refers to its use of 1x (1 times) the 1.2288 Mcps
spreading rate of a standard IS-95 CDMA channel.
● EV indicates that it is an evolutionary technology built on the IS-95
standard.
● What differentiates this scheme from other 3G technologies is that it
is designed for data only (DO) and is pitched toward the use of IP for
packet transmission and for Internet access.
● However, with voice over IP (VoIP) technology CDMA2000 1xEV-
DO can support voice traffic.
● A well-engineered 1xEV-DO network delivers average download data
rates of between 600 kbps and 1.2 Mbps during off-peak hours and
between 150 kbps and 300 kbps during peak hours.
● Figure 7.5.1 shows CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Configuration Elements.
● Mobile users communicate with a base station in a nearby cell using
the 1xEV-DO transmission scheme.
● Typically, the base station controller for a number of base stations is
located in a central office to provide switching, handoff, and other
services.
● An IP transport service is used to connect the base station to the
central office.
● Using IP transport lowers connection costs by giving operators a
choice of connection services, including frame relay, ATM,
broadband wireless links, and DSL.
● At the central office, the base station controller can route a call back
out the IP network to another cellular subscriber or out over the
Internet.
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Wireless and Mobile
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7.6 FOURTH GENERATION


● 4G is an abbreviation for the fourth generation of cellular wireless
standards and replaces the third generation of broadband mobile
communications.
● The standards for 4G, set by the radio sector of the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU-R), are denoted as International
Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced).
● It provides an all IP based cellular communications.
● 4G provides an all IP packet switched network for transmission of
voice, data, signals and multimedia.
● As per IMT-Advanced specifications, 4G networks should have peak
data rates of 100Mbps for highly mobile stations like train, car etc.,
and 1Gbps for low mobility stations like residence etc.
● It also states that 4G networks should make it possible for 1 Gbps
downlink over less than 67 MHz bandwidth.
● There are two main categories of 4G:-

1) Long – Term Evolution (LTE):


Long – term evolution or LTE is an extension of the 3G technology. It is a
standard for high-speed mobile communication, based upon GSM/EDGE
and UMTS/HSPA technologies. The peak data rate for download is 100
Mbps and upload is 50 Mbps. The LTE Advanced meets the specifications
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of IMT-Advanced standard for 4G technology. Its peak data rates are 1000 Generation of Cellular
Mbps for downlink and 500 Mbps for uplink. Network

2) Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX):


WiMAX is a mobile wireless broadband access (MWBA) standard is
sometimes branded 4G. It offers peak data rates of 128 Mbps for downlink
and 56 Mbps for uplink over 20 MHz wide channels. The latest version of
WIMAX is not compatible to the earlier versions and instead is
compatible with LTE.

7.7 FIFTH GENERATION (5G)


● 5G is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G
networks.
● 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually
everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and
devices.
● 5G wireless technology is intended to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak
data speeds, ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network
capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience
to more users.
● Higher performance and improved efficiency empower new user
experiences and connects new industries.
● With high speeds, superior reliability and negligible latency, 5G will
expand the mobile ecosystem into new areas. 5G will impact every
industry, making safer transportation, remote healthcare, precision
agriculture, digitized logistics and more a reality.
● A defining capability of 5G is that it is designed for forward
compatibility—the ability to flexibly support future services that are
unknown today.
● Broadly speaking, 5G is used across three main types of connected
services, including enhanced mobile broadband, mission-critical
communications, and the massive IoT.

Enhanced mobile broadband:


In addition to making our smartphones better, 5G mobile technology can
usher in new immersive experiences such as VR and AR with faster, more
uniform data rates, lower latency, and lower cost-per-bit.

Mission-critical communications:
5G can enable new services that can transform industries with ultra-
reliable, available, low-latency links like remote control of critical
infrastructure, vehicles, and medical procedures.

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Wireless and Mobile Massive IoT:
Technology
5G is meant to seamlessly connect a massive number of embedded sensors
in virtually everything through the ability to scale down in data rates,
power, and mobility—providing extremely lean and low-cost connectivity
solutions.

7.8 SUMMARY
● The cellular network is required to provides connectivity and
flexibility to our general operation.
● The evolution journey of cellular network was started in 1980 from
1G and it is still continuing to 5G.
● In the early 1980’s, the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) was
the most common first-generation system that has been developed by
AT&T.
● First-generation cellular systems provide for the support of multiple
users with frequency division multiple access (FDMA).
● Two 25-MHz bands are allocated to AMPS.
● The main difference between the two mobile telephone systems that is
1G and 2G is that the radio signals used by 1G network are analog,
while 2G networks are digital.
● The three most important second generation system are: GSM, IS –
136 , IS-95.
● TDMA enables multiple users to share the same frequency by
dividing each cellular channel into different time slots.
● GSM network consist of Mobile unit, Base station substation and
Network subsystem.
● Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a spread spectrum-based
technique for multiplexing that provides an alternative to TDMA for
second generation cellular network.
● The most widely used second-generation CDMA scheme is IS-95,
which is largely deployed in North America.
● 2.5G describes the state of wireless technology and capability usually
associated with General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) that is
between the second and third generations of wireless technology.
● The first 3G wireless system to be deployed commercially is known
as CDMA2000 1x EV-DO, also known as CDMA/HDR (CDMA high
data rate) and as IS-856.
● 4G provides an all-IP packet switched network for transmission of
voice, data, signals and multimedia.

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● 5G wireless technology is intended to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak Generation of Cellular
data speeds, ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network Network
capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience
to more users.

7.9 QUESTION
1. What are the key differences between first- and second-generation
cellular systems?
2. What are the advantages of using CDMA for a cellular network?
3. What are the disadvantages of using CDMA for a cellular network?
4. What are some key characteristics that distinguish third-generation
cellular systems from second-generation cellular systems?
5. Explain GSM architecture in detail.
6. Explain 5G of cellular system.

7.10 REFERENCES
● Wireless Communications and Networks Second Edition by William
Stallings
● http://net-informations.com/
● tutorialspoint.com
● www.qualcomm.com
*****

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MODULE IV

8
MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
GSM
Unit Structure
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 GSM – Architecture
8.2.1 Radio subsystem
8.2.2 Network and Switching subsystem
8.2.3 Operation subsystem
8.3 Air Interface
8.4 Multiple Access Scheme
8.4.1 Multiple Access Techniques
8.4.2 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
8.4.3 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
8.4.4 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
8.4.5 Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)
8.4.6 Spread Spectrum Multiple Access
8.5 Localization and Calling
8.6 Protocol Signalling
8.7 Handover
8.7.1 Types of Handover
8.7.2 Situations for triggering handoff
8.7.3 Mobile assisted handoff
8.8 Security
8.8.1 Authentication
8.8.2 Encryption
8.9 GPRS – Architecture
8.9.1 Introduction to GPRS architecture
8.9.2 What is GPRS architecture?
8.9.3 Components of GPRS architecture
8.9.4 Advantages of GPRS architecture
8.10 GPRS signalling
8.10.1 Between MS and SGSN
8.10.2 Between two GSNs
8.11 Mobility management
8.11.1 Active state
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8.11.2 Standby state Mobile Communication
8.11.3 Idle state Systems GSM

8.12 GPRS roaming


8.12.1 Roaming scenario
8.13 Summary
8.14 Unit End Exercises
8.15 List of References

8.0 OBJECTIVES
● To understand the concept of GSM and how it is utilised for voice
traffic
● To gain insight about the multiple access techniques and its utilization
● To understand different security, authentication and encryption
techniques

8.1 INTRODUCTION
Digital cellular networks are the fastest-growing part of the market for
mobile and wireless devices. They are wireless extensions of standard
PSTN or ISDN networks, allowing for smooth roaming within the same
country or even globally. These systems are mostly utilised for voice
traffic nowadays. However, because data traffic is always increasing, this
chapter discusses many wireless data transfer strategies using cellular
systems.
The following are the global market figures for cellular networks (GSM
Association, 2002). GSM is the most widely used digital system,
accounting for over 70% of the market. The analogue AMPS system still
has 3% of the market, while the Japanese PDC has 5%. (60 million users).
The rest is split between CDMA (12%) and TDMA (10%) systems, as
well as other technologies. Nearly everyone in Europe (about 370 million
people) uses the digital GSM system, with almost no analogue systems
remaining. In the United States and several other countries that have
absorbed US technology, the situation is different (e.g., South Korea,
Canada). With 107 million TDMA, 135 million CDMA, and just 16
million GSM users (North America only), the digital market is divided
into TDMA, CDMA, and GSM systems. While Europe has only one
digital system, the US market is fragmented into numerous. This causes
serious coverage and service availability issues, and is an example of how
market forces failed to deliver better services (compared to the common
standard in Europe).
The figure below depicts the global number of subscribers to various
mobile phone technology (GSM Association, 2002). The illustration mixes
various versions of the same technology (e.g., GSM working on 900,
1,800, and 1,900 MHz). The graph's two upper lines depict the total
number of users and 1998 predictions. It's interesting to note that no one
predicted mobile communication technology's enormous success. The 123
Wireless and Mobile graph also demonstrates that analogue systems are no longer in use, with
Technology GSM dominating the present market. Second generation systems include
GSM, TDMA, CDMA, and PDC. It's worth noting that mobile phones are
now used by more people than landlines! In March 2002, the graphs of
mobile and fixed users crossed.

Figure: Worldwide subscribers of different mobile phone technologies

8.2 GSM – ARCHITECTURE


GSM, like many telecommunications systems, has a hierarchical,
complicated system architecture with numerous entities, interfaces, and
acronyms. The GSM system, as defined by ETSI, is depicted in the
diagram. The radio subsystem (RSS), the network and switching
subsystem (NSS), and the operation subsystem (OS) make up a GSM
system (OSS). The mobile stations (MS) and some antenna masts of the
base transceiver stations are usually the only parts of the network that a
GSM customer notices (BTS).

Figure: GSM system functional architecture


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8.2.1 Radio subsystem: Mobile Communication
Systems GSM
All radio-specific elements, such as mobile stations (MS) and base station
subsystems, are included in the radio subsystem (RSS) (BSS). The RSS
and NSS are connected via the A interface (solid lines) while the OSS is
connected via the O interface (dashed lines) in the diagram above. The A
interface employs circuit-switched PCM-30 systems (2.048 Mbit/s) to
handle up to 30 64 kbit/s connections, whilst the O interface uses the
Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) based on X.25 to carry management data to
and from the RSS.

Base station subsystem (BSS):


A GSM network has numerous base station subsystems, each controlled
by a base station controller (BSC). The BSS is responsible for maintaining
radio connections to an MS, voice coding and decoding, and rate adaption
to and from the wireless network. The BSS contains many BTSs in
addition to a BSC.

Base transceiver station (BTS):


It contains all radio equipment required for radio transmission, such as
antennas, signal processing, and amplifiers. A BTS connects to the MS via
the Um interface (ISDN U interface for mobile use) and to the BSC via the
Abis interface, and can build a radio cell or many cells using sectorized
antennas. The Um interface contains all of the wireless transmission
techniques (TDMA, FDMA etc.) 16 or 64 kbit/s connections make up the
Abis interface. Depending on the context (buildings, open space,
mountains, etc.) as well as projected traffic, a GSM cell can measure
between 100 m and 35 km.

Base station controller (BSC):


The BSC is in charge of the BTSs. It manages the handover of radio
frequencies from one BTS to another within the BSS and performs MS
paging. At the A interface, the BSC multiplexes the radio channels onto
the fixed network connections.

8.2.2 Network and Switching subsystem:


The network and switching subsystems are the "heart" of the GSM system
(NSS). The NSS connects the wireless network to conventional public
networks, handles handovers between multiple BSSs, includes capabilities
for global user localisation, and facilitates charging, accounting, and
roaming of users across different providers and countries. The NSS is
made up of the switches and databases listed below:

Mobile Services Switching Centres:


MSCs are high-speed digital ISDN switches. They use the A interface to
link to other MSCs and BSCs, forming the GSM system's fixed backbone
network. Typically, an MSC is in charge of numerous BSCs in a certain
geographic area. Other fixed networks, such as PSTN and ISDN, are
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Wireless and Mobile connected to a gateway MSC (GMSC). An MSC can additionally connect
Technology to public data networks (PDNs) like X.25 using additional interworking
functions (IWF). An MSC is in charge of all signals for connection setup,
connection release, and connection handover to other MSCs. For this, the
standard signalling system No. 7 (SS7) is employed. SS7 includes all
aspects of digital network control signalling (reliable routing and delivery
of control messages, call establishment and monitoring).

Home Location Register (HLR):


The HLR is the most significant database in a GSM system since it stores
all user-relevant data. This includes static data like the mobile subscriber
ISDN number (MSISDN), subscribed services (including call forwarding,
roaming limitations, and GPRS), and the international mobile subscriber
identity (IMSI). The current location area (LA) of the MS, the mobile
subscriber roaming number (MSRN), the current VLR, and MSC are all
examples of dynamic information. The information in the HLR is updated
as soon as an MS departs its current LA. This data is required to pinpoint a
user's location within the global GSM network. In a single HLR, which
also allows billing and accounting, all of these user-specific information
pieces exist just once for each user. HLRs can manage data for millions of
clients and contain highly specialised data bases that must meet particular
real-time standards in order to respond to queries within certain time
frames.

Visitor Location register (VLR):


The VLR associated with each MSC is a dynamic database that stores all
necessary information for MS users currently in the LA associated with
the MSC (e.g., IMSI, MSISDN, HLR address). When a new MS joins a
LA for which the VLR is responsible, the HLR copies all necessary
information for this user. This VLR and HLR structure prevents frequent
HLR updates and long-distance user information communication.

8.2.3 Operation subsystem:


The operating subsystem (OSS), the third component of a GSM system,
contains the functions required for network operation and maintenance.
The OSS has its own network entities and communicates with others via
SS7 signalling (see Figure above). The entities listed below have been
defined.

The operation and maintenance centre (OMC):


It uses the O interface to monitor and control all other network elements
(SS7 with X.25). Traffic monitoring, network entity status reports,
subscriber and security management, and accounting and billing are all
common OMC administration responsibilities. Telecommunication
management networks (TMNs), as defined by the ITU-T, are used by
OMCs.

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Authentication Centre (AuC): Mobile Communication
Systems GSM
Because the radio interface and mobile stations are particularly vulnerable,
a separate authentication centre (AuC) has been established to protect user
identity and data transmission. The AuC contains the authentication
methods as well as the encryption keys, and it generates the values
required for user authentication in the HLR. The AuC might be located in
a designated protected area within the HLR.

The Equipment Identity Register (EIR):

EIR is a database that contains all IMEIs, or all device identifications


registered for this network. MSs are easily stolen because they are mobile.
Anyone with a valid SIM might use the stolen MS. The EIR maintains a
stolen (or locked) device blacklist. An MS is theoretically worthless once
the owner has reported a theft. Unfortunately, different providers'
blacklists are not always synchronised, making it feasible to use a device
in another operator's network without permission. A list of valid IMEIs
(white list) and a list of malfunctioning devices are also included in the
EIR (gray list).

8.3 AIR INTERFACE


The air interface is the most significant interface in a GSM system since it
contains several techniques for multiplexing and media access. GSM uses
cells with BTS to implement SDMA and assigns an MS to each BTS. As
demonstrated in Figure, FDD is also utilised to segregate the downlink and
uplink. TDMA and FDMA are combined in media access. For FDMA,
GSM 900 employs 124 channels, each 200 kHz wide, whereas GSM 1800
requires 374 channels. Channels 1 and 124 are not used for transmission in
GSM 900 due to technical reasons. In most cases, 32 channels are
dedicated to corporate data, while the remaining 90 are dedicated to
customers. After that, each BTS maintains a single channel for
organisational data and up to ten channels for user data, for example. The
sample below uses the GSM 900 system, while GSM operates similarly at
1800 and 1900 MHz.

The TDM used is also shown in the figure. A GSM TDMA frame
separates each of the 248 channels in time, i.e., each 200 kHz carrier is
subdivided into frames that are repeated constantly. A frame lasts 4.615
milliseconds. A frame is split into 8 GSM time slots, each of which
represents a physical TDM channel and lasts 577 seconds. Every 4.615
ms, each TDM channel occupies the 200 kHz carrier for 577 seconds.

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

Figure: GSM TDMA frame, slots and bursts


Bursts of data are sent out in short increments. Figure depicts a typical
burst utilised for data transmission (user and signalling data) inside a time
slot. The burst in the diagram is only 546.5 seconds long and comprises
148 bits. The remaining 30.5 seconds are used as guard space to prevent
bursts from overlapping due to varying path delays and to allow the
transmitter to turn on and off. Filling the entire slot with data enables for
156.25 bit transmission in 577 seconds. Each radio carrier sends roughly
270 kbit/s across the Um interface, and each physical TDM channel has a
raw data throughput of about 33.8 kbit/s.
A regular burst's first and last three bits (tail) are all set to 0 and can be
exploited to improve receiver performance. The training sequence in the
middle of a slot is used to adapt the receiver's parameters to the current
path propagation characteristics and, in the case of multi-path propagation,
to select the strongest signal. If the data field contains user or network
control data, the flag S is set. A frequency correction burst allows the MS
to correct the local oscillator to avoid interference with neighbouring
channels, a synchronisation burst with an extended training sequence
synchronises the MS with the BTS in time, an access burst is used for the
initial connection setup between MS and BTS, and finally a dummy burst
is used if no data is available for a slot, according to ETSI (1993a).
Simple transmitter hardware is possible due to two factors: first, the uplink
and downlink slots of a physical TDM channel are separated in frequency
(45 MHz for GSM 900, 95 MHz for GSM 1800 using FDD). The TDMA
frames, on the other hand, are time shifted for three slots, thus if the BTS
provides data in slot one on the downlink at time t0, the MS accesses slot
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128
one on the uplink at time t0+3.577 microsecond. A full-duplex transmitter Mobile Communication
is unnecessary for an MS; a basic half-duplex transmitter that switches Systems GSM
between receiving and sending is sufficient.
GSM specifies an optional slow frequency hopping strategy to mitigate
frequency selective fading. Based on a shared hopping sequence, MS and
BTS may change the carrier frequency after each frame. Between uplink
and downlink slots, an MS adjusts its frequency.

8.4 MULTIPLE ACCESS SCHEME


Multiple access schemes are used to allow multiple mobile users to share a
finite quantity of radio spectrum at the same time.

8.4.1 Multiple Access Techniques:


It is common in wireless communication systems for subscribers to be
able to send information from the mobile station to the base station while
simultaneously receiving information from the base station to the mobile
station.
A cellular system splits an area into cells, with each cell's mobile unit
communicating with a base station. The primary goal of cellular system
design is to maximise channel capacity, or the ability to handle as many
calls as feasible in a given bandwidth while maintaining a sufficient level
of service.
There are numerous options for granting access to the channel. These
primarily comprise the following:
● Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
● Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
● Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
● Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)
● Spread Spectrum Multiple Access
These strategies can be classed as narrowband or wideband systems
depending on how the available bandwidth is allocated to the users.

Narrowband systems:
Narrow band systems operate with channels that are significantly narrower
than the coherence bandwidth. Narrow band TDMA allows users to share
the same channel but assigns each user a distinct time slot, allowing a
small number of users to be separated in time on a single channel.

Wideband systems:
In wideband systems, a single channel's transmission bandwidth is
substantially wider than the channel's coherence bandwidth. As a result,
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Wireless and Mobile multipath fading has a minor impact on the received signal in a wideband
Technology channel, and frequency selective fades only occur in a limited portion of
the signal bandwidth.

8.4.2 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA):


The FDMA standard is the foundation for enhanced mobile phone
services. The following are the characteristics of FDMA:
● For each user to access the network, FDMA assigns a different sub-
band of frequency.
● When FDMA is not in use, the channel is left idle rather than being
assigned to other users.
● Narrowband systems use FDMA, which is less complicated than
TDMA.
● To reduce adjacent channel interference, tight filtering is used.
● In FDMA, the base station BS and the mobile station MS transmit and
receive data at the same time.

8.4.3 Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA):


TDMA is utilised instead of FDMA in situations where continuous
transmission is not required. The following are some of the characteristics
of TDMA:
● TDMA allows several users to share a single carrier frequency by
using non-overlapping time intervals.
● In TDMA, data is transmitted in bursts rather than continuously. As a
result, the process is simplified.
● Duplexers are not required because TDMA employs different time
slots for transmission and reception.
● TDMA offers the advantage of allowing different users to be assigned
varied numbers of time slots every frame.
● By concatenating or reassigning time slots based on priority,
bandwidth can be provided on demand to multiple users.

8.4.4 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)


Multiple access techniques such as code division multiple access employ a
single channel to broadcast data simultaneously from multiple
transmitters. The following are its characteristics:
● Instead than being assigned a specific frequency, each CDMA
customer uses the entire available spectrum.
● For voice and data connections, CDMA is highly recommended.
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130
● While many codes share the same CDMA channel, users with the Mobile Communication
same code can connect with one another. Systems GSM

● CDMA has a greater capacity for airspace than TDMA.


● CDMA handles the hand-off between base stations quite well.

8.4.5 Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA):


Space division multiple access, also known as spatial division multiple
access, is a MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) architecture technique
that is commonly used in wireless and satellite communication. It has the
following characteristics:
● Using the same channel, all users can communicate at the same time.
● SDMA is fully interference-free.
● A single satellite can communicate with many satellites using the
same frequency receiver.
● The base station in SDMA can monitor a moving user thanks to the
use of directional spot-beam antennas.
● Controls the amount of energy radiated by each user in space.

8.4.6 Spread Spectrum Multiple Access:


Signals with a transmission bandwidth greater than the minimum needed
RF bandwidth are used in spread spectrum multiple access (SSMA).
Spread spectrum multiple access approaches are divided into two
categories:
● Frequency hopped spread spectrum (FHSS)
● Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)

Frequency hopped spread spectrum (FHSS):


This is a digital multiple access system in which the carrier frequencies of
individual users within a wideband channel are altered in a pseudo random
manner. The digital data is split down into uniformly sized bursts that are
then sent over various carrier frequencies.

Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS):


This is the most widely utilised CDMA technology. A Pseudo Random
Noise Code multiplies the message signal in DS-SS. Each user is assigned
a code word that is orthogonal to the codes of other users, and the receiver
must know the transmitter's code word in order to detect the user.
Another sort of spread spectrum is hybrid, which is made up of
combinational sequences. Another type that is rarely mentioned is time
hopping.
131
Wireless and Mobile Spread spectrum systems become bandwidth efficient in a multiple user
Technology scenario because numerous users can share the same spread spectrum
bandwidth without interfering with one another.

8.5 LOCALIZATION AND CALLING


The automatic, worldwide localization of users is a key aspect of the GSM
system. The system always knows where a user is, and the same phone
number can be used anywhere in the world. Even if a user does not use the
mobile station, GSM performs periodic location updates to provide this
service (assuming the MS is still logged into the GSM network and is not
totally switched off). The current location (just the location area, not the
specific geographical location) is always stored in the HLR, and the VLR
in charge of the MS tells the HLR when the location changes. The HLR
transfers all user data to the new VLR as soon as an MS enters the range
of a new VLR (a new location region). Roaming is the process of
switching VLRs while maintaining continuous availability of all services.
Roaming can take place within a single provider's network, between two
providers in the same country (national roaming is frequently not
supported owing to operator rivalry), or between different carriers in other
countries (international roaming). People usually identify the term
roaming with international roaming because it is this form of roaming that
makes GSM so appealing: one device, 190 countries!

Several numbers are required to locate and address an MS:

● Mobile Station International ISDN Number (MSISDN): For a


GSM customer, the phone number is the most important number.
Remember that the phone number is not linked to a specific device,
but rather to the SIM, which is unique to each user. For addresses, the
MSISDN uses the ITU-T standard E.164, which is also used in fixed
ISDN networks. The country code (CC) (e.g., +49 179 1234567 with
49 for Germany), the national destination code (NDC) (i.e., the
network provider's address, e.g., 179), and the subscriber number
make up this number (SN).

● International mobile subscriber identity (IMSI): GSM employs the


IMSI to identify subscribers internally. A mobile country code (MCC)
(e.g., 240 for Sweden, 208 for France), a mobile network code (MNC)
(i.e., the network provider's code), and lastly a mobile subscriber
identity number (MSIN) make up an IMSI (MSIN).

● Temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI): GSM employs the


4 byte TMSI for local subscriber identification to disguise the IMSI,
which would reveal the actual identity of the user signalling over the
air interface. TMSI is chosen by the current VLR and is only valid for
a limited time and within the VLR's location region (for ongoing
communication, TMSI and LAI are sufficient; the IMSI is not
required). A VLR may also modify the TMSI on a regular basis.

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132
● Mobile station roaming number (MSRN): MSRN is another Mobile Communication
temporary address that hides a subscriber's identity and location. This Systems GSM
address is generated by the VLR in response to a request from the
MSC, and it is also kept in the HLR. The current visitor country code
(VCC), the visitor national destination code (VNDC), the current
MSC's identifier, and the subscriber number are all contained in the
MSRN. The MSRN assists the HLR in locating an incoming call
subscriber.

All of these numbers are required to locate a subscriber and maintain a


mobile station connection. The mobile terminated call (MTC) is an
intriguing circumstance in which a station calls another mobile station
(which could be outside the GSM network or another mobile station). The
essential processes for connecting the calling station to the mobile user are
shown in the diagram. In step one, a user phones a GSM subscriber's
phone number. The fixed network (PSTN) recognises that the number
belongs to a GSM network user (based on the destination code) and
forwards the call setup to the Gateway MSC. The GMSC locates the
subscriber's HLR (which is encoded in the phone number) and informs it
of the call setup. The HLR now verifies that the number is valid and that
the user has subscribed to the requested services before requesting an
MSRN from the current VLR. The HLR can determine the MSC
responsible for the MS after receiving the MSRN and sends this
information to the GMSC. The call setup request can now be forwarded to
the MSC defined by the GMSC.

Figure: Mobile Terminated Call (MTC)


The MSC is in charge of all subsequent steps from this point forward. It
starts by asking the VLR for the MS's current state. If the MS is available,
the MSC commences paging in all cells it is responsible for (i.e., the
location area, LA), because searching for the correct cell would take too
133
Wireless and Mobile long (although this strategy puts some strain on the signalling channels,
Technology therefore optimizations exist). This paging signal is sent to the MS by all
BSS BTSs. If the MS responds, the VLR must do security checks (set up
encryption etc.). The VLR then instructs the MSC to establish a link with
the MS (steps 15 to 17).

When compared to an MTC, making a mobile originating call (MOC) is


more easier (Refer figure below). The MS sends a request for a new
connection to the BSS, which passes it on to the MSC. The MSC then
determines whether or not this user is authorised to make a call using the
desired service, as well as the availability of resources across the GSM
network and into the PSTN. The MSC establishes a connection between
the MS and the fixed network if all resources are available.

Figure: Mobile originated call (MOC)


Other messages are exchanged between an MS and a BTS during
connection establishment in addition to those stated above (in either
direction). Before the phone rings, these messages can be heard as
crackling noise on radios or poorly insulated loudspeakers. The messages
for an MTC and MOC are shown in the diagram below. Paging is only
required for an MTC, after which comparable message exchanges take
place. The channel access via the random access channel (RACH) with
sequential channel assignment is the initial stage in this context; the
channel assigned could be a traffic channel (TCH) or a slower signalling
channel SDCCH.

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Mobile Communication
Systems GSM

Figure: Message flow for MTC and MOC


The authentication of the MS and the switch to encrypted connection are
the following stages required for communication security. TCH is now
assigned by the system (if this has not been done). This has the advantage
of requiring an SDCCH only during the initial setup phases. No TCH has
been blocked if the setup fails. Using a TCH from the start, on the other
hand, has a speed advantage.
The actions that follow are dependent on whether you're using MTC or
MOC. If someone calls the MS, it now responds with 'alerting,' indicating
that the MS is ringing, and 'connect,' indicating that the user has clicked
the connect button. If the MS has initiated the call, the identical
procedures occur in reverse. Both parties can share data after the
connection is acknowledged.
The connection is closed by sending a user-initiated disconnect message
(on both sides), then relinquishing the connection and the radio channel.

8.6 PROTOCOL SIGNALLING


GSM protocol architecture including signalling protocols and interfaces is
depicted in the diagram below. The Um interface is of particular
significance because the other interfaces are between entities in a fixed
135
Wireless and Mobile network. All radio-specific functions are handled by Layer 1, the physical
Technology layer. This involves creating bursts in one of five possible formats,
multiplexing bursts into a TDMA frame, synchronisation with the BTS,
detection of idle channels, and downlink channel quality measurement.
The physical layer at Um uses GMSK for digital modulation and provides
data encryption and decryption, but only between MS and BSS over the
air interface, rather than end-to-end.

Figure: Protocol architecture for signalling


Individual route delays between an MS and the BTS are also corrected
during synchronisation. Because all MSs in a cell use the same BTS, they
must all be synced to it. The BTS creates the temporal structure of frames,
slots, and other elements. The differing round trip times is a problem in
this situation (RTT). The RTT of an MS close to the BTS is quite short,
whereas an MS 35 kilometres away already has an RTT of roughly 0.23
ms. Large guard spaces would be necessary if the MS further away
employed the slot structure without correction, because 0.23 ms is already
40% of the 0.577 ms provided for each slot. As a result, the BTS sends the
current RTT to the MS, which adjusts its access time to ensure that all
bursts arrive to the BTS within their time limitations. This technology cuts
the guard time in half, from 30.5 seconds to 5%. The variable timing
advance can be used to control access, allowing a burst to be pushed up to
63 bits earlier, with each bit lasting 3.69 microseconds (which results in
0.23ms needed). A burst cannot be shifted sooner than 63-bit times
because the variable timing advance cannot be extended. As a result, the
maximum distance between an MS and a BTS is 35 kilometres. It may be
possible to receive the signals at larger distances; however, access to the
BTS cannot be authorised to avoid collisions.
The physical layer's key responsibilities include channel coding and error
detection/correction, which are closely related to the coding techniques.
Different forward error correction (FEC) techniques are used extensively
in channel coding. FEC adds redundancy to user data, making it possible
to discover and remedy certain problems. The degree of redundancy,
136
136
coding technique, and further interleaving of data to mitigate the impacts Mobile Communication
of burst mistakes determine the strength of an FEC scheme. The FEC is Systems GSM
also the reason why, contrary to the ISO/OSI reference model, error
detection and correction occurs in layer one rather than layer two. The
GSM physical layer attempts to fix mistakes but does not send incorrect
data to the higher layers.
GSM uses several coding systems with different correction capacities for
different logical channels. To obtain a data rate of 22.8 kbit/s (using the 13
kbit/s from the voice codec plus redundancy, CRC bits, and interleaving),
speech channels require further coding of voice data following analogue to
digital conversion. Because speech was anticipated to be the primary
service in GSM, the physical layer includes features like voice activity
detection (VAD), which transmits voice data only when a voice signal is
present. This approach helps to reduce interference because a channel may
be silent around 60% of the time (assuming only one person speaks at a
time and some extra time is required to move between speakers). The
physical layer provides a comfort noise to simulate a connection (total
silence would likely mislead a user), but no actual transmission takes
occur during times of silence (e.g., if a user needs time to ponder before
talking). The noise is even customised to the communication partner's
existing background noise.
All of this data interleaving for a channel to reduce interference due to
burst mistakes and the logical channel's recurrence pattern results in a
transmission delay. A TCH/FS has a 60 ms delay and a TCH/F9.6 has a
100 ms delay (within 100 ms signals in fixed networks easily travel
around the globe). If communicating with an MS instead of a regular fixed
station (telephone, computer, etc.), these periods must be added to the
transmission delay, and they may affect the performance of any upper
layer protocols, such as computer data transmission.

8.7 HANDOVER
Handover or handoff refers to the procedure of transferring ongoing call or
data connectivity from one Base Station to another in cellular
telecommunications. When a phone goes to a different cell while a call is
in progress, the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) transfers the call to a
new channel associated with the new Base Station.

137
Wireless and Mobile When a mobile user A moves from one cell to another, the signal strength
Technology of BSC 1 decreases while the signal strength of BSC 2 improves, allowing
the mobile user to continue making calls or accessing data without
interruption.

8.7.1 Types of Handoff:


1] Hard handoff:
When transitioning from one Base Station to another Base Station, there is
an actual interruption in connectivity. The Base Station and MSC are not
burdened since the changeover occurs so swiftly that the users are barely
aware of it. The quality of the connection is poor. The 'break before make'
policy was implemented by Hard Handoff.

2] Soft handoff:
When radio signals are added or removed from the Base Station, at least
one of the links is retained in Soft Handoff. The 'make before break'
principle was implemented by Soft Handoff. Hard Handoff is more
expensive than Soft Handoff.

8.7.2 Situations for triggering handoff:


Handoffs occur in any of the following circumstances:
● When a subscriber in a call or data session travels out of one cell's
coverage region and into another cell's coverage area, a handoff is
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138
triggered to ensure service continuity. The duties that the first cell was Mobile Communication
performing are now being delegated to the second cell. Systems GSM

● Each cell has a specified capacity, which means it can only serve a
certain number of subscribers. A handoff occurs when the number of
users using a particular cell hits its maximum capacity. If the
subscriber is within the overlapping service area of both cells, some
calls are moved to nearby cells.
● Microcells are often subdivided from larger cells. When
responsibilities are transferred from the large cell to the smaller cell
and vice versa, a handoff may occur. A travelling user, for example, is
moving inside the jurisdiction of a huge cell. If the traveller comes to
a halt, the jurisdiction is moved to a microcell to relieve the large
cell's load.
● Handoffs can also happen when multiple calls using the same
frequency for communication collide.

8.7.3 Mobile assisted handoff:


Mobile assisted handoff (MAHO) is a mechanism in which mobile devices
assist the Base Station Controller (BSC) in transferring a call to a different
BSC. GSM cellular networks employ it. A handoff in other systems, such
as AMPS, is completely the responsibility of the BSC and the Mobile
Switching Centre (MSC), with no involvement from the mobile device.
When a mobile station in GSM is not using its time slots for
communication, it measures signal quality and communicates that
information to the BSC. This information is used by the BSC to complete
handoff.

8.8 SECURITY
GSM provides a variety of security services based on information saved in
the AuC and individual SIMs (which is plugged into an arbitrary MS). The
SIM card stores personal and confidential information and is secured with
a PIN to prevent unwanted access. (The secret key Ki, for example, is
saved in the SIM and is used for authentication and encryption
procedures.) GSM's security services are described in detail below:
● Access control and authentication: The first step is to verify that the
SIM user is legitimate. To utilise the SIM, the user must enter a secret
PIN. The subscriber authentication is the next stage. A challenge-
response method is used in this step.
● Confidentiality: All user-related data is encrypted for privacy.
Following authentication, the BTS and MS encrypt speech, data, and
signalling. This level of confidentiality occurs just between MS and
BTS, not from end to end or throughout the entire fixed
GSM/telephone network.

139
Wireless and Mobile ● Anonymity: All data is encrypted before transmission to ensure user
Technology anonymity, and user identifiers (which might indicate an identity) are
not used over the air. Instead, GSM sends out a temporary
identification (TMSI) that the VLR assigns after each position update.
The TMSI can also be changed by the VLR at any moment.
In order to provide security services in GSM, three algorithms have been
specified. A3 is used for authentication, A5 is used for encryption, and A8
is used to generate a cypher key. Only algorithm A5 was publicly
disclosed in the GSM standard, but algorithms A3 and A8 were kept secret
but standardised with open interfaces. Both A3 and A8 are no longer
classified, having been made public in 1998 via the internet. This proves
that security by obscurity is ineffective. The algorithms, it turned out,
aren't very good. Users can employ greater end-to-end encryption or
network providers can utilise stronger authentication techniques.
Algorithms A3 and A8 (or their equivalents) are proprietary and can be
found on the SIM and in the AuC. Only A5 must be identical across all
providers in terms of device implementation.

8.8.1 Authentication:
A subscriber must be authenticated before he or she may utilise any GSM
network service. The SIM, which stores the individual authentication key
Ki, the user identity IMSI, and the authentication algorithm A3, is used for
authentication. The challenge-response approach is used for
authentication: the access control AC generates a random number RAND
as a challenge, and the SIM within the MS responds with SRES (signed
response) (Refer following Figure). For each IMSI, the AuC generates the
basic random values RAND, signed answers SRES, and cypher keys Kc,
then sends this information to the HLR. The present VLR asks the HLR
for the necessary RAND, SRES, and Kc values.

140
140 Figure: Subscriber authentication
The VLR delivers the SIM the random value RAND for authentication. Mobile Communication
With RAND and the key Ki, dubbed A3, both the network and subscriber Systems GSM
modules conduct the identical function. The MS returns the SIM's SRES,
allowing the VLR to compare the two values. The VLR approves the
subscriber if they are the same; otherwise, the subscriber is rejected.

8.8.2 Encryption:
All transmissions including user-related information are encrypted in
GSM over the air interface to preserve privacy. MS and BSS can start
employing encryption after authentication by applying the cypher key Kc
(the actual position of security functions for encryption, BTS and/or BSC,
is vendor dependant). The algorithm A8 is used to produce Kc from the
individual key Ki and a random value. It's worth noting that the SIM in the
MS and the network both use the same random number RAND to
calculate Kc. Over the air interface, the key Kc is not communicated.
The algorithm A5 and the cypher key Kc can now be used by MS and
BTS to encrypt and decode data. As seen in the diagram below, Kc should
be a 64-bit key, which isn't particularly strong but provides adequate
security against simple eavesdropping. However, the internet publishing of
A3 and A8 revealed that in some implementations, 10 of the 64 bits are
always set to 0, resulting in a key length of only 54 bits. As a result, the
encryption is significantly less secure.

Figure: Data Encryption

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology
8.9 GPRS - ARCHITECTURE
8.9.1 Introduction to GPRS architecture:
The GPRS Design is a network architecture that allows data to move via
it. It contains settings for 171 kbps packet data transmission. Multiple
users can join the network and make good use of the resources. General
Packet Radio Service, which is based on GPS, delivers packet service in
2G or 3G mobile data services. With adequate infrastructure, which offers
the connection to GSM infrastructure, small packets are accessed in a
short period of time. In order to provide data to 2G, more organisations are
required. GGSN and SGSN are their names. The architecture is provided
more provisions in order to improve itself.

8.9.2 What is GPRS architecture?


● In addition to the new entities in the design, GSM network elements
are frequently utilised. The nodes are supported in terms of data
packet routing and improvement. Serving GPRS Support Nodes
(SGSN) and Gateway GPRS Support Nodes are the two types of
nodes (GGSN). The GPRS register also records routing information
and maps it to the correct address.

Figure: GPRS Architecture


● SGSN assists with network services, whereas GGSN assists with
gateways outside the network. Also incorporated in the network is the
Packet Control Unit, or PCU, which assists in determining where data
should be transmitted. It is assigned to the system's packet-switched
or circuit-switched networks.
● To make the network appear familiar and normal to external users,
SGSN and GGSN use a protocol. This allows the system to
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142
communicate through IP without encountering any complications Mobile Communication
with the system's network backbone. Systems GSM

● When a mobile device goes to a new area, a logical link control is


employed in the network to remove an old link and add a new link
under the new SGSN. This aids in the operation of the network under
the system and the management of data packets.

8.9.3 Components of GPRS architecture:


The following are the GPRS Architecture Components:
● Most GSM elements in the system have been changed to function
with the GPRS architecture. Take a look at those components.
● The proper operation of the GGSN and SGSN in the network is aided
by GPRS support nodes, or GSNs. GSN should be installed in the
system so that they can be deployed as needed.
● In GPRS, mobile stations assist in accessing network services so that
data packets can use them on time. These stations assist manage GSM
calls within the network and compete with backward and forward
services. This service is extremely useful for performing backwards
compatible services.
● The Base Transceiver Station, or BTS, receives all network messages
and manages them for system usage. This allows the station to
efficiently handle data to the required mobile data packets.
● The Base Station Controller, or BSC, also makes the PCU installation
worthwhile by controlling data flow and routing it to the appropriate
stations. The system requires a separate hardware component,
otherwise it will install all of the components within itself. Please
upgrade your systems to make them perform properly and to their full
potential.
● In GPRS, the routing Area operates similarly to the GSM Location
Area in broadcasting the same messages to the entire network in the
area. It also handles data with extreme caution to avoid data leaks
while sending the same message.
● Databases in the GPRS network assist in the handling and storage of
data within the same network. As a result, retrieving and managing
information stored in the system is simple.
● SGSN aids in the authentication of mobile data, the management of
mobiles, and the interception of data in the system's air interface.
SGSN is also in charge of mobile phone registration in the network.
● GGSN keeps track of all mobiles in the network and operates as a
bridge between the router and external networks. The data packets are
routed through IP in the network to the appropriate node, which
serves as the system's server backbone. By regulating data and
143
Wireless and Mobile collecting information from external networks, it operates as a traffic
Technology filter. As a result, it protects the network from external threats.

8.9.4 Advantages of GPRS architecture:


The following are some of the benefits of GPRS Architecture:
● The architecture minimises data access time so that data on any
network or system can be accessed and used more quickly. This
allows the network to effectively manage data under the system,
including data packets, routing, and network backbone.
● The network's resources are fully employed to ensure that circuit
switching, packet switching, and transmission modes are adequately
controlled. The network's routing region is detailed so that wireless
resources can be located and exploited.
● Data is transported at a faster rate than ever before through mobile
devices. GPRS networks can be employed in computers to increase
data transmission rates and allow them to operate at full capacity.
● In the GPRS network, any application can be used, including common
services like email and broadcasting, as well as web browsing. It is
common knowledge that GPRS delivers services in the name since the
system is always connected. Many users choose GPRS in the system
because of the high transfer rate and shorter access times.
● GPRS allows for simple multimedia messaging and broadcasting. If
the data transfer rate is slow, an instant messaging service is available
in the network to make the most of it. When data is transferred at a
very high rate, the system provides wireless communication.
● The GPRS network's availability and accessibility across all systems
makes it trustworthy among users.
Some wireless services charge less than GPRS for their services. When
multiple users surf the internet from the same location on the same
network, network speed suffers.

8.10 GPRS SIGNALLING


Protocols for controlling and supporting transmission plane functions
make up the signalling plane. It manages the routing of information for a
dedicated network connection in order to support user mobility, adapts
network resources based on QoS parameters, and provides supplementary
services. It also controls both the access connections to the GPRS network
(e.g., GPRS attach and GPRS detach) and the attributes of an established
network access connection (e.g., activation of a PDP address).

8.10.1 Between MS and SGSN:


The signalling plane between the MS and the SGSN is depicted in the
diagram below. The protocols that make up this plane are as follows:
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144
● GMM: The GMM protocol supports GPRS attach, GPRS detach, Mobile Communication
security, RA update, and location update, among other mobility Systems GSM
management functions.
● Session management (SM): PDP context activation, PDP context
modification, and PDP context deactivation are all supported by the
SM protocol.

Figure: Signalling plane MS-SGSN


8.10.2 Between two GSNs:
Gn/Gp interfaces are used in the signalling plane to transfer signalling
between GSNs in the GPRS backbone network. The signalling plane
between two GSNs is depicted in figure below.

Figure: Signalling plane GSN-GSN


The following protocols make up the signalling plane between two
GSNs:
● GTP for the control plane (GTP-C): In the GPRS core network, this
protocol tunnels signalling messages between SGSNs and GGSNs, as
well as between SGSNs.
● UDP: This protocol is used to communicate between GSNs.

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology
8.11 MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
The GPRS network is partially independent from the GSM network. To
maximise efficiency and make the best use of free GSM resources, several
operations share network aspects with current GSM activities (such as
unallocated time slots).
In the GPRS system, an MS can be in any of the three states listed below.
Packet radio is the only technology that uses a three-state concept. GSM
operates on a two-state model: idle and active.

8.11.1 Active state:


Only when the MS is in the active state is data exchanged between it and
the GPRS network. The SGSN knows the MS's cell location when it is
active state.
Packet paging notifies an active MS of an incoming data packet, which
triggers packet transmission. Following packet paging, data transmission
begins through the channel indicated by the paging message. The goal of
the paging message is to make receiving packets easier. Instead of
listening to all data packets in the downlink channels, the MS just listens
to paging messages. This drastically reduces battery usage.
When an MS needs to send a packet, it must use the uplink channel (i.e.,
the channel to the packet data network where services reside). A BSS
allocates the use of the uplink channel, which is shared by several MSs. In
a random access message, the MS requests that the channel be used. In
response to the random access message, the BSS assigns an unused
channel to the MS and sends an access grant message.

8.11.2 Standby state:


Only the MS's routing region is known in the standby state. (Within a
GSM location region, the routing area can be one or more cells.) The MS
must be paged if the SGSN transmits a packet to a standby MS. A packet
paging message is transmitted to the routing area since the SGSN knows
the routing area of the MS. The MS transmits its cell location to the SGSN
to establish the active status after receiving the packet paging message.

8.11.3 Idle state:


The MS does not have a logical GPRS context active or any Packet-
Switched Public Data Network (PSPDN) addresses assigned in the idle
state. In this condition, the MS can only receive multicast messages that
any GPRS MS can receive. External data networks cannot transmit
messages to the MS because the GPRS network architecture does not
know where the MS is located.

146
146
8.12 GPRS ROAMING Mobile Communication
Systems GSM
GPRS Roaming stands for General Packet Radio Service Roaming, which
allows packet mode communication between PMNs and network
interworking. Outside of their HPMN, GPRS Roaming allows service
subscribers to send and receive data in an end-to-end packet transfer
manner without consuming network resources in circuit switched mode.
For the avoidance of dispute, and in accordance with applicable licencing
requirements, GPRS Roaming does not preclude the user from using other
GSM Services.

8.12.1 Roaming scenario:

Figure: Roaming architecture in GPRS


Let's have a look at the node task to better grasp the roaming scenario's
design. As shown in the diagram, the SGSN is in charge of controlling the
MS's location and keeping the session active while the MS moves from
one area to another, whereas the GGSN is in charge of connecting to the
PDN.
To better understand the roaming architecture, consider the incoming
roaming situation. When a guest from another country arrives in your
country, he will need to connect to his own country's network. As a result,
the MS connects to the SGSN of the network in which it now exists (the
VPLMN). The SGSN, on the other hand, connects to the GGSN of the
visitor's home nation (HPLMN). The HPLMN's GGSN is then connected
to the HPLMN's PDN. The Gp interface will be used to connect the SGSN
and the GGSN in this situation.

8.13 SUMMARY
GSM has been shown as the most successful second generation digital
cellular network for the most part in this chapter. Although GSM was
originally developed for voice communication, the chapter demonstrated
how HSCSD and GPRS have evolved to allow for more data-oriented 147
Wireless and Mobile transmission. This evolution comprises the move from a circuit-switched
Technology network to a packet-switched system that is more similar to the internet
architecture. We have also studied the details of GPRS architecture and its
detailed overview about its signalling process; its mobility management
and its roaming process.

8.14 UNIT END EXERCISES


1] Write a detailed note on GSM architecture.
2] Write a short note on air interface.
3] Explain various multiple access scheme.
4] What do you mean by Localization and Calling? Explain in detail.
5] What do you mean by Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)?
6] Explain Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA).
7] Write a detailed note on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).
8] Write a short note on Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA).
9] Explain Spread Spectrum Multiple Access.
10] Explain the concept of Protocol Signalling.
11] Define handover and explain its types.
12] What is the difference between hard handoff and soft handoff?
13] Discuss on GSM's security services.
14] Write a detailed note on GPRS architecture.
15] Explain in brief about GPRS signalling.
16] Write a note on GPRS roaming.

8.15 LIST OF REFERENCES


 Mobile Communications, Second Edition, Jochen Schiller, Pearson
Education

 Wireless Communications & Networks, Second Edition, William


Stallings, Pearson Education

 Wireless Communications and Networks, 3G and Beyond, Second


Edition, ITI SahaMisra, McGraw Hill Education

 Wireless Network Evolution 2G to 3G, Vijay K. Garg, Pearson


Publications

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148
 Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures, Yi Bang Lin, Mobile Communication
ImrichChlamtac, Wiley India. Systems GSM

 Wireless and Mobile Networks, Concepts and Protocols, Dr.


Sunilkumar S. Manvi, Mahabaleshwar S. Kakkasageri, Wiley India

 Multi-Carrier and Spread Spectrum Systems - From OFDM and MC-


CDMA to LTE and WiMAX, Second Edition, K. Fazel, S. Kaiser,
wiley publications

 Wireless and Mobile All-IP Networks, Yi-Bing Lin, Ai-Chun Pang,


Wiley Publications

 https://gargicollege.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Apr7.pdf

 https://mobilepacketcore.com/gprs-mobility-management/

 https://gpsult.org.in/wp-
content/uploads/2020/04/elex_6th_sem_and_cs_6th_sem_Multiple-
Access-Schemes-in-Mobile-Communication.pdf

 http://icet.ac.in/Uploads/Downloads/4_Module%206.pdf

 https://silo.tips/download/chapter-2-mobility-management-for-gprs-
and-umts

 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/wcm.27

*****

149
9
MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
CDMA 2000
Unit Structure
9.0 Objectives
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Logical Channels
9.3 Forward Link and Reverse link physical channels
9.4 W-CDMA – Physical Layers
9.4.1 Bandwidth and spreading rates
9.4.2 Pilot channels
9.4.3 Cell sites
9.4.4 Channel
9.5 UMTS - System Architecture
9.6 UMTS Interfaces
9.7 Network Evolution
9.8 Release 5
9.9 FDD
9.10 TDD
9.11 UMTS frame structure
9.12 Protocol Architecture
9.13 Bearer Model
9.13.1 Radio Access Bearers (RAB)
9.13.2 Signalling Radio Bearer (SRB) parameters
9.14 Introduction to LTE
9.14.1 LTE Evolution
9.14.2 Facts about LTE
9.14.3 Advantages of LTE
9.14.4 LTE-QoS
9.15 Summary
9.16 List of References
9.17 Unit End Exercises

9.0 OBJECTIVES
● To understand the concept and background behind code division
multiple access
● To lay a basis for the spread spectrum's underlying mathematics
● To introduce wide range of network architecture and interfaces
150
9.1 INTRODUCTION Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a global telecom
organisation that develops standards and promotes telecom services
around the world. For the development of 3G system standards and
specifications, the ITU established the International Mobile
Telecommunications - 2000 (IMT-2000) forum. IMT-2000 has released a
set of 3G radio interface specifications as well as criteria for assessing
prospective radio interfaces against these requirements. Both terrestrial
and satellite networks are covered by these concepts. The CDMA2000
proposal from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and
the W-CDMA proposal from the European Telecommunication Standards
Institute (ETS) are two CDMA-based terrestrial radio concepts that have
received considerable support. These two concepts have the potential to
become the de facto 3G standards.
CDMA2000 was certified as an IMT-2000 terrestrial standard, and
CDMA2000 1X and CDMA2000 1xEV (including 1xEVDO and 1xEV-
DV) are included in the CDMA Multi-Carrier UIT (MC).
CDMA2000 has been commercially available for more than three years,
and it was the first third-generation technology to make IMT-2000 a
reality. Korea launched the world's first 3G system at the end of the
millennium.
Today, 97 million people in Asia, Europe, and North America have access
to CDMA2000 networks. Other 35 CDMA2000 networks will be installed
around the world in the not-too-distant future.

9.2 LOGICAL CHANNELS


In CDMA2000, logical channels are utilised to provide data transfer
services to higher layers, but they are directly mapped onto physical
channels. The following are the logical channels:
● Forward/Reverse Common Traffic Channel (f/r-ctch): The
forward or reverse logical channel used to convey short data bursts
connected with the data service in the Dormant/Burst Substate of the
Dormant State is known as the Forward/Reverse Common Traffic
Channel (f/r-ctch). This logical channel is a point-to-point connection
that is only used during the brief burst.
● Forward/Reverse Dedicated MAC Channel (f/r-dmch_control):
The forward or reverse logical channel used to carry Medium Access
Control (MAC) signals is known as the Forward/Reverse Dedicated
MAC Channel (f/r-dmch control). This logical channel is a point-to-
point channel that is allocated to the data service during its Active and
Control Hold states.
● The Forward/Reverse Dedicated Traffic Channel (f/r-dtch): It is a
forward or reverse logical channel for carrying user data traffic. This
151
Wireless and Mobile logical channel is a point-to-point channel that is reserved for usage
Technology by the data service during its Active State.
● Reverse Common MAC Channel (r-cmch_control): The reverse
logical channel utilised by the mobile station while data service is in
the Dormant/Idle Substate of the Dormant State or Suspended State is
the Reverse Common MAC Channel (r-cmch control). MAC
communications are sent through this logical channel. In the sense
that access to the r-cmch control is won on a contention basis, it is
shared by a group of mobile stations.

9.3 FORWARD LINK AND REVERSE LINK PHYSICAL


CHANNELS
The PLDCF Mux and QoS Sublayer use the cdma2000 Physical Layer to
provide coding and modulation services for a group of logical channels.
The physical layer generates a set of physical channels that are
immediately broadcast over the air after coding and modulation. As in
WCDMA, physical channels are classified into two categories.

1] Dedicated Physical Channel (F/R DPHCH):


It is a collection of all physical channels that convey information between
the base station and a single mobile station in a dedicated, point-to-point
manner. The Forward DPHCH (F-DPHCH) is a grouping of all physical
channels that convey data from a base station to a single mobile station. It
is made up of a subset of the channels listed below:
● Forward Fundamental Channel (F-FCH): Voice traffic, low data
rate traffic, power control bits, and control information are all carried
via the Forward Fundamental Channel (F-FCH).
● F-SCHs (Forward Supplemental Channels): are utilised only for
data, power control bits, and control information.
● Forward Dedicated Control Channel (F-DCCH): When no basic
channel is used, the Forward Dedicated Control Channel (F-DCCH) is
used for control information and reverse link power control bits for a
given mobile.
● Forward Dedicated Auxiliary Pilot Channel (F-DAPICH): is used
in conjunction with antenna beam formation and beam steering
techniques to improve coverage and data rate towards a specific
mobile station.
The Reverse DPHCH (R-DPHCH) is the sum of all physical channels
used to transmit data from a single mobile station to the base station. It is
made up of the channels listed below:
● Reverse Fundamental Channel (R-FCH): Voice communications,
low data rate traffic, and control information are all carried over the
Reverse Fundamental Channel (R-FCH).
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152
● Reverse Supplemental Channels (R-SCHs): are only used for high- Mobile Communication
data-rate traffic. Systems Cdma 2000

● Reverse Dedicated Control Channel (R-DCCH): is used for call


control information instead of the Fundamental channel.
● The Reverse Pilot Channel (R-PICH): is used for time
synchronisation, phase synchronisation, and channel estimation on
reverse links.

2] Common Physical Channel (F/R CPHCH):


The collection of all physical channels that convey information in a
common access, point to multipoint manner between the base station and
numerous mobile stations is known as the Common Physical Channel (F/R
CPHCH). The Forward CPHCH (F-CPHCH) is a collection of all physical
channels that convey data from a base station to a group of mobile stations
in a point-to-multipoint fashion. On the FCPHCH, there are two sorts of
communications: overhead (broadcast) messages, which are sent to a large
number of mobiles, and directed messages, which are sent to a particular
mobile and are identified by an explicit address (e.g. Paging messages).
The F-CPHCH consists of the following components:
● Forward Pilot Channel (F-PICH): is broadcast constantly across the
cell, shared by all mobiles in the cell to provide timing and phase
information, and is used to quickly acquire new multipaths and
estimate channel parameters (e.g. phase and multipath strength).
● F-CAPICH: It stands for Forward Common Auxiliary Pilot Channel
and is utilised in antenna beam formation applications where common
auxiliary pilots are used to generate spot beams that can be used to
boost coverage or capacity towards hot spots.
● Forward Common Control Channel (F-CCCH): Layer 3 and MAC
messages are communicated from the base station to the mobile
station via the Forward Common Control Channel (F-CCCH).
● The Forward Paging Channel (F-PCH): It is a backward
compatible channel that may broadcast at 9600 or 4800 bits per
second. Each base station in a CDMA2000 system can have several
paging channels.
● Forward Sync Channel (F-SYNC): Mobile stations operating within
the service area of a base station use the Forward Sync Channel (F-
SYNC) to gain initial time synchronisation.
● The Forward Transmit Diversity Pilot Channel (F-TDPICH): It is
used to identify transmit diversity.
● Forward Auxiliary Transmit Diversity Pilot Channel (F-
ATDPICH) is used to detect transmit diversity coherently for a group
of users.
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Wireless and Mobile ● F-BCCH (Forward Broadcast Channel): is used to send messages
Technology to all mobile phones.

● The Forward Quick Paging Channel (F-QPCH): is used to notify


mobile phones that they should listen to the Paging or Forward
Common Control channels.

● Forward Common Assignment Channel (F-CACH): For mobiles


sending random access channels, the Forward Common Assignment
Channel (F-CACH) is utilised for speedy reverse channel assignment.

● The Forward Common Power Control Channel (F-PCCH): is


used for power control commands over the common reverse link
channel for mobile phones.

On a contention basis, the Reverse CPHCH (R-CPHCH) is the collection


of all physical channels that transport information from many mobile
stations to the base station. It is made up of R-CCHT (Reverse Common
Channel Type) channels:

● Reverse Access Channel (R-ACH): Control information and tiny


packets are sent through the Reverse Access Channel (R-ACH) at a
fixed rate of 4800 or 9600 kbps.

● Reverse Common Control Channel (R-CCCH): is used to send


control information to all mobile phones.

● Reverse Enchanced Access Channel (R-EACH): is used to transmit


random access control information.

9.4 W-CDMA – PHYSICAL LAYERS


ETSI [2.5] proposed W-CDMA as an RTT proposal. It was created by
ETSI's SMG2 working group. It is the preferred radio interface for UMTS.
The Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technique is used in the 2G
GSM radio interface. W-CDMA is a key advancement in 3G networks.
The W-CDMA air interface is not designed to be backward compatible
with GSM. Handoffs between UMTS and GSM systems are, however,
possible.

When compared to GSM systems, W-CDMA has various new features.


W-CDMA meets IMT-2000's high data rate requirements. W-CDMA
allows for asynchronous operation, which means that reception and
transmission times between cell sites are not synchronised. When a phone
first turns on, it facilitates quick cell acquisition. It also allows for quick
closed loop power control in both directions.

W-CDMA will be discussed in the following sections.

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9.4.1 Bandwidth and spreading rates: Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000
The bandwidths offered are 5, 10, and 20 MHz. The base spreading rate of
W-CDMA is 4.096 Mcps. 4.096*N Mcps are the spreading rates. N can
have a value of 1, 2, or 4. The spreading rates are in 4.096 Mcps
increments.

9.4.2 Pilot channels:

Pilots are time multiplexed signals that are used in both traffic and
overhead channels in W-CDMA. W-CDMA pilots are hence dedicated
channels. Each traffic frame has a specified number of pilot bits, as shown
in Figure. Discontinuous waveform signals are used in W-CDMA pilots.
In both directions, W-CDMA uses pilot bits in each channel for channel
estimation and coherent demodulation. Pilots cannot be utilised for system
acquisition since they are dedicated. The synchronisation channel is used
in W-CDMA for system acquisition.

Figure: Pilot channel in W-CDMA


9.4.3 Cell sites:
As seen in Figure below, W-CDMA operates in an asynchronous mode. In
other words, distinct cell sites' transmission and reception timings do not
need to be coordinated. Each cell site broadcasts a scrambling code
sequence unique to that cell. This differs from CDMA2000, which uses
the same scrambling code but with distinct time offsets in each cell. A cell
location is identified by scrambling code.

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Figure: Cell sites W-CDMA


9.4.4 Channel:
There are two types of W-CDMA channels: common and dedicated. In W-
CDMA, there are four common channels. The Broadcast Control Channel
(BCCH), the Paging Channel (PCH), the Forward Access Channel
(FACH), and the Reverse Random Access Channel (RRAC) are the four
channels (RACH). The BCCH is written in the first person. It contains
both system-wide and cell-specific data. The mobile tunes to BCCH to get
system configuration after it powers up and synchronises with the system.
When the base station does not know where the mobile is in the cell, the
PCH is utilised to provide control information to the mobile station. The
FACH is used to move forward. When the base station knows where the
mobile is in the cell, it sends control information and brief user packets.
Smart antenna beam-forming applications could employ it for directed
coverage. Multiple mobile stations use the RACH in an uncoordinated
shared access manner. It's usually used to transport control data. WCDMA
employs a frame size of 10 milliseconds for all common channels.
Only one dedicated channel is defined in W-CDMA. It's called Dedicated
Channel (DCH). The DCH is defined by W-CDMA as a method of
achieving IMT-2000 high data rate standards, and it enables data rates of
up to 2 Mbps. The DCH, unlike the CDMA2000 basic and supplemental
channels, does not operate in variable rate mode and does not require blind
detection at the receiver. Data rates must be discussed clearly, and any
modifications must be renegotiated. Variable rate OVSF codes are
supported by the DCH. This is essential to support IMT-2000's multiple
data speeds. In W-CDMA, the DCH employs a frame size of 10
milliseconds.

9.5 UMTS – SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE


Figure below depicts a simplified UMTS reference design that applies to
both UTRA and non-UTRA solutions (3GPP, 2000). The UTRA network
(UTRAN) is a radio network subsystem that manages cell level mobility
(RNS). Radio channel ciphering and deciphering, handover control, radio
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resource management, and other services are all performed by the RNS. Mobile Communication
The radio interface Uu (which is similar to the Um interface in GSM) Systems Cdma 2000
connects the UTRAN to the user equipment (UE). UTRAN interfaces with
the core network via the Iu interface (which is comparable to the A
interface in GSM) (CN). If there is no dedicated connection between the
UE and the UTRAN, the CN contains capabilities for inter-system
handover, gateways to other networks (fixed or wireless), and location
management.

Figure: Main components of UMTS system architecture


The following basic architecture is further subdivided into domains by
UMTS (Refer figure below). A single user is assigned to the user
equipment domain, which contains all of the functionalities required to
access UMTS services. The USIM domain and the mobile equipment
domain are both contained under this domain. The USIM domain contains
the UMTS SIM, which handles encryption and authentication operations
for users and maintains all user-related data for UMTS. This USIM is
usually associated with a service provider and includes a microprocessor
for a better programme execution environment (USAT, UMTS SIM
application toolkit). The end device is classified as mobile equipment. All
radio transmission functions, as well as user interfaces, are housed here.

Figure: UMTS domain and interfaces


All users share the infrastructure domain, which provides UMTS services
to all accepted users. The access network domain, which houses radio
access networks (RANs), and the core network domain, which houses
access network independent operations, make up this domain. The core
network domain can be divided into three distinct domains, each with its
own set of tasks. All functions currently employed by a user to access
UMTS services are included in the serving network domain. The home
network domain encompasses all functions connected to a user's home 157
Wireless and Mobile network, such as user data look-up. Finally, the transit network domain
Technology may be required if the serving network is unable to communicate directly
with the home network. The core network's three domains could all be the
same physical network. These domains are merely functional descriptions.

9.6 UMTS INTERFACES


i] The following are the different types of UMTS interfaces:
a] Uu: This is the interface between the network and the user equipment.
It is, in other words, the UMTS air interface. In GSM/GPRS
networks, the um interface is the equivalent.
b] The Iuis is divided into two logical interfaces, Iups and Iucs, which
connect the packet switched domain to the access network and the
circuit switched domain to the access network, respectively. The
standards do not require that they be physically separated, although
the user planes and control planes for each may be different.

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c] Iu –CS: Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000
● This is the circuit-switched connection between the UTRAN and the
core voice network for carrying (usually) voice traffic and signalling.
● Radio Access Network Application Part is the primary signalling
protocol employed (RANAP).
● The A-interface is the comparable interface in GSM/GPRS networks.

d] Iub:
● The RNC uses this interface to control numerous Node Bs.
● Node B Application Part is the primary communications protocol
employed (NBAP).
● The A-bis interface is the comparable interface in GSM/GPRS
networks.
● Unlike the A-bis interface, the Iub interface is standardised and open.

e] Iu –PS:
● This is the packet-switched connection between the UTRAN and the
core data GPRS network for carrying (usually) data traffic and
signalling.
● RANAP is the most common signalling protocol.
● The Gb-interface is the comparable interface in GSM/GPRS
networks.

f] Iur:
● The Iur interface's principal goal is to facilitate inter-MSC mobility.
When a mobile user moves between locations served by multiple
RNCs, their data is now sent via Iur to the new RNC.
● The serving RNC is the original RNC, while the new RNC is known
as the drift RNC.
● Radio Network Subsystem Application Part is the primary signalling
protocol employed (RNSAP).
● In GSM/GPRS networks, there is no analogous interface.

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9.7 NETWORK EVOLUTION


CDMA2000 is an ITU-approved 3G standard, also known as IMT-CDMA
Multi-Carrier by the ITU. The CDMA2000 specification was created by
the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), which is made up of
five North American and Asian telecommunication standards bodies: TTC
Telecommunications Technology Committee in Japan, ARIB Association
of Radio Industries and Businesses in Japan, CCSA China
Communications Standards Association, TIA Telecommunications
Industry Association in North America, TTA Telecommunications
Technology Association in Korea
CDMA2000 is the next generation of the IS-95 wireless technology. It is
completely backward compatible with IS-95 and offers 3G services as
defined by the IMT-2000. CDMA2000 is a cellular operator's air interface
and core network solution for taking advantage of new mobile Internet
market potential. CDMA2000 is a technology family that comprises
CDMA2000 1x and CDMA2000 1xEV.

CDMA2000 1x:
1x refers to the CDMA2000 implementation within the existing
CDMAOne (trademark for IS-95) spectrum allotment, which employs a
1.25-MHz carrier. One times 1.25 MHz is the technical phrase 1x. In
mobile contexts, the CDMA2000 1x system may double the voice
capacity of CDMAOne networks and give a peak packet data rate of 307
Kbps. Improved voice codec, better channel coding and modulation
algorithms, and improved power control approaches are among the
improvements.
In October 2000, SK Telecom of Korea introduced the world's first
commercial 3G (CDMA2000 1x) system. Since then, CDMA2000 Ix has
been installed in Asia, North and South America, and Europe, with an
increasing subscriber base.

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CDMA2000 1xEV: Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000
The abbreviation 1xEV stands for "1x Evolution." 1xEV-DO (Data Only)
and 1xEV-DV are included (Data and Voice). 1xEV-DO has previously
been standardised [RevO][RevA], and SK Telecom and KT Freetel in
Korea built the first commercial network in 2002. The peak data rate of
the 1xEV-DO system is 2.4 Mbps.

9.8 RELEASE 5
The fundamental network in Release 5 is completely changed. The
GSM/GPRS network will be replaced by an almost entirely IP-based
network. While the radio interfaces remain same, the changes in the core
are significant for telecommunication network operators that have long
relied on traditional telephone technologies. This specification's content
was locked in March 2002. This standard brings IP-based multimedia
services (IMS) under the authority of the IETF's session initiation protocol
(SIP, RFC 3261; Rosenberg, 2002; SIP Forum, 2002).
For improved audio quality, a high-speed downlink packet access
(HSDPA) with speeds of 8–10 Mbit/s was included, as well as a wideband
16 kHz AMR codec. End-to-end QoS messaging and many data
compression methods are also included.
The 3GPP is currently working on Release 6 (and considering Release 7)
and expects to freeze it in March 2003. MIMO antennas, enhanced MMS,
security enhancements, WLAN/UMTS interworking, broadcast/multicast
services, upgraded IMS, IP emergency calls, and many more management
features are all included in this edition (3GPP, 2002a). It is important to
remember that many companies are still trying to generate money off of
release 99, thus it is unclear when and to what extent the new releases will
be deployed.

9.9 FDD
FDD involves the use of two independent wireless communication
channels, one for transmitting data and the other for receiving data, on
separate frequencies.

The following wireless systems employ FDD:


● Links to Microwave (MW) and Millimeter Wave (MMW)
● Several 4G/LTE networks exist (some use TDD)
Two different frequency bands or channels are required for wireless
systems. A suitable quantity of guard band separates the two bands,
preventing interference between the transmitter and receiver. To ensure
that the transmitter does not desensitise the nearby receiver, good filtering
or duplexers, as well as possible shielding, are required.

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For the uplink and downlink channels, FDD requires two symmetrical
spectrum segments.
The receiver in a radio with a transmitter and reception working in such
close proximity must filter out as much of the transmitter signal as
feasible. The filters are more effective when the spectrum separation is
higher.
FDD, on the other hand, requires a lot of frequency spectrum, usually at
least twice as much as TDD. Furthermore, the transmit and receive
channels must have sufficient spectrum separation. Because these so-
called guard bands are useless, they are a waste of money. These are
significant disadvantages, given the scarcity and high cost of spectrum.
FDD, on the other hand, is commonly utilised in cellular telephone
systems like the widely used GSM system. The downlink (DL) spectrum
from the cell site tower to the handset is used in certain systems, whereas
the uplink (UL) spectrum from the handset to the cell site is used in others.
Another drawback of FDD is the difficulties in employing advanced
antenna techniques such as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and
beamforming. These technologies are a key component of the new LTE
4G cell phone strategy for improving data speeds. Making antenna
bandwidths large enough to encompass both types of spectrums is
difficult. Dynamic tuning circuitry that is more complicated is necessary.
FDD also works with cable TV systems, when broadcast and receive,
channels are assigned to distinct sections of the cable spectrum. Filters are
utilised once again to keep the channels separate.

9.10 TDD
TDD transmits and receives on the same frequency range. The band is
then shared by assigning transmission and receive activities to alternate
time slots. The data to be communicated is in serial binary format, whether
it's speech, video, or computer data. Each time slot could be a single byte
or a frame of many bytes.
The following wireless systems employ TDD:
● Wireless Networks
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● Several 4G/LTE networks exist (some use FDD) Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000

TDD alternates station data transmission and reception over time. The
length of time periods may vary.

The communication parties are unable to detect interrupted transmissions


due to the high-speed nature of the data. The transmissions are not
simultaneous, but rather concurrent. No one can detect that digital voice
translated to analogue isn't full duplex.

The alternate time slots in some TDD systems are the same length or have
equal DL and UL periods. The system, however, does not have to be 50/50
balanced. As needed, the system can be asymmetrical.

For example, because download times are typically substantially longer


than upload times while using the Internet, more or fewer frame time slots
are provided as needed. Some TDD formats allow for dynamic bandwidth
allocation, in which time-slot numbers or durations are modified as
needed.

The fundamental benefit of TDD is that it just requires a single frequency


spectrum channel. Furthermore, there are no unnecessary guard bands or
channel separations. The disadvantage is that TDD requires a very fine
timing and synchronisation system at both the transmitter and receiver to
ensure that time periods do not overlap or interfere with one another.

Timing is frequently synchronised with atomic clock standards generated


from GPS. To avoid overlap, guard times are also required between time
blocks. This time is usually equivalent to the send-receive turnaround time
(transmit-receive switching time) as well as any transmission delays
(latency) along the communications line.

9.11 UMTS frame structure


The UMTS frame structure for the 3.84Mcps radio system is shown in the
diagram below. It is constructed from a super frame, a radio frame, and
chips. Each radio frame has a duration of 10ms and 15 slots. There are
2560 chips in each slot. The chip lasts roughly 0.26 microseconds (based
on 1/3.84Mcps). The slot lasts roughly 0.667 milliseconds.

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Figure: UMTS frame structure

9.12 PROTOCOL ARCHITECTURE


Access Stratum (AS) and Non Access Stratum (NAS) make up the UMTS
protocol stack (NAS). OSI layers 1 through 3 are supported by Access
Stratum. It is made up of PHY (layer 1), MAC (layer 2), RLC (layer 2),
and RRC (layer 2). (layer 3). Circuit switched (CS) and packet switched
(PS) features are used to partition the NAS or core network.

The CM (connection management) and MM (mobility management)


layers make up the CS functions. CC (Call Control), SM (Supplemental
Services), and SMS are all handled by the CM layer (Short Message
Service). This is the control plane stack for UMTS CS. The NAS section
of the UMTS CS user plane stack does not contain the CM and MM
layers, but it does comprise the application data layer protocol from start
to finish (between UE-NodeB-RNC-MSC-Remote user).

SM (session Management) and GMM (GPRS Mobility Management)


layers are used in PS functions. This is the control plane stack for the
UMTS PS network. The AS component of the PS user plane stack
includes PDCP (Packet Data Convergence), while the NAS part includes
packet protocol data (IP/PPP/etc.) and packet data applications
(FTP/HTTP/etc.). PDCP is an IP header compression algorithm that may
or may not be present in the UMTS protocol stack.

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Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000

9.13 BEARER MODEL


A bearer service in mobile telephony is a link between two points that is
characterised by a set of criteria. Any service (CS/PS service) that is given
to user equipment (UE) must be coupled with a Radio Bearer that specifies
the configuration for layer 2 and physical layer in order to have its QoS
clearly specified. Layer 2 provides radio carriers to higher layers for the
transmission of either user or control data. In other words, Layer 2
provides information transfer between the UE and the UTRAN via Radio
Bearers (RBs) and Signalling Radio Bearers to the top layers (SRBs). As a
result, RBs are the service access points between Layer 2 and the top
layers.

9.13.1 Radio Access Bearers (RAB):


The function of a Radio Access Bearer (RAB) is to offer a connection
segment for a UMTS bearer service using the WCDMA Radio Access
Network (WCDMA RAN). The WCDMA RAN can provide Radio Access
Bearer connections with various features to meet the needs of various
UMTS bearers.
● The RAB for conversational speech is designed for 12.2 kbit/s AMR
speech and will also be used to transmit emergency calls.
● The Conversational 64 kbit/s Circuit Switched (CS) RAB may be
used to provide video telephony and FTP services.
● The 57.6 kbit/s streaming is available to support a certain modem.
● DCH will adopt the new PS streaming 8/54 kbit/s RAB. This
streaming RAB will only work in conjunction with the PS interactive
8/8 kbit/s RB; there will be no standalone PS streaming RAB support. 165
Wireless and Mobile ● The Interactive RAB (Packet Switched, PS) supports a maximum data
Technology throughput of 384 kbit/s in the downlink and 64 kbit/s in the uplink,
making it excellent for email or web browsing.
● It's also feasible to combine the voice RAB with the interactive RAB,
which is known as a MultiRAB.

9.13.2 Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB) parameters:


The DCCH signalling data is carried by a Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB).
An SRB is used to establish the Radio Access Bearers (RABs) during
connection establishment and later to deliver signalling while on the
connection (for example, to perform a handover, reconfiguration or
release).
Three SRBs are supported by the test set:
● 3GPP TS 34.108 6.10.2.4.1.2 3.4k DCCH
● DCCH 13.6k (3GPP TS 34.108) 6.10.2.4.1.3
● 2.2k DCCH - this signaling radio bearer has the following properties:

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The SRB is established by an RRC Connection Setup operation during Mobile Communication
connection formation. The SRB is then used to send all following Systems Cdma 2000
signalling to initiate and establish the desired service's radio bearers. The
radio bearers are established through the RB Setup method. The RB Setup
technique determines how the DCCH and DTCH will be transmitted on
the radio bearers.
When only an SRB was present, the RB Setup might specify a different
DCCH RLC block size than when only an SRB was present. The default
3.4k DCCH SRB's DCCH RLC block size is 144 bits, while all RMCs
(Reference Measurement Channels) require a DCCH RLC block size of 96
bits. The UE and network must alter the DCCH RLC block size and then
run an RLC Re-establishment operation to reset the RLC buffers if the RB
Setup specifies a change from the stand-alone SRB configuration. If your
UE does not allow you to change the DCCH RLC block size during
connection setup, you must make the call using an SRB that has the same
DCCH RLC block size as the DCCH RLC block size established for the
service you want to establish.

9.14 INTRODUCTION TO LTE


LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, and it began as a project in 2004 by
the Third Generation Partnership Project, a telecommunications
organisation (3GPP). The corresponding evolution of the GPRS/3G packet
core network is SAE (System Architecture Evolution). LTE is a term that
is commonly used to refer to both LTE and SAE.
LTE evolved from the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS), which in turn evolved from the Global System for Mobile
Communications (GSMC) (GSM). The evolved UMTS terrestrial radio
access (E-UTRA) and evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network
were other formal names for related specifications (E-UTRAN). Release 8
of the 3GPP specifications contained the first version of LTE.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has been working on
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) on the route to fourth-generation mobile due
to a significant increase in mobile data usage and the advent of new
applications such as MMOG (Multimedia Online Gaming), mobile TV,
Web 2.0, and streaming contents.
LTE's major purpose is to create a high-data-rate, low-latency, packet-
optimized radio access technology that allows for variable capacity
deployments. At the same time, its network architecture was created with
the purpose of supporting packet-switched traffic while maintaining high
quality of service and mobility.

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Wireless and Mobile 9.14.1 LTE Evolution:
Technology

9.14.2 Facts about LTE:


● Not only is LTE the successor technology to UMTS, but also to
CDMA 2000.
● LTE is significant because it will increase cellular networks by up to
50 times in terms of performance and spectral efficiency.
● LTE was introduced to provide faster data rates, with peak downlink
speeds of 300 Mbps and peak uplink speeds of 75 Mbps. Under ideal
signal conditions, data speeds of 300Mbps can be achieved on a
20MHz carrier.
● LTE is a great technology for applications like voice over IP (VOIP),
streaming multimedia, videoconferencing, and even a high-speed
cellular modem that require high data rates.
● Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
are both used in LTE. Uplink and downlink transmissions in FDD
used different frequencies, however in TDD, both uplink and
downlink use the same carrier and are time separated.
● LTE provides carrier bandwidths ranging from 1.4 to 20 MHz, as well
as FDD and TDD. LTE has a scalable carrier bandwidth that ranges
from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz, depending on the frequency band and
amount of spectrum available to a network operator.
● Several Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmissions, which allow
the base station to send multiple data streams over the same carrier at
the same time, must be supported by all LTE devices.
● In LTE, all network node interfaces, including the backhaul
connection to radio base stations, are now IP-based. This is a
significant improvement over previous technologies, which were
based on E1/T1, ATM, and frame relay lines, with the majority of
them being narrowband and expensive.

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● When capacity restrictions are reached, a Quality of Service (QoS) Mobile Communication
mechanism has been standardised on all interfaces to ensure that voice Systems Cdma 2000
calls with a constant delay and bandwidth can still be met.
● Uses existing 2G and 3G spectrum as well as new spectrum with
GSM/EDGE/UMTS systems. Handover and roaming to existing
mobile networks are supported.

9.14.3 Advantages of LTEs:


● High throughput: Both the downlink and uplink may attain high data
speeds. The result is a high throughput.
● Low latency: It only takes a few hundred milliseconds to connect to
the network, and power saving modes can now be entered and quit
rapidly.
● Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD)
can both be employed on the same platform.
● Improved end-user experience: Signaling for connection
establishment, as well as other air interface and mobility management
protocols, has been optimised. For a better user experience, the
latency has been reduced to 10 milliseconds.
● Seamless Connection: LTE will be able to connect to current
networks such as GSM, CDMA, and WCDMA in a seamless manner.
● Plug and play: The user does not need to manually install drivers for
the device because it is plug and play. Instead, the system recognises
the device, loads new hardware drivers if necessary, and starts
working with the newly connected device.
● Simple architecture: Simple architecture has a low operational cost
(OPEX).

9.14.4 LTE-QoS:
End-to-end quality of service and guaranteed bit rate (GBR) for radio
carriers are supported by the LTE architecture. Different degrees of QoS
can be applied to LTE traffic for different applications, just as different
forms of QoS can be applied to Ethernet and the internet. QoS is a perfect
fit for the LTE MAC because it is fully scheduled.
Bearers of the Evolved Packet System (EPS) communicate with RLC
radio bearers one-on-one and enable Traffic Flow Templates (TFT). EPS
bearers are divided into four categories:
● Admission control allocates GBR Bearer resources on a permanent
basis.
● No admittance control for non-GBR bearers
● Bearer who is assigned to a specific TFT (GBR or non-GBR)
● Bearer by Default Non-GBR, unassigned traffic catch-all 169
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9.15 SUMMARY
This chapter provided an overview of third-generation systems, both
current and future. The proposal of operators and companies in the GSM
business, UMTS, was discussed in greater depth. This standard is more of
a progression than a revolution. UMTS seeks to reuse as much
infrastructure as feasible while delivering new services and greater data
rates based on CDMA technology to prevent even higher installation
costs. The early deployments will mostly rely on GSM/GPRS
infrastructure and provide relatively moderate data rates. A UMTS cell's
initial capacity is around 2 Mbit/s, and cell widths are around 500 metres.
As a first stage, UMTS will be utilised to offload GSM networks and
provide higher data rates in cities. The infrastructure will be replaced by a
(nearly) all-IP network in future editions.
Also, we have studied about FDD and TDD. Depending on the
application, both FDD and TDD have advantages. The usage of FDD or
TDD is frequently dictated by industry standards and spectrum regulation
requirements. Although TDD appears to be the better overall option, FDD
is significantly more extensively used due to previous frequency spectrum
assignments and earlier technologies. For the time being, FDD will
continue to dominate the cellular market. TDD will become more
commonly utilised when spectrum becomes more expensive and scarcer as
it is shifted and repurposed.

9.17 UNIT END EXERCISES


1] Discuss on logical channels of CDMA.
2] Write a note on Forward Link physical channels.
3] Explain Reverse link physical channels.
4] Write a note on physical layers of W-CDMA.
5] What are two types of W-CDMA channels? Explain in detail.
6] Write a detailed note on UMTS – System Architecture.
7] Enlist and explain in brief about different types of UMTS interfaces.
8] Discuss on network evolution.
9] Write a note on release 5.
10] Explain TDD.
11] Write a note on FDD.
12] Write a note on UMTS frame structure.
13] Explain Bearer Model.
14] Write a note on UMTS protocol stack.
15] Write a short note on LTE.
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9.16 LIST OF REFERENCES Mobile Communication
Systems Cdma 2000
1. Mobile Communications, Second Edition, Jochen Schiller, Pearson
Education
2. Wireless Communications & Networks, Second Edition, William
Stallings, Pearson Education
3. Wireless Communications and Networks, 3G and Beyond, Second
Edition, ITI SahaMisra, McGraw Hill Education
4. Wireless Network Evolution 2G to 3G, Vijay K. Garg, Pearson
Publications.
5. Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures, Yi Bang Lin,
ImrichChlamtac, Wiley India.
6. Wireless and Mobile Networks, Concepts and Protocols, Dr.
Sunilkumar S. Manvi, Mahabaleshwar S. Kakkasageri, Wiley India
7. Multi-Carrier and Spread Spectrum Systems - From OFDM and MC-
CDMA to LTE and WiMAX, Second Edition, K. Fazel, S. Kaiser,
wiley publications
8. Wireless and Mobile All-IP Networks, Yi-Bing Lin, Ai-Chun Pang,
Wiley Publications
Web References:
1. http://cs.uok.edu.in/Files/79755f07-9550-4aeb-bd6f-
5d802d56b46d/Custom/uniit%203.pdf
2.
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1057.1075
&rep=rep1&type=pdf
3. https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cdma/cdma_channels.htm
4. https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/cdmaone-
cdma2000/cdma2000-1x-data-channels.php
5. https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/3g-
umts/network-architecture.php
6. https://www.ques10.com/p/38287/explain-umts-network-architecture-
in-detail-with-1/
7. https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/Long-
Term-Evolution-LTE
8. https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/4g-lte-long-
term-evolution/what-is-lte-basics-tutorial-overview.php
9. https://www.artizanetworks.com/resources/tutorials/what_lte.html

*****
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MODULE V

10
MOBILE NETWORK LAYER
Unit Structure
10.0 Objective
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Mobile IP
10.2.1 Goals of mobile IP
10.2.2 Mobile Ip Topology
10.2.3 IP Packet Delivery
10.2.4 Components of Mobile IP
10.2.5 Working of mobile IP
10.2.5.1 Agent Discovery
10.2.5.2 Registration
10.2.5.3 Tunneling
10.2.6 Optimization of Mobile IP
10.2.7 Advantages of Mobile IP
10.2.8 Disadvantages of Mobile IP
10.2.9 Application of Mobile IP
10.3 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
10.3.1 Working of DHCP
10.3.2 Components of DHCP
10.3.3 Advantages of use DHCP
10.4 Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols
10.4.1 Multicast Routing
10.5 Summary
10.6 Unit and Questions
10.7 Bibliography

10.0 OBJECTIVE
1) Understanding the concepts of Network layer.
2) Learn what is use of mobile IP and DHCP.
3) Learn different agent’s information while using mobile IP.
4) Know the advantages and disadvantages of mobile IP and DHCP
5) Different application of Mobile IP.
6) Knowledge gain regarding ad hoc routing protocols.

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10.1 INTRODUCTION Mobile Network Layer

Network Layer is the part of the online communication that allows us the
transfer our data packets between different devices or network. This layer
is layer3 in the open-source interconnection model that is OSI that
provides the way of routing for network communication.
Mobile network Protocol is developed and for network layer to support the
mobility. It provides protocol enhancement that allows transparent routing
of TP datagrams to mobile nodes on the internet. One of the examples of
mobile network layer is mobile internet protocol that is mobile IP. Which
adds mobility to support to the internet network layer protocol IP.
The Network layer is layer3 in the open-source interconnection model that
is OSI that provides the way of routing for network communication.
Mobile Network Layer is used when this layer uses mobile IP. Mobile
Internet Protocol is Mobile network Protocol is developed and for network
layer to support the mobility. It provides protocol enhancement that allows
transparent routing of TP datagrams to mobile nodes on the internet.
When temporary address used by a mobile node while it is moving away
from its home network. All datagram or IP packets are sent to mobile node
are deliver to the care of address instead of sent directly to the IP address
of mobile node. This care of address co-located if the mobile node
temporary assigned one more IP address and that is treats as care of
address. Which is topological correct and tunnel end point being the
mobile node.co-located care of address can be acquired service using
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocols). DHCP (Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocols) protocol is that automatically assigns a unique IP
address (internet Protocol) to each device that connects to the network.
With the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocols) there is no need
to assign manually IP address to each device as DHCP automatically
assigned.
There are many versions of DHCP are available that can be use with the
IPV4(Internet protocol version 4) and IPV6(Internet Protocol version 6).
Users are traveling through anywhere IP is common base for different
application and runs over different networks. For this we have required
mobility for heterogenous networks.
In mobile IP or whenever we must use internet, we must know IP address
means what?

An Internet Protocol address (IP address):


It is numerical label assigned to each device. (e.g.-computer, printer)
participating in a computer network that use the Internet Protocol (IP) for
communication purpose.

IP address has two principals:


a) Host or network interface identification. 173
Wireless and Mobile b) Location addressing
Technology
▪ A name indicates what we seek.
▪ An address indicates where it is.
▪ A route indicates how to get there.

Internet Protocol have two versions:


i) Internet Protocol version 4(IPV4)- These version 32 bits for
addressing still in use.
32-bit address written as 4 numbers separated by dot that is periods. Each
number can be 0-255
1bytes=8bits
4bytes=32bits
Ex.172.16.254.1
172 . 16. 254. 1
10101100 00010000 11111110 00000001
ii) A new addressing system: Internet Protocol version 46(IPv6), using
128 bits
For the address being deployed world-wide.
In Hexadecimal
Ex. 2001:00DB: AC10:FE01:0000:0000:0000:0000

10.2 MOBILE IP
Mobile IP adds mobility support to the internet network layer protocol.
Mobile Internet Protocol is designed to allow devices like laptop, mobile
phone, PDA (Personal digital assistant) users move from one network to
another network while maintaining permanent Internet protocol (IP).
Mobile IP defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and
described in the IETF -RFC3344.
Reference defined in RFC-2002(Request for comment) mobile IP that
enhancement of the Internet Protocol (IP) that add mechanism for
forwarding internet traffic to mobile devices or mobile nodes when they
are connection to the other network rather than home network.
Mobile IP or MIP is the communication protocol that allows users to move
from one network to another network with the same IP address. When
users leave the home network and enters another network called foreign
network. That another network uses mobile IP to inform home network of
care of address to which packets for user’s device should be sent.
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Home address-It is the permanent IP address assigned to the mobile node Mobile Network Layer
and that uses address in home address.
Care -of-address-It is the temporary address used by a mobile node while
it is moving away from its home network.
By using mobile IP, we can solve the problems like
1. If a node changes its IP address, it will have to terminate and restart
its ongoing connections every time it moves to a new network area.
2. If nodes move without changing its IP address, it will be unable to
receive its packets.

10.2.1 Goals of mobile IP:


1) Compatibility: It supports the same layer 2 protocol as IP. No need
to change current system or routers while using mobile IP. Users can
access same server and system in the internet.
2) Transparency: Mobility should remain invisible for many higher
layer protocols and applications. Mobile ends system keeps their IP
address. Point connection of communication to the fixed network can
be changed.
3) Scalability and Efficiency: Connection using low bandwidth via
radio link. (Mobile system uses wireless bandwidth) Mobile IP can
use over the worldwide mobile systems.
4) Security: Authentication for all users which done registration.

10.2.2 Mobile Ip Topology:

From the diagram, through Internet host send datagrams to mobile node
with its IP address that is through home address. If the mobile node on its
home address the datagram delivery using IP address. If mobile node not
on home address, then home agent picks up datagram. Home agent
forward to the foreign agent then deliver .by that agent datagram 175
Wireless and Mobile 10.2.3 Components of Mobile IP:
Technology
1) Mobile Node (MN):
The mobile node is the end system like laptop, mobile phone, PDA
(Personal digital assistant) users move from one network to another
network.
Those devices whose software allows network roaming capabilities (Host
or Router also)

2) Home Agent (HA):


It is located on home network and working as communication point with
the mobile point.
Home agent stores information of permanent Ip address.
It also maintains current location information from mobile node.
It tunnels data from corresponding node (CS) to roaming mobile node.

3) Foreign Node (FN):


Foreign node is the router in foreign network to which mobile node is
currently connected.
The packets from the home agent are sent to the foreign agent which
delivers them to the mobile node.
It provides security because it belongs to foreign network.

4) Care of Address (COA):


It is the temporary address used by a mobile node while it is moving away
from its home network. All datagram or IP packets are sent to mobile node
are deliver to the care of address instead of sent directly to the IP address
of mobile node. Packet delivery to mobile node is through tunnel. Care of
address defines the current location of mobile node in terms of IP address.
It mostly IP address of foreign agent.

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There are two ways care of address used: Mobile Network Layer

a) Foreign agent Care of Address (COA):


This care of address is located at foreign agent that means its take IP
address of foreign agent. Foreign agent is the tunnel the end point and
forwards the packets to the mobile node.

b) Co-located Care of Address (COA):


This care of address co-located if the mobile node temporary assigned one
more IP address and that is treats as care of address. Which is topological
correct and tunnel end point being the mobile node.co-located care of
address can be acquired service using DHCP (Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocols)

5) Correspondent Node (CN):


Correspondent node is the device on internet or web server
communicating to the mobile node. Correspondent node is the fixed or
mobile node.

6) Home Network:
It is the subset the mobile node to with its respective IP address. Home
network is which mobile node belongs as per its assigned IP address (That
is home address). No mobile IP support is needed within this network.

7) Foreign Network:
It is the current network to which mobile node is visiting. Not in its home
network.

8) Foreign Agent:
It treats as router in a foreign network to which the mobile node is
connected. The packets from the home agent are sent to the foreign agent
and then deliver to the mobile node.

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Wireless and Mobile 9) Co-located care of address:
Technology
It’s an externally obtained local address which is gets from mobile host.

10) Binding:
It is association of the home address with a care of address.

10.2.3 IP Packet Delivery:


Mobile Node (MN) movers from one location to another where
Correspondent Node (CN) does not know the exact location, But
Correspondent Node (CN) wants to send data to the Mobile Node (MN).
The sends data packet in which the source address is the address of the
Correspondent Node (CN) and destination address is the IP address of
mobile node (MN).
The data packet is forwarded to the home agent of the home network. The
Home agent is not in home network. It is in foreign network. The home
agent encapsulated the data packets with its source address of its packet
with source address of its own and the destination address of the foreign
agent and forward the packets.
The transmission of the data packets from Mobile Node (MN) to
Correspondent Node (CN). If the Correspondent Node (CN) is fixed one.
The Mobile Node (MN) transmit the packets with its own address as
source address and destination address is Correspondent Node (CN).

10.2.5 Working of mobile IP:


The correspondent node sends the data to mobile node. Data packets
contain the correspondent’s node’s address that is source and home
address that is destination.
When packets reached at home network, but it moves to the home agent to
the foreign network. The foreign agent sends care of address (COA) to
home agent. Connection between home agent and foreign agent created by
tunnel called tunneling.
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Mobile IP has three phases Mobile Network Layer

10.2.5.1 Agent Discovery:


A mobile node discovers its Home and Foreign agents during agent
discovery. First thing you must know which your device in which network
that is home network or foreign network.
Agent Discovery uses when
● When mobile node moves from one network into another.
● When you know your device in home network or foreign network.
● What is the foreign agent care of address offered by each foreign
agent on that network?
Mobile Ip finds two methods agent advertisements and agent solicitation
which are fact router discovery methods.

a) Agent Advertisement:
Agent advertisement to advertise their services on a network. For this
home agent (HA) and foreign agent (FA) advertise their services so that
your devices know advertisement and discover in which network zone.
Agent advertises their presence by periodically broadcasting their agent
advertisement message. Your devices find the current point of attachment
if not possible its send to home agent and foreign agent to send their
advertisements.
An agent advertisement is an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
router advertisement that has been extended to also carry a mobility agent
advertisement extension.

b) Agent Solicitation:
In the absence of agent advertisement, a mobile node can solicit
advertisements this is agent solicitation. Every mobile node should
implement this. The mobile node uses same procedure which is used by
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) router solicitation message.
The rate at which a mobile node send solicitation messages is limited by
the mobile node.

10.2.5.2 Registration:
The mobile node registers its current location with its home agent and
foreign agent. When your device enters the foreign network, your devices
need to register itself by sending its care of address to home agent through
foreign agent other way directly take care of address (COA) which is
temporary address.

179
Wireless and Mobile When mobile node receives an agent advertisement then its register
Technology through foreign agent. It might be able to acquire co-located care of
address (COA).
Registration provides mechanism to mobile node to communicate their
current reachability information to the home agent. This process performs
some tasks that are
● Requesting forwarding services when visiting a foreign network.
● Inform their home agent of their care of address.
● Renew a registration that is due to expire.
● Request reverse tunnel.
During this phase, mobile node sends a registration request message to the
foreign agent which forwards the message to the home agent. The home
agent sends back a reply after updating its registration table with the home
address and care of addressing mapping.
When mobile node registers directly to with its home agent (HA) then
registration process require
i) Mobile nodes require deregistration request to the home agent.
ii) The home agents send a registration replay to the mobile node,
granting or denying the request.

The flow of this registration are follows:

After the successful registration and authenticated, the foreign and home
agents add your device to their visitors list.

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10.2.5.3 Tunneling: Mobile Network Layer

It is the set up by home agent to the care of address to route packets to the
mobile node as its roams. Means you can say this phase creates a virtual
connection as a pipe for moving the data packets between tunnel entry and
endpoint.

The mobile IP receives information from a network is called tunneling. It


is process of sending a packet through tunnel and it is achieved by a
mechanism called encapsulation. It takes place to forward an IP datagram
from the home agent to the care of the address. When home agent receives
the Data or IP packets from correspondent node (CN), it encapsulates the
packets with source address as home address and destination care of
address (COA).
You can say tunnel is secure path between home agent (HA) to foreign
agent FA) to deliver the packets. Your packets send using home IP
address.
The below diagram is tunneling between home agent to foreign agent
called forward tunneling.

Reverse Tunnel:
It is tunnel that starts at the mobile nodes care of address and end with
home agent. A mobile node can request a reverse tunnel between foreign
agent and its home agent when mobile node registered.

181
Wireless and Mobile The below diagram is tunneling called reverse tunneling.
Technology

10.2.6 Optimization of Mobile IP:


For the optimization and conceptual data structure and the binding cache
to the correspondent node (CN). The binding cache contains binding for
mobile nodes home address and its current care of address. Every time
home agent receives IP datagram that is destined to the mobile node
currently away from home network, it sends binding to correspondent
node (CN) to update its cache. After this correspondent node (CN) can be
direct tunnel packets to mobile node. Mobile IP provided by network
providers.

We can summarize the advantage of optimization of mobile IP:


● It reduces the network utilization less links are traversed. This could
mean much less congestion in all routing of the internet.
● By using this, less load of home agent and the potential for isolation
of mobile node due to loss of the home agent.
● It reduces round trip time for application endpoints.
● Better Predictability of routing path which could be crucial QoS
management.
● More symmetric delay characteristics for incoming and outcoming
traffic between mobile node (MN) and correspond node (CN).

10.2.7 Advantages of Mobile IP


1) Mobile IP allows the communication of a mobile host with a remote
host even if the mobile host is in a foreign network.
2) Stay your device connected and online.
3) It makes you connected to a network always whenever you are.
4) Not required geographical barriers.
5) A user with its network devices can move to any other network
without losing its connection with home network or address.
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6) Mobile IP provides transparency while the data transfer process. It Mobile Network Layer
hides the fact that the mobile host is not in its home network and is
communicating from a foreign network.
7) There is no need to change home address IP address of your device.
8) Feel safe always, your mobile node can be tracked without a change
of IP address.
9) Auto switch and register to a new network zone. For example, your
mobile changes automatically search network when you are in out of
your city.
10) It supports a wide range of applications from Internet access and
email to e-commerce.
11) Authentication is performed to ensure that rights are being protected.

10.2.8 Disadvantages of Mobile IP:


1) One of the disadvantages of mobile IP, it seems to be inefficient due
to the extra distance that a message must travel. Like in this case of
double crossing and triangle routing.
2) When the ‘remote host’ and ‘mobile host’ both are in foreign network
still the data transfer is occurring through the ‘home agent’ then the
data packet must travel more distance through both the host are in the
same network.
3) Securities risks are the most important problem facing Mobile IP.
Besides the traditional security risks with IP has worry about faked
care of address (COA).

10.2.9 Application of Mobile IP:


1) It is used in many applications where the quick changes in network
connectivity and IP address can cause problems. It was designed to
support seamless and continuous internet connectivity.
2) It is used in many wired and wireless environment where users must
carry their mobile devices across multiple LAN subnets.
3) Although mobile IP is not required within cellular systems such as
3G, it is often used in 3G systems to provide seamless IP mobility
between different packet data serving node domain.

10.3 DYNAMIC HOST CONFIGURATION PROTOCOL:


DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Words meaning
of DHCP is,
Dynamic-Dynamically assign IP or runtime automatically

183
Wireless and Mobile Host- PC or Computer or devices connected to network-Setup some
Technology setting
Protocol-It means set of rules. Which is followed for data transfer between
two devices.
It is network management protocol that can dynamically assign IP address
to device, node, or network so they can connect using IP (Internet
Protocol). With the help of this provides services such as DNS (Domain
Name Server), NTP (Network Time Protocol) and any protocol which is
used for communication based on TCP and UDP.
Basically, DHCP is application layer protocol which is used for providing
1) Subnet Mask
2) Router Address
3) DNS Address
4) Class identifier
DHCP automates and centrally handles these configurations. There is no
need for any user configuration to connect to DHCP based network.
DHCP acts as essential role in handling small web where mobile devices
are used and needed IP addresses on a non-permanent support.
DHCP can be implemented on local networks as well as large network
enterprise network. DHCP is the default protocol used by most routers and
networking equipment.
DHCP is also called RFC (Request for comments) 2131.
● DHCP manages the provision of all the nodes or devices added or
dropped from the network.
● DHCP maintain the unique IP with the help of DHCP server.
● It sends request to the DHCP server whenever device or node or any
client, which is configured to the DHCP, connects to the network and
server acknowledge the same.

10.3.1 Working of DHCP:


DHCP works on client/server protocol in which DHCP server manages a
pool of unique IP address, information about configuration parameters and
assign addresses out of those address pool. A router or switch can be used
as DHCP server.
Client or device or node must be connected to the network
1) DHCPDISCOVER: When new client enter it gives message to the
server.

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2) DHCPOFFER: When server accept the new device it sends message Mobile Network Layer
DHCPOFFER to the client. Which contains MAC address of client
device.
3) REQUEST: DHCP client request IP address means client send
message of request that is DHCPREQUEST.
4) PACK: Assign an available IP address to the client with other details
that is DHCPPACK. DHCP server response to the client request by
providing IP address and other configuration information. This
configuration information has time called Lease
5) RELEASE: When client wants to live the network.

From above figured client send request to the server (DHCPDISCOVER)


to which server responds. Client sends request using MAC broadcast to all
devices in the LAN.DHCP relay required to forward the request to the
DHCP server in the network.

Client initialization using DHCP


185
Wireless and Mobile Client initialization using DHCP shown in above diagram. One client and
Technology two servers first DHCPDISCOVER message broadcast to subnet. This
might require relay. Servers replay to client request with the
DHCPOFFER and offer list of parameters list. Client accepting one of
request of the server DHCPREQUEST.The server with accepted
configuration of client now confirm the configuration by DHCPACK.
If the client releases the subnet, it should release the configuration
received by server DHCPRELEASE.
Without authentication mobile node does not trust on DHCP.

11.2.2 Components of DHCP:


1) DHCP client:
DHCP client can be any device or computer or Laptop or endpoint which
is connected in network. It is device the received information from DHCP
server.

2) DHCP Server:
It is networked devices running DHCP service hold IP address and other
configuration details. This is the server or router treats as a host.

3) DHCP Relay:
It is agent works as devices or routers that take clients messages
broadcasted by the client on network and forward message to the
configured to the DHCP server. And return message to the client through
relay agent.

4) IP Address Pool:
It is processed by the DHCP server. It is the range addresses that are
available to the DHCP clients.
The time duration client holds IP address information provided by the
DHCP server. When this lease time expired client must renew from server.

5) Subnet:
IP network logically divided into two or more segments called subnet or
subnetworks.

10.2.3 Advantages of use DHCP:


1) By using this centralized management of IP address.
2) Ease of adding new clients to a network.
3) Easy configuration and management of multiple devices in a network.
4) Reuse of IP addresses reducing the total number of IP addresses that
are required.
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5) DHCP server reconfiguration is simple. Mobile Network Layer

6) Accuracy of IP setting.

10.2.4 Disadvantages of DHCP:


1) IP conflict an occur

10.4 MOBILE AD HOC ROUTING PROTOCOLS:


MANET stands for Mobile Ad hoc Network also called a wireless Ad hoc
Network or Ad hoc wireless network that usually has a routable
networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad hoc network. They
consist of as set of mobile nodes connected wirelessly in a self-configured,
self-healing network without having a fixed infrastructure. MANET nodes
are free to move randomly as the network topology changes frequently.
Each node behaves as a router as they forward traffic to other specified
nodes in the network. In Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) having
discovered topology Mobile Ad hoc Network dynamic topology. The
basic rules are that a new node whenever enter into an ad-hoc network,
must announce its arrival and presence and should also listen to similar
announcement broadcasts made by other mobile nodes.
Ad hoc network is a decentralized type of wireless network. This is ad hoc
because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in
wired networks or access points in managed (infrastructure) wireless
networks. It does not have a certain topology or a central coordination
point. Therefore, sending and receiving packets are more complicated than
infrastructure networks

MANET’s and Mobile IP


In above diagram,
Square indicates-Routers
Circle indicates-End system

187
Wireless and Mobile Characteristics of MANET:
Technology
1. It uses dynamic topologies this is network topology which is typically
multichip may change randomly and rapidly with time, it can form
unidirectional or bi-directional links.
2. Wireless links usually have lower reliability, efficiency, stability, and
capacity as compared to a wired network
3. Each node can act as a host and router, which shows its autonomous
behavior. Energy Constrained Operation.
4. As some or all the nodes rely on batteries or other exhaustible means
for their energy. Mobile nodes are characterized by less memory,
power, and lightweight features.
5. It provides low security wireless networks are more prone to security
threats. A centralized firewall is absent due to the distributed nature of
the operation for security, routing, and host configuration.
6. They required minimum human intervention to configure the network,
therefore they are dynamically autonomous in nature.

Advantages of MANET:
1. Separation from central network administration.
2. Each node can play both the roles that are of router and host showing
autonomous nature.
3. Self-configuring and self-healing nodes do not require human
intervention.

Disadvantages of MANET:
1. Resources are limited due to various constraints like noise,
interference conditions, etc.
2. Lack of authorization facilities.
3. More prone to attacks due to limited physical security.

10.4.1 Multicast Routing:


Routing is the process of finding the best path for traffic in a network, or
across multiple networks. The role of routing is like the road map for a
hotel. In both cases, we need to deliver messages at proper location and in
an appropriate way.
● Modeling of the topology
● Initiation of route request
● Selection of routers,

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● Specific underlying characteristics that could serve as heuristics in Mobile Network Layer
finding the pat effectively.

Whenever we talk about Mobile Ad hoc Network each node or device is


expected to serve as a router, and each router is indistinguishable from
another in the sense that all routers execute the same routing algorithm to
compute paths through the entire network.
● If any host demands for the route, the must have quick access.
● Maintenance of a global state should not involve in the route
computation.
● Each node should care about their destination node to its route and
should not be involved in frequent topology updates for those portions
of the network that have no traffic.
● Since centralized routing in a dynamic and even for small networks is
impossible therefore routing computation must be distributed.
● Route computation should not add many more nodes.
● Since broadcast can be time consuming for MANETs, it must be
avoided as much as possible.
● In routing there must have a backup route when the primary route has
become stale.
In multicast communication, there is one source and a group of
destination. The relationship is one to many in this type of communication
source address is a unicast address, but the destination address is group
address, which defines one or more destinations. The group address
identifies the member of the group.
Multicast Routing is different from because broadcast routing means in
this packet are sent to all the nodes even, they do not want where in the
multicast routing packets are sent to only those who ants to receive the
packets.
The router must know that there are nodes which wish to receive packets
from multicast packets then only if they forward. Multicast routing uses
spanning tree protocol for avoid looping and reverse path forwarding
technique to detect and discards duplicates and loop.
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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

From above diagram,


In-hoc networks each node must be able to forward data for other nodes.
At a certain time t1 the network topology consists of five nodes N1 to N5.
Nods are connected depending upon the current transmission
characteristics between them. In this network N4 can receive N1 over a
good link.
But N1 received N4 via a weak link.

1. Pro-active routing protocols:


These are also called as table-driven routing protocols. Each mobile node
maintains a separate routing table which contains the information of the
routes to all the possible destination mobile nodes.
Since the topology in the mobile ad-hoc network is dynamic, these routing
table are updated periodically as and when the network topology changes.
It has a limitation that is don’t work well for the large networks as the
entries in the routing table becomes too large since they need to maintain
the route information to all possible nodes.

A. Destination Sequenced Distance Vector Routing Protocol (DSDV):


It is a pro-active/table driven routing protocol. It extends the distance
vector routing protocol of the wired networks as the name suggests. It is
based on the Bellman-ford routing algorithm. Distance vector routing
protocol was not suited for mobile ad-hoc networks due to count-to-
infinity problem. Hence, as a solution Destination Sequenced Distance
Vector Routing Protocol (DSDV) came into picture
Destination sequence number is added with every routing entry in the
routing table maintained by each node. Anode will include the new
updated in the table only if the entry consists of the new updated route to
the new updated route to the destination with higher sequence number.

B. Global State Routing (GSR):


It is pro-active/table driven routing protocol. It extends the link state
routing of the wired networks. It is based on the Dijkstra’s routing
algorithm. Link state routing protocol was not suited for mobile ad-hoc
networks because in it, each node floods the link state routing information
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directly into the whole network i.e. Global flooding which may lead to the Mobile Network Layer
congestion of control packets in the network.
Hence, as a solution Global State Routing Protocol (GST) came into the
picture, Global state routing doesn’t flood the link state routing packets
globally into the network. In GSR, each of the mobile node maintains one
list and three tables namely, adjacency list, topology table, next hop table
and distance table.

2. Reactive routing protocols:


These are also known as on-demand routing protocol. In this type of
routing, the route is discovered only when it is required/needed. The
process of route discovery occurs by flooding the route requires packets
throughout the mobile network. It consists of two major phases namely,
route discovery and route maintenance.

a. Dynamic Source Routing protocol (DSR):


It is a reactive/on-demand routing protocol. In this type of routing, the
route is discovered only when it is required/needed. The process of route
discovery occurs by flooding the route requires packets throughout the
mobile network. IT consists of two phases:

b. Route Discovery:
This phase determines the most optimal path for the transmission of data
packets between the source and the destination mobile nodes.

Route Maintenance:
This phase performs the maintenance work of the route as the topology in
the mobile ad-hoc network is dynamic in nature and hence, there are many
cases of link breakage resulting in the network failure between the mobile
nodes.

c. Ad-Hoc On Demand Vector Routing protocol (AODV):


It is a reactive/on-demand routing protocol. It is an extension of dynamic
source routing protocol (DSR) and it helps to remove the disadvantage of
dynamic source routing protocol. In DSR, after route discovery, when the
source mobile node sends the data packet to the destination mobile node, it
also contains the complete path in its header. Hence, as the network size
increase, the length of the complete path also increases, and the data
packet’s header size also increases which makes the whole network slow.
Hence, Ad-Hoc On Demand Vector Routing protocol came as solution to
it. The main difference lies in the way of storing the path, AODV stores
the path in the routing table whereas DSR stores it in the data packet’s
header itself. It also operates into phases in the similar fashion: Route
discovery and Route maintenance.

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Wireless and Mobile 3. Hybrid Routing protocol:
Technology
It basically combines the advantages of both, reactive and pro-active
routing protocols. These protocols are adaptive in nature and adapts
according to the zone and position of the source and destination mobile
nodes. One of the most popular hybrid routing protocols is Zone Routing
Protocol (ZRP).
The whole network is divided into different zones and then the position of
source and destination mobile node is observed. It the source and
destination mobile nodes are present n the same zone, then proactive
routing is used for the transmission of the data packets between them. And
if the source and destination mobile nodes are present in different zones,
then reactive routing is used for the transmission of the data packets
between them.

10.3 SUMMARY
In this chapter we learned about Mobile Internet Protocol that is Mobile IP
which is Communicated network layer. Mobile network Protocol is
developed and for network layer to support the mobility. One of the
examples of mobile network layer is mobile internet protocol that is
mobile IP. When works with mobile IP we have require components like
home agent, foreign agent, correspondent node, mobile node, care of
address. Home address, foreign network, when packets reached at home
network, but it moves to the home agent to the foreign network. The
foreign agent sends care of address (COA) to home agent etc. when your
device enters the foreign network, your devices need to register itself by
sending its care of address to home agent through foreign agent other way
directly take care of address (COA) which is temporary address.
DHCP is used to handle small web where mobile devices are used and
needed IP addresses on a non-permanent support. DHCP works on
client/server protocol in which DHCP server manages a pool of unique IP
address, information about configuration parameters and assign addresses
out of those address pool. MANET stands for Mobile Ad hoc Network
also called a wireless Ad hoc Network or Ad hoc wireless network that
usually has a routable networking environment on top of a Link Layer ad
hoc network. Multicast routing uses spanning tree protocol for avoid
looping and reverse path forwarding technique to detect and discards
duplicates and loop.

10.4 UNIT AND QUESTIONS


1) What is Mobile IP?
2) Explain IP Packet delivery in mobile IP.
3) Explain different component of Mobile IP?
4) Describe topology of mobile IP.
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5) Explain tunneling in detail. Mobile Network Layer

6) Write an advantages and disadvantages of Mobile IP.


7) Explain working of Mobile IP.
8) What do you mean by agent solicitation? Why agent advertisement
message needed?
9) Different function of home agent and foreign agent.
10) What do you mean by encapsulation and decapsulation in the context
of mobile IP?
11) Explain DHCP in details.
12) Explain mobile ad hoc

10.5 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/mobile-internet-protocol-or-mobile-
ip/
2) https://www.javatpoint.com/mobile-ip
3) https://slideplayer.com/slide/14494837/
4)
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsd
GRvbWFpbnxhd2ttYmNzMm5kfGd4OjU1YjI3YmE0ZTQ3OTliNmI
5) http://multinet.ivyro.net/recruit/lecture/1-2/mbc-8.pdf
6) http://mobnet.epfl.ch/slides/E-NWlayer.pdf
7) https://www.educba.com/mobile-ip/
8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_IP
9) https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19455-01/806-6542/6jffqf5sb/index.html
10) https://lnct.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Unit-4-Mobile-Internet-
Protocol-converted.pdf
11)
https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/Mobi
le-IP
12) https://www.tutorialspoint.com/mobile-ip-a-complete-solution-for-
emerging-communications
13) Wireless Communications & Networks, Second Edition, William
Stallings, Pearson Education
14) https://www.efficientip.com/what-is-dhcp-and-why-is-it-important/
193
Wireless and Mobile 15) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-
Technology server/networking/technologies/dhcp/dhcp-top
16) https://www.networkworld.com/article/3299438/dhcp-defined-and-
how-it-works.html
17) https://www.brainkart.com/article/Dynamic-Host-Configuration-
Protocol_9938/
18) https://www.metaswitch.com/knowledge-center/reference/what-is-
multicast-ip-routing
20) https://networklessons.com/multicast/multicast-routing

*****

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MODULE VI

11
MOBILE TRANSPORT LAYER
Unit Structure
11.0 TCP over Wireless Networks
11.0.1 Characteristics of Wireless Media
11.0.2 Wireless TCP Mechanisms
11.0.3 What are the problems with TCP over wireless network?
11.1 Indirect TCP
11.1.1 Introduction
11.1.2 Indirect Model for Mobile Hosts
11.1.3 I-TCP Basics
11.1.4 I-TCP Interface at the MH
11.2 Snooping TCP
11.2.1 Introduction
11.2.2 Need for optimized transport layer protocols
11.2.3 Limitation of I-TCP
11.2.4 Snooping TCP : Design of Snoop Protocol
11.2.5 Additional mechanisms required to implement Snoop
Protocol
11.2.6 Working of Snooping TCP
11.2.7 Advantages
11.2.8 Disadvantages
11.3 Mobile TCP
11.3.1 Mobile TCP in mobile computing
11.3.2 Need for mobile TCP
11.3.3 How can mobile TCP solve disconnection problem
11.3.4 Advantages
11.4 Summary
11.5 Model Questions
11.6 Reference for further reading

11.0 TCP OVER WIRELESS NETWORKS


Due to the low loss nature of wired links, TCP assumes that packet losses
mostly occur due to congestion. TCP reacts to congestion by decreasing its
congestion window thus reducing network utilization. In wireless
networks, however, losses may occur due to the high bit-error rate of the
transmission medium or due to fading and mobility.TCP still reacts to
losses according to its congestion control scheme, thus unnecessarily
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Wireless and Mobile reducing the network utilization. This paper focuses on proposals that
Technology attempt to address this problem.
The typical wireless network system model can represent both wireless
local area networks (WLANs) such as 802.11 networks, and wireless wide
area networks (WWANs) such as CDPD and GPRS networks. In ad hoc
networks, on the other hand, there is no required infrastructure (such as
base stations (BSs)), and nodes can organize themselves to establish
communication routes. Satellite networks allow various configurations
with potentially several wireless hops.
Handling wireless losses may or may not be transparent to the sender. In
other words, the sender implementation may be modified to be aware of
losses due to wireless links, or local recovery can be used to handle such
losses. The latter method shields the sender from knowing about the
wireless link. A special case of this method terminates the TCP connection
at the wireless interface, namely, the base station, which in turn uses some
other reliable connection to connect to the destination. This solution is
referred to as split-connection.

11.0.1 Characteristics of Wireless Media:


A number of inherent characteristics of wireless media affect TCP
performance including:

Channel Losses:
Signals carried by wireless media are subject to significant interference
from other signals, and subsequently, losses due to modification of bits
while frames are being transmitted. These losses are difficult to recover
from at the link layer despite the presence of error correction techniques
and typically require retransmission. Retransmission can be performed at
the link layer or at the transport layer (TCP). TCP performance is affected
by the frequent losses occurring at the link layer, because TCP inherently
assumes all losses occur due to congestion and invokes the congestion
control algorithms upon detecting any loss.
Low Bandwidth: Bandwidth of wireless links may be low, which can
sometimes result in excessive buffering at the base station. This could lead
to packets being dropped at the base station, or transmitted back-to-back
on the wireless link, which in turn results in high observed round trip
times.

Signal Fading:
Fading typically occurs when a wireless host is mobile. Interference from
physical factors like weather, obstacles, unavailability of channels,
overlapping areas of different cells, could result in signal fading and
blackouts. Such blackouts can exist for prolonged periods of time.

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Movement across Cells: Mobile Transport Layer

Mobility of a wireless host involves addressing connection handoff. In


addition to the link layer state that has to be handed off, the base station
may maintain connection state about the transport layer which might need
to be handed off. Other problems like signal fading as mentioned above
occur with a high probability when a host moves across cells.

Channel Asymmetry:
Resolving channel contention is usually asymmetric. The sending entity
gets more transmission time than the receiving entity. This could lead to
TCP acknowledgments being queued for transmission at the link layer of
the receiving entity and sent back to back when channel access is
permitted. This can lead to larger round trip times measured by the TCP
sender and to bursty traffic, which subsequently reduces the throughput of
the TCP connection.

Link Latency:
Wireless links may exhibit high latencies and when such delays are a
significant fraction of the total round trip times observed by TCP, the
retransmission timeouts of TCP are set to high values, which subsequently
affects TCP performance. Such conditions occur in wireless WANs and
satellite networks. In addition, high variance in the measured round trip
times have been observed, which impact the TCP round-trip-time (RTT)
estimation algorithm

11.0.2 Wireless TCP Mechanisms:


Several mechanisms have been proposed to enhance the performance of
TCP over wireless links. The proposed approaches can be classified as
end-to-end, local recovery or split connection.
End-to-End Mechanisms: End-to-end mechanisms solve the wireless loss
problems at the transport layers of the sender and receiver.

A.1 Selective Acknowledgments:


TCP Selective Acknowledgments (SACK) uses the options field of TCP to
precisely inform the sender which segments were not received. This
enables the sender to retransmit only those segments that are lost, thereby
not unduly wasting network bandwidth. TCP SACKs were proposed as a
solution to recover from multiple losses in the same window without
degrading the throughput of the connection. The same idea can be applied
to networks with wireless hops to aid the sender in better recovering from
non-congestion related losses. TCP still performs congestion control upon
detecting packet loss even if it is on the wireless link as there is no way to
deduce where the loss occurred.

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Wireless and Mobile A.2 SMART Retransmissions:
Technology
A Simple Method to Aid ReTransmissions (SMART) decouples flow and
error control. Each ACK packet from the receiver carries both the standard
cumulative ACK and the sequence number of the packet that initiated the
ACK. This informs the sender of the packets that are lost, so that the
sender can selectively retransmit. The scheme uses a different heuristic to
detect lost retransmissions. It also avoids the dependence on timers for the
most part except for the worst case when all packets and all ACKs are lost.
The scheme uses two different windows, one called the error-control
window at the receiver for buffering the out-of-sequence packets, and
another one called the flow-control window at the sender for buffering
unacknowledged packets. Thus, error control and flow control are
decoupled.

A.3 TCP Probing:


With TCP probing, when a data segment is delayed or lost, the sender,
instead of retransmitting and reducing the congestion window size, enters
a probe cycle. A probe cycle entails exchanging probe segments between
the sender and receiver to monitor the network. The probes are TCP
segments with header options and no payload. This helps alleviate
congestion because the probe segments are small compared to the
retransmitted segments.
The cycle terminates when the sender can make two successive RTT
measurements with the aid of receiver probes. In cases of persistent
errors, TCP decreases its congestion window and threshold. But for
transient random errors, the sender resumes transmission at the same
window size it used before entering the probe cycle.

A.4 TCP Santa Cruz:


TCP Santa Cruz, like TCP probing, makes use of the options field in the
TCP header. Its congestion control algorithm is based on relative delays
that packets experience with respect to one another in the forward
direction, an idea that was first introduced in TCP Vegas.
Therefore, ACK losses and reverse path congestion do not affect the
throughput of a connection. The scheme also improves the error recovery
mechanism by making better RTT estimates than other TCP
implementations. Retransmissions are included in making RTT estimates
to take into consideration the RTT during congestion periods. TCP Santa
Cruz uses selective acknowledgments (SACK).

A.5 Negative Acknowledgments:


Negative ACKs (NAKs) can be included in the options field of TCP
header to explicitly indicate which packet has been received in error so
that retransmission of that packet can be initiated quickly. It works only
under the assumption that a corrupted packet can still reach the destination
and that the source address of the packet is still known. The sender, on
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receiving a NAK, can retransmit the packet without modifying the Mobile Transport Layer
congestion window size.
RTT measurement from the retransmitted packets is ignored to avoid
inflating the RTT estimate.

A.6 Wireless TCP (WTCP99):


Wireless TCP (WTCP99) [9] uses rate-based transmission control and not
a self-clocking window-based scheme like TCP. (We call this WTCP99 to
distinguish it from a number of earlier proposals which also used the name
WTCP.) The transmission rate is determined by the receiver using a ratio
of the average inter-packet delay at the receiver to the average inter-packet
delay at the sender.
The sender transmits its current inter-packet delay with each data packet.
The receiver updates the transmission rates at regular intervals based on
the information in packets, and conveys this information to the sender in
ACKs. WTCP99 computes an appropriate initial transmission rate for a
connection based on a packet-pair approach rather than using slow-start.
This is useful for short lived connections in wireless wide area networks
(WWANs) where round trips are large. WTCP99 achieves reliability by
using selective ACKs [10]. No retransmission timeouts are triggered as it
is difficult to maintain good round trip time estimates. Instead, the sender
goes into ―blackout mode‖ when ACKs do not arrive at sender-specified
intervals. In this mode, the sender uses probes to elicit ACKs from the
receiver, similar to probing TCP.

A.7 ACK Pacing:


ACK pacing is a rate based approach to ACK generation at the receiver.
ACK pacing results in rate-controlled sender packets, and hence avoids
bursty traffic that can result in packet losses, delays and lower throughput.
Pacing, however, does not distinguish between congestion losses and
wireless losses.

A.8 Explicit Bad State Notification (EBSN):


Losses on the wireless link of a connection may cause timeouts at the
sender, as well as unnecessary retransmissions over the entire
wired/wireless network. The Ex-plicit Bad State Notification (EBSN)
scheme proposes sending EBSN messages from the base station to the
sender whenever the base station is unsuccessful in transmitting a packet
over the wireless network. This scheme is not entirely end-to-end, but we
discuss it here because requires sender support like most end-to-end
schemes.
EBSN receipt at the sender re-starts the TCP timer and prevents the sender
from decreasing its window when there is no congestion. Although this
scheme requires modifications to the TCP implementation at the sender,
the required changes are minimal, no state maintenance is required, and
the clock granularity (timeout interval) has little impact on performance.
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Wireless and Mobile A.9 Explicit Loss Notification (ELN) Strategies:
Technology
Like EBSN, Explicit Loss Notification (ELN) is not purely end-to-end.
ELN has been proposed to recover from errors that occur when the
wireless link is the first hop [16]. A base station is used to monitor TCP
packets in either direction. When the receiver sends dupacks, the base
station checks if it has received the packet. If not, then the base station sets
an ELN bit in the header of the ACK to inform the sender that the packet
has been lost on the wireless link. The sender can then decouple
retransmission from congestion control, i.e., it does reduce the congestion
window. In contract to snoop ,the base station need not cache any TCP
segments in this case, because it does not perform any retransmissions.

B. Split Connection Mechanisms:


In this class of mechanisms, the TCP connection is split at the base station.
TCP is still used from the sender to the base station, whereas either TCP
or some other reliable connection-oriented transport protocol is used
between the base station and the receiver. The TCP sender is only affected
by the congestion in the wired network and hence the sender is shielded
from the wireless losses. This has the advantage that the transport protocol
between the base station and mobile node can make use of its knowledge
of the wireless link characteristics, or even of the application
requirements. The problem with these proposals, however, is their
efficiency, robustness, and handoff requirements.

B.1 Indirect TCP (I-TCP):


Indirect TCP (I-TCP), developed in 1994–1995, was one of the earliest
wireless TCP proposals. With I-TCP, a transport layer connection between
a mobile host and a fixed host is established as two separate connections:
one over the wireless link and the other over the wired link with a ―mobile
support router‖ serving as the center point . Packets from the sender are
buffered at the mobile support router until transmitted across the wireless
connection.
A handoff mechanism is proposed to handle the situation when the
wireless host moves across different cells. A consequence of using I-TCP
is that the TCP ACKs are not end-to-end thereby violating the end-to-end
semantics of TCP.

B.2 Mobile TCP (M-TCP):


Mobile TCP (M-TCP) also uses a split connection based approach but
tries to preserve end-to-end semantics. M-TCP adopts a three level
hierarchy. At the lowest level, mobile hosts communicate with mobile
support stations in each cell, which are in turn controlled by a ―supervisor
host.‖ The supervisor host is connected to the wired network and serves as
the point where the connection is split.
A TCP client exists at the supervisor host. The TCP client receives the
segment from the TCP sender and passes it to an M-TCP client to send it
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to the wireless device. Thus, between the sender and the supervisor host, Mobile Transport Layer
standard TCP is used, while M-TCP is used between the supervisor host
and the wireless device. M-TCP is designed to recover quickly from
wireless losses due to disconnections and to eliminate serial timeouts. TCP
on the supervisor host does not ACK packets it receives until the wireless
device has acknowledged them. This preserves end-to-end semantics,
preserves the sender timeout estimate based on the whole round trip time,
and handles mobility of the host with minimal state transformation.

B.3 Mobile End Transport Protocol (METP):


The mobile end transport protocol proposes the elimination of the TCP
and IP layers from the wireless hosts and replacing them with a Mobile
End Transport Protocol designed specifically to directly run over the link
layer. This approach shifts the IP datagram reception and reassembly for
all the wireless hosts to the base station. The base station also removes the
transport headers from the IP datagram. The base station acts as a proxy
for TCP connections. It also buffers all the datagrams to be sent to the
wireless host. These datagrams are sent using METP and a reduced
header, thus providing minimal information about source and destination
addresses and ports, and connection parameters. In addition, it uses
retransmissions at the link layer to provide reliable delivery at the receiver.
It does not require any change in the application programs running on the
wireless host as the socket API is maintained as in a normal TCP/IP stack.
However, when handoff occurs, all the state information needs to be
transferred to the new base station.

B.4 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP):


In 1997, the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) forum was founded by
Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, and Phone.Com (formerly Unwired Planet).
Like METP, WAP includes a full protocol stack at the receiver, as well as
gateway support.
The top WAP layer, the Wireless Application Environment (WAE)
establishes an environment to allow users to build applications that can be
used over a wide variety of wireless systems. WAE is composed of user
agents such as browsers, text editors, date book or phone book. WAE also
includes scripting, higher-lever programming languages and image
formats. WAE uses languages such as WMLScript (similar to JavaScript)
and WML (similar to HTML). The Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)
handles communication between the client and proxy or server. WSP
opens a session of communication between client and server, exchanges
encoded data, exchanges requests and replies, and supports several
asynchronous transmission modes of data.
The Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP) handles transactions, re-
transmission of data, and separation and concatenation of data. This
particular protocol has a separate interface that manages and referees the
WTP layer and the settings of the handheld device. This management
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Wireless and Mobile application is known as the WTP Management Entity. For WTP to work,
Technology the following factors are important:
(1) The handheld device is within the coverage area of base agent;
(2) The handheld device is turned on and is reliable;
(3) Resources are adequate, e.g., CPU and memory;
(4) WTP settings are correctly input.
The Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) is the layer that handles
security of data and validity of data /between two communicating entities.
To transport data, WTLS needs the source address and port number to
identify the message creator, and from where the message is being sent,
the destination address and port number to which data is being sent, and of
course, the data itself. WTLS has a connection interface which provides a
connection protocol between client and server. The Wireless Data Protocol
(WDP) acts as the communication layer between the upper level protocols
(WTLS, WTP, and WSP), and the bearer services. The function of WDP is
to provide a stable environment so that any of the
underlying bearers can operate using WAP. WDP can be adapted to
different bearers with different services. However, the services offered by
WDP remain constant thus providing a continuous interface to the upper
layers of the WAP stack.

11.0.3 What are the problems with TCP over wireless network?
Frequent disconnection is considered as one of the major issues in the
Wireless Network. WLAN uses IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol and it uses
retransmission policy to hide the wireless losses from TCP sender. Over
an erroneous wireless link, recovery of the packet loss is attempted first
using local retransmission policy.

11.1 INDIRECT TCP


11.1.1 Introduction:
Integration of mobile hosts into the existing internetwork consisting
mostly of stationary hosts gives rise to some peculiar problems because of
the special requirements of the small low power mobile hosts and also
because of the special characteristics of the wireless link. Several Mobile-
IP proposals have addressed the problem of delivering IP packets to
mobile hosts regardless of their location.
In theory one can use existing fixed network transport protocols such as
UDP and TCP on the mobile hosts to communicate with the fixed
network. This naive approach however, gives rise to performance
problems, especially when a mobile host switches cells or is temporarily
disconnected. More seriously, all such proposals attempt to keep mobility,
disconnection and other features of mobile hosts transparent above the
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network layer which does not allow any application specific handling of Mobile Transport Layer
wireless features.
On the other hand, use of a new protocol stack for mobile hosts causes
interoperability problems. An Indirect model for mobile hosts allows the
development and use of specialized transport protocols that address the
performance issues on the comparatively low bandwidth and unreliable
wireless link.
Protocols developed based on this model can also mitigate the effects of
disconnections and moves while maintaining interoperability with existing
protocols. The TCP connection with the fixed host is actually established
by the MSR on behalf of the mobile host (MH). If the MH moves to
another cell during the lifetime of the TCP connection, the new MSR takes
over the connection from the old MSR. Experiments with I-TCP on our
testbed show substantial throughput improvement over regular TCP when
one of the end points is mobile.

11.1.2 Indirect Model for Mobile Hosts:


The indirect protocol model for mobile hosts suggests that any interaction
from a mobile host (MH) to a machine on the fixed network (FH) should
be split into two separate interactions — one between the MH and its
mobile support router (MSR) over the wireless medium and another
between the MSR and the FH over the fixed network. This provides an
elegant method for accommodating the special requirements of mobile
hosts in a way that is backward compatible with the existing fixed
network. All the specialized support that is needed for mobile applications
and for the low speed and unreliable wireless medium can be built into the
wireless side of the interaction while the fixed side is left unchanged.
At the transport layer, use of indirection results in the following benefits:
1. It separates the flow control and congestion control functionality on the
wireless link from that on the fixed network. This separation is desirable
because of the vastly different characteristics of the two kinds of links —
the fixed links (ethernet or long-haul links and ATM in the future) are
becoming faster and more reliable every day whereas the wireless links
(especially the outdoor links) are still very slow and are extremely
vulnerable to noise and loss of signal due to fading which result in higher
bit error rates.
A separate transport protocol for the wireless link can support notification
of events such as disconnections, moves and other features of the wireless
link such as the available bandwidth etc. To the higher layers which can be
used by link aware and location aware mobile applications.
Indirection allows the base station (mobile support router or MSR) to
manage much of the communication overhead for a mobile host. Thus, a
mobile host (e.g. a small palmtop) which only runs a very simple wireless
protocol to communicate with the MSR can still access fixed network

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Wireless and Mobile services such as WWW which may otherwise require a full TCP/IP stack
Technology running on the mobile.

11.1.3 I-TCP Basics:


I-TCP is a transport layer protocol for mobile hosts which is based on the
Indirect Protocol model. TCP is fully compatible with TCP/IP on the fixed
network and is built around the following simple concepts:
A transport layer connection between an MH and an FH is established as
two separate connections — one over the wireless medium and another
over the fixed network with the current MSR being the center point. If the
MH switches cells during the lifetime of an I-TCP connection, the center
point of the connection moves to the new MSR.
The FH is completely unaware of the indirection and is not affected even
when the MH switches cells i.e. when the center point of the I-TCP
connection moves from one MSR to another. When a mobile host (MH)
wishes to communicate with some fixed host (FH) using I-TCP, a request
sent to the current MSR (which is also attached to the fixed network) to
open a TCP connection with the FH on behalf of the MH. The MH
communicates with its MSR on a separate connection using a variation of
TCP that is tuned for wireless links and is also aware of mobility. The FH
only sees an image of its peer MH that in fact resides on the MSR. It is
this image which is handed over to the new MSR in case the MH moves to
another cell.
The mobile host (MH) first establishes a connection with a fixed host (FH)
through MSR-1 and then moves to another cell under MSR-2. When the
MH requests an I-TCP connection with the FH inside the cell of MSR-1,
MSR-1 establishes a socket with the MH address and MH port number to
handle the connection with the fixed host. It also opens another socket
with its own address and some suitable port number for the wireless side
of the I-TCP connection to communicate with the MH.
When the MH switches cells, the state associated with the two sockets for
the I-TCP connection at MSR-1 is handed over to the new MSR (MSR-2).
MSR-2 then creates the two sockets corresponding to the I-TCP
connection with the same endpoint parameters that the sockets at MSR-1
had associated with them. Since the connection endpoints for both
wireless and the fixed parts of the I-TCP connection do not change after a
move, there is no need to reestablish the connection at the new MSR. This
also ensures that the indirection in the TCP connection is completely
hidden from the FH.
I-TCP Semantics One consequence of using I-TCP is that the TCP
acknowledgments are not end-to-end but instead we have separate
acknowledgments for the wireless and the wired parts of the connection.
Most applications that use TCP for bulk data transfer such as ftp however,
also have some kind of support built-in for application layer
acknowledgment and error recovery. Such acknowledgments are often
required because TCP does not provide any notification to the sending
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204
application when the data is actually received by the peer application. One Mobile Transport Layer
can therefore argue that using I-TCP does not yield weaker end-to-end
semantics in comparison to regular TCP, provided that there are no MSR
failures and that the
MH does not stay disconnected from the fixed network for too long. It is
important to note however that the wireless link between the MSR and the
MH is highly fragile and so it is desirable that applications using I-TCP
provide some mechanism for error recovery to deal with failures on the
wireless link.

11.1.4 I-TCP Interface at the MH:


To establish an I-TCP (indirect) connection with a remote host, MH
applications must use special I-TCP calls instead of the regular socket
system calls. I-TCP calls are provided to replace connect, listen, accept
and close socket system calls and have the same interface as their
corresponding socket system calls. The I-TCP calls only provide a
wrapper around the regular socket system calls to perform the necessary
handshake with the MSR to open or close an I-TCP connection. Once an I-
TCP connection is established, normal socket system calls can be used to
send or receive data on the connection.

11.2 SNOOPING TCP


11.2.1 Introduction:
The wireless communication is characterized by followingproperties:
1) Limited bandwidth
2) High latency rate
3) High bit error rate
4) Temporary disconnections
5) User Mobility and handoffs
All these factors affect the protocols for wireless communication. There
have been attempts to modify the existing protocols in wired networks to
comply with wireless environment. Like MACA for data link layer to
replace CSMA/CD and Mobile IP as a substitute for IP in network layer.
To support mobility, protocols in higher layers like TCP in transport layer
also needs to be modified or some alternate protocols need to be proposed.
In this module we will understand the performance of transport layer
protocols in wireless communication scenario and study a protocol called
Snooping TCP which is adaptedas per characteristics of wireless
communications.
The Snooping TCP was proposed by Balakrishnaet. al. in 1995.This
approach is designed in such a way so as to overcome the end-to-end
semantics loss in I-TCP. Snooping TCP offers a transparent design which
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Wireless and Mobile leave the end-end connection of TCP intact. Basic idea is to buffer packets
Technology close to mobile host and perform local retransmission in case of packet
loss. The scheme works as follows:
• Foreign agent buffers the packet until it receives acknowledgement
from the mobile host.
• Foreign agent snoops the packet flow and acknowledgement in both
the directions.
If the foreign agent does not receive acknowledgement from the mobile
host or receives duplicate acknowledgements, it assumes either the packet
or the acknowledgement is lost Foreign agent directly retransmits the
packet from its buffer. Foreign agent also maintains its own timer for
retransmission of buffered packet in case it is lost on wireless link
If the foreign agent crashes, a timeout at fixed host will work and cause
retrains mission and the scheme falls to standard TCP.The foreign agent in
contrast to forwarding the packets as in case of I-TCP, just buffers the
packets intended for mobile host. To maintain transparency foreign agent
does not acknowledge the packet to the fixed host(END-TO-END
Semantics is maintained)

11.2.2 Need for optimized transport layer protocols:


Standard TCP is a well-established transport layer protocol for wired links
and fixed hosts. TCP provides reliable transmission by retransmission on
time-out and handles end to end delays and packet losses efficiently.
Assuming that thebit error rate over wired links is low, TCP assumes
congestion to be the only cause of packet loss and reacts by reducing the
window size before retransmissionof packets. This mechanism is known
as slow start. The scheme works well in wired networks but in wireless
networks, high errorrate of links, intermittent connectivity, improper hand
offs are the other reasons for packet loss. In such a situation, if TCP goes
into slow-start, it will result in reduction of bandwidth utilization, poor
throughput and high delay hence the performance will be degraded. To
handle this, lots of research has been going on to improve the performance
of TCP over wireless links. All of the researches believe that TCP is the
only appropriate model for wireless networks since many network
applications are built on top of TCP therefore it is not possible to change
the entire protocol. Hence it is necessary to propose optimized versions of
standard TCP maintaining its performance. The optimized versions should
not tend to make changes on fixed hosts which mean that it should not be
aware of the errors on the wireless link.Many TCP protocols for wireless
networks have been proposed, one of them is I-TCP. In this module, the
design and functioning of snoop protocol and how it overcomes the
limitations of I-TCP has been described.

11.2.3 Limitation of I-TCP:


In I-TCP, the foreign agent or router or the base station splits the TCP
connection into 2 parts. Between fixed computer and base station, standard
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206
TCP is used and between base station and wireless host,optimized Mobile Transport Layer
protocol specific to wireless links is used. The limitations of this scheme
are:

Loss of end-to-end semantics of TCP:


The acknowledgements are given by the foreign agent as soon as it
receives the packets .The acknowledgements are received by the
senderwhich makes it understand that the packet has been received even
before the receiver gets it.

Centralized Proxy:
The base station or the foreign agent acts as a proxy forwarding the
packets in both the directions therefore whole scheme fails if foreign agent
is crashed

Security Threat:
The foreign agent acting as a proxy receives all the packets so it should be
a trusted entity Snooping TCP is one of the classical TCP improvement
approaches. This approach is designed to solve the end-to-end semantics
loss in I-TCP. The basic concept is to buffer packets close to the mobile
node and retransmit them locally if a packet is lost.

11.2.4 Snooping TCP : Design of Snoop Protocol:


The TCP connection on the wired link between foreign agent and fixed
host is standard TCP The TCP connection on the wireless link between
foreign agent and mobile host is optimized TCP The foreign agent snoops
the flow of packets and acknowledgements and caches the packets towards
the mobile host The scheme suggests some changes on the routing code of
the foreign agent when there is packet flow from fixed host to the mobile
host For data transfer from mobile host to fixed host additional
mechanisms at mobile hosts are required No changes are required at the
fixed host

11.2.5 Additional mechanisms required to implement Snoop Protocol:


Data transfer from fixed host to mobile host
The change in the routing code of (BS)is additionof snoopingmodule. The
function of module is to monitor the packets passing through the
connection in both the direction.The snoop module caches TCP packets
sent from fixed host (FH) that are not acknowledged by mobile host
(MH)i.e. the packets are cached until they are acknowledged by mobile
host. The snooping module keeps track of the entire acknowledgement
sent from the mobile host. If a packet loss is detected by the Base Station
(BS) either by arrivals of duplicate acknowledgement or by local
timeout,snoop module retransmits the lost packets to mobile host(MH)
which has been cached. The snoop module has twoproceduresSnoopData
and Snoop acknowledge. Snoop data process and cache packets
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Wireless and Mobile towardsmobile host and Snoop acknowledge process acknowledgements
Technology coming from mobile host (MH) and drive local retransmission.

Snoop data ():


This module processes packets arriving from the fixed host. A TCP packet
is uniquely identified by the sequence number of its first byte of data and
size. The BS/AP keeps track of past sequence number seen for connection.
Appropriate actions are performed by this module depending on sequence
number of the packet and status of the cache. The packets arriving at the
Base Station (BS) from the fixed computer are one of the three types
mentioned below:

In sequence Packet:
The packet arrivesin the normal in sequence. The packet is added to snoop
cache and forwarded to the mobile host (MH). A time stamp is placed on
one packet per transmitted window in order to estimate the round trip time
of wireless link.

Out of sequence Packet:


A packet whose sequence number is out-of-order. There is possibility that
this packet has been cached or not been cached.
Out of sequence Packet that has been cached:This happens when dropped
packet causes timeouts at the sender. Packet after TCP sender fast
retransmission arrives at the sender. The base Station (BS) now sees
whether this packet is greater or less than the last acknowledged packet
and different actions are taken accordingly.
• If the sequence number is greater than last acknowledged packet it
would mean that the packet didn‘t reach the mobile host (MH) earlier
and hence it is forwarded.
• If the sequence number is less than the previously acknowledge, it is
assumed that packet is received by mobile host (MH).One thing to do
is to discard the packet but it is not a wise thing to do because the
acknowledgement from mobile host (MH) to fixed host (FH) might
have lost due to congestion a TCP acknowledgement correspondence
to last acknowledgement seen at base station (BS) is generated with
source address and port number of the mobile and sent to fixed host
(FH).
Out of sequence Packet that has NOT been cached:This case happens
when packet was lost due to congestion or it is delivered out of order by
the network. This packet is forwarded to the mobile host and on additional
information regarding packet retransmitted by sender is associated at base
station (BS).

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208
Snoop Acknowledge (): Mobile Transport Layer

This module monitors and processes the acknowledgement sent by mobile


host (MH) and different types of actions are performed depending on type
and number of acknowledgements received.
• New acknowledgement: Indicates that the packet is received at the
mobiles host indicating the link is error free. The packet sequence
number arriving at the receiver will be increased. On receiving this
acknowledgement, the snoop cache is cleaned and all the packets
which are acknowledged are freed. The acknowledge packet is
forwarded to the fixed host.
• Spurious acknowledgement:This is anacknowledgement forthe packet
with sequence number less than the last seen acknowledgement. This
acknowledgement is discarded.
• Duplicate acknowledge:The acknowledgement is same as the
previous one receipt packet indicates that the next packet in sequence
with the duplicate acknowledge has not seen received by the mobile
host (HS). But some subsequent packets might have been received
because a duplicate acknowledgement is generated for every TCP
segment received out of sequence. When the base host (BH) of
foreign agent (FA) notices duplicate acknowledge it takes action
depending on the snoop cache state and type of acknowledgement.
If the packet is not in cache the duplicate acknowledgement is forwarded
to the fixed host (FH) because now it should be resent from the fixed
computers. If the packet is marked as sender retransmitted packet, then
also it is forwarded to the fixed host (FH) because on number of duplicate
acknowledgements it receives when it retransmits a packet. When the
missing packet is already being retransmitted when the first DUPLICATE
ACKNOWLEDGE arrived so this is discarded. When the first duplicate
acknowledgement of the packet arrives after the subsequent packet in the
stream reaches mobile host (MH). Now for every successive packet in the
window, a duplicate acknowledgement should be generated so to
minimize the number of duplicate acknowledgements the lost packet
should be transmitted as soon as possible. This packet should be
retransmitted with a higher priority than other packets. To implement this,
two queues of retransmitting packets are maintained one for high priority
packets and other for normal packets Retransmission using fast queue also
improves the performance. The approach of maintaining two queues is
helpful when there are low or medium error rates because when the error
rate is high; all the packets are required to be retransmitted again therefore
there is no need to maintain 2 queues. But when bit rates are lower or
medium, fast queue enables the lost packets to be retransmitted soon hence
increasing the performance.

Data Transfer from a mobile host:


The proposed protocol suggests a modification at TCP code at the mobile
host also. This is necessary because the modification made at the base
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Wireless and Mobile because when the transfer is from mobile host to the fixed host (FH) and a
Technology packet is lost, it cannot be found whether it is on wireless link or due to
congestion. In the proposed protocol, track of lost packets is kept as well
as NACKS are generated for these lost packets back to the mobile. This is
helpful when there are several packet losses in a single transmission
window which may be due to high interference or when strength or quality
of signal is low. On receiving the NACK, the mobile host retransmits the
missing packet immediately. This retransmitted packet would arrive out of
sequence at the fixed host hence they should be rerecorded at the fixed
host.

Handoffs:
In case of handoffs, the new base station (BS) should perform the task of
snooping so the new base station (BS) should prepare their snoop cache
for the mobile host. This is the transition state called ―buffering‖ state and
the base station (BS) cannot snoop onto the acknowledgements. As soon
as hand off occurs, snoop cache is synchronized to the new base station
(BS) and the process continues.

11.2.6 Working of Snooping TCP:


● Until it receives an acknowledgment from the mobile node, the
foreign agent buffers the packet.
● A foreign agent snoops the packet flow and acknowledgment in both
directions.
● If the foreign agent does not receive an acknowledgment from the
mobile node, or if it receives duplicate acknowledgments, it believes
that the packet or acknowledgment has been lost. The packet is
immediately retransmitted by the foreign agent from its buffer.
● In addition, the foreign agent maintains its own timer for
retransmission of buffered packets in case it is lost on the wireless
link.
● While data transfer from the mobile node to the correspondent node,
if the foreign agent detects a missing packet, it returns NACK-
Negative Acknowledgment to the mobile node. It can now retransmit
missing packet immediately. Reordering of packets is done
automatically at the correspondent node by TCP.
● In the concept of snooping TCP, the Time-out of the correspondent
node still works and triggers retransmission, If the foreign agent now
crashes. The foreign agent may discard duplicates of packets already
retransmitted locally and acknowledged by the mobile node. This
avoids unnecessary traffic on the wireless link.
● To maintain transparency foreign agent does not acknowledge the
packet to the fixed node, but the mobile node acknowledges the
packets(END-TO-END Semantics is maintained).
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Mobile Transport Layer

11.2.7 Advantages:
1. End-to-end semantics is preserved: The FA does not acknowledge the
packet. Even if the foreign agent (FA) or base station (BS) crashes,
the approach automatically fall into standard TCP
2. No Modifications at Fixed Host:The fixed computer TCP does not
require any modifications. Most of the modifications are at foreign
agent (FA) / base station (BS) and some on mobile host.
3. No packet loss during handovers: In case of handovers, if there is
some data not transferred to the new foreign agent, there will be a
time-out at fixed host triggering retransmission of packet, following
mobile IP, to a new COA.If the new base station does not comply
with scheme, approach will fall back to standard TCP.

11.2.8 Disadvantages:
1. If the packet is lost or delayed during the retransmission from buffer
of the foreign agent, due to error on wireless link, time-out will occur
at fixed host (FH).Therefore problems on wireless link are not
isolated.
2. The wireless links offers very high delay as compared to wired link
almost by a factor of 10. In this case the timers in foreign agent (FA)
and fixed host are almost equal and approach is almost ineffective.
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Wireless and Mobile 3. Use of NAK between foreign agent and mobile host assumes
Technology additional mechanism on the mobile host.
4. Snooping and buffering won‘t be applicable if there is end-end
encryption between fixed host and mobile host. As per RFC 2406 in
IP encapsulation security payload TCP protocol header are encrypted
and the snooping on sequence numbers won‘t be possible.
5. Retransmission from foreign agent (FA)/ base station (BS) may not
work because many schemes prevent replay attacks and
retransmission may be interpreted as replay. Therefore snooping
protocol is used only when encryption is used above transport layers.
6. Architecture of snooping protocol to overcome limitations of I- TCP.
7. Functioning Snoop-module at base station (BS)/ foreign agent (FA).

11.3 MOBILE TCP


The M-TCP (mobile TCP)1 approach has the same goals as I-TCP and
snooping TCP: to prevent the sender window from shrinking if bit errors
or disconnection but not congestion cause current problems. M-TCP wants
to improve overall throughput, to lower the delay, to maintain end-to-end
semantics of TCP, and to provide a more efficient handover. Additionally,
M-TCP is especially adapted to the problems arising from lengthy or
frequent disconnections (Brown, 1997). M-TCP splits the TCP connection
into two parts as I-TCP does. An unmodified TCP is used on the standard
host-supervisory host (SH) connection, while an optimized TCP is used on
the SH-MH connection. The supervisory host is responsible for
exchanging data between both parts similar to the proxy in ITCP.

The M-TCP approach assumes a relatively low bit error rate on the
wireless link. Therefore, it does not perform caching/retransmission of
data via the SH. If a packet is lost on the wireless link, it has to be
retransmitted by the original sender. This maintains the TCP end-to-end
semantics. The SH monitors all packets sent to the MH and ACKs
returned from the MH. If the SH does not receive an ACK for some time,
it assumes that the MH is disconnected. It then chokes the sender by
setting the sender‟s window size to 0. Setting the window size to 0 forces
the sender to go into persistent mode, i.e., the state of the sender will not
change no matter how long the receiver is disconnected. This means that
212
212 the sender will not try to retransmit data. As soon as the SH (either the old
SH or a new SH) detects connectivity again, it reopens the window of the Mobile Transport Layer
sender to the old value. The sender can continue sending at full speed.
This mechanism does not require changes to the sender‟s TCP. The
wireless side uses an adapted TCP that can recover from packet loss much
faster. This modified TCP does not use slow start, thus, M-TCP needs a
bandwidth manager to implement fair sharing over the wireless link.

11.3.1 Mobile TCP in mobile computing:


Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the transport layer protocol that
serves as an interface between client and server. The TCP/IP protocol is
used to transfer the data packets between transport layer and network layer

11.3.2 Need for mobile TCP:

The M-TCP (mobile TCP)1 approach has the same goals as I-TCP and
snooping TCP: to prevent the sender window from shrinking if bit errors
or disconnection but not congestion cause current problems.

11.3.3 How can mobile TCP solve disconnection problem:


Basic TCP methodology:
(upto a maximum of one minute) A sender tries to retransmit an
unacknowledged packet every one minute and gives up after 12 minutes.
If in I-TCP, the mobile host is disconnected, then in such a situation, the
FA will keep of buffering more and more data packets.

11.3.4 Advantages:
It maintains the TCP end-to-end semantics. The SH does not send any
ACK itself but forwards the ACKs from the MH.
If the MH is disconnected, it avoids useless retransmissions, slow starts or
breaking connections by simply shrinking the sender‗s window to 0.Since
it does not buffer data in the SH as I-TCP does, it is not necessary to
forward buffers to a new SH. Lost packets will be automatically
retransmitted to the new SH.
The lack of buffers and changing TCP on the wireless part also has some
disadvantages:
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Wireless and Mobile 1. As the SH does not act as proxy as in I-TCP, packet loss on the
Technology wireless link due to bit errors is propagated to the sender. M-TCP
assumes low bit error rates, which is not always a valid assumption.
2. A modified TCP on the wireless link not only requires modifications
to the MH protocol software but also new network elements like the
bandwidth manager.

11.6 SUMMARY
The link layer approaches use link layer retransmissions to increase the
reliability provided to TCP. The requirements on the link layer service
may vary depending on the application. This is, for example, considered in
UMTS, since the radio link protocol allows configuration of many
parameters, such as the maximum number of retransmissions. There are
many types of split connection proposals, only some of which are
described in this report. Performance improvements are often significant,
but at the cost of violating the end-to-end semantics of TCP. The
intermediate node which divides the connection must process data up to
the transport layer and all TCP segments belonging to the same connection
are required to pass that node.
The TCP-aware link layer proposals have similar limitations as the split
connection proposals. However, the link layer proposals preserve the end-
to-end semantics of TCP. Most of the explicit notification proposals
require TCP-awareness of the intermediate node that is responsible for
transmitting explicit notifications. These proposals seem to be intended for
wireless links with low reliability. A link ARQ with higher persistence
would reduce or eliminate data loss due to an unreliable wireless link.
However, another application of explicit notifications could be to signal to
the TCP sender that a handover has been initiated. End-to-end proposals
are based on the idea that complexity belongs in the end hosts rather than
in the network. The end-to-end semantics of TCP are preserved.
Intermediate nodes do not have to be TCP-aware, as in many of the other
proposals. The data transferred between the end hosts is not required to
pass the same intermediate node.

11.7 UNIT AND QUESTIONS


1. Explain the Characteristics of Wireless Media?
2. Discuss on Wireless TCP Mechanisms?
3. What are the problems with TCP over wireless network?
4. Discuss on Indirect Model for Mobile Hosts?
5. Explain the concept of I-TCP Basics?
6. How I-TCP Interface is performed at the MH?
7. What is the Need for optimized transport layer protocols?
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8. Explain the Limitation of I-TCP Mobile Transport Layer

9. Discuss on the Design of Snoop Protocol


10. What are the Additional mechanisms required to implement Snoop
Protocol?
11 Explain Working of Snooping TCP ?
12 What are the Advantages and disadvantages snooping TCP?
13. Discuss on Mobile TCP in mobile computing?
14. What is the Need for mobile TCP?
15. How can mobile TCP solve disconnection problem?
16. Advantages of Mobile TCP?

11.8 REFERENCES
 https://www.cs.kau.se/cs/prtp/docarchive/publications/techreports/
2004_21_TCP_over _Wireless/aw_sa-20
https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/fahmy/reports/wireless.pdf
04_21.pdf

 https://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse574-10/ftp/j_kwtc.pdf

 https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/fahmy/reports/wireless.pdf

 https://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse574-10/ftp/j_kwtc.pdf

 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/215530.215544

 https://www.sfu.ca/~ljilja/cnl/projects/packet_control/WM-
195.PacketControl_edited.pdf

 https://www.tutorialspoint.com/wireless_communication/
wireless_communication _tcp_ ip .htm

 https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:24680/FULLTEXT02

 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-0-387-35620-
4_41.pdf

 https://www.neliti.com/publications/239693/tcp-for-wireless-
environments

*****

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12
MOBILE TRANSPORT LAYER
Unit Structure
12.1 Fast Retransmit
12.1.1 What is the meaning of Fast Retransmit?
12.1.3 Why does Fast Retransmit help to improve the performance
of TCP?
12.1.4 What triggers a fast retransmission?
12.1.5 "Fast Retransmit" in TCP
12.1.6 What is the advantage of Fast Retransmit?
12.1.7 What is a Fast Retransmit in networking?
12.1.8 What causes TCP fast retransmission?
12.2 Fast Recovery Transmission
12.2.1 What does fast recovery do?
12.2.2 Why TCP performs a fast recovery only after getting exactly
3 duplicate ACKs?
12.2.3 What is the difference between Fast Retransmit and fast
recovery?
12.2.4 Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery
12.2. 5 Fast Recovery Technique For Loss Recovery in TCP
12.2.6 How can fast recovery takes place in the congestion
avoidance phase?
12.3 Timeout Freezing
12.3.1 Disadvantage
12.3.2 Significance
12.4 Selective Retransmission
12.4.1 What is selective retransmission explain?
12.4.2 Comparision of different approaches for a “mobile” TCP
12.5 Summary
12.6 Unit and Questions
12.7 References

12.1 FAST RETRANSMIT


In TCP/IP, fast retransmit and recovery (FRR) is a congestion control
algorithm that makes it possible to quickly recover lost data packets.
Without FRR, the TCP uses a timer that requires a retransmission timeout
if a packet is lost. No new or duplicate packets can be sent during the
timeout period. With FRR, if a receiver receives a data segment that is out
of order, it immediately sends a duplicate acknowledgement to the sender.
If the sender receives three duplicate acknowledgements, it assumes that
the data segment indicated by the acknowledgements is lost and
216
immediately retransmits the lost segment. With FRR, time is not lost Mobile Transport Layer
waiting for a timeout in order for retransmission to begin. FRR works
most efficiently when there are isolated packet losses. It does not work
efficiently when there are multiple data packet losses occurring over a
short period of time.

12.1.1 What is the meaning of Fast Retransmit?


Fast retransmit is a modification to the congestion avoidance algorithm.
As in Jacobson's fast retransmit algorithm, when the sender receives 3rd
duplicate ACK, it assumes that the packet is lost and retransmit that packet
without waiting for a retransmission timer to expire.

12.1.3 Why does Fast Retransmit help to improve the performance of


TCP?
The Fast Retransmit mechanism is able to efficiently recover from packet
losses as long as no more than one packet is lost in the window. If more
than one packet is lost, then usually the retransmit timer for the second or
later expires, which triggers the more drastic step of resetting W back to
one packet.

12.1.4 What triggers a fast retransmission?


Duplicate acknowledgement is the basis for the fast retransmit mechanism.
After receiving a packet an acknowledgement is sent for the last in-order
byte of data received. For an in-order packet, this is effectively the last
packet's sequence number plus the current packet's payload length.

12.1.5 "Fast Retransmit" in TCP:


1. Background:
Fast retransmit is a modification to the congestion avoidance algorithm.
As in Jacobson's fast retransmit algorithm, when the sender receives 3rd
duplicate ACK, it assumes that the packet is lost and retransmit that packet
without waiting for a retransmission timer to expire. After retransmission,
the sender continues normal data transmission. That means TCP does not
wait for the other end to acknowledge the retranmission.

2. How this protocol works (From "TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume1"


p312):
1) When the third duplicate ACK is received, set ssthresh to one-half of
the minimum of the current congestion window (cwnd) and the
receiver's advertised window. Retransmit the missing segment. Set
cwnd to ssthresh plus 3 times the segment size.
2) Each time another duplicate ACK arrives, increment cwnd by the
segment size and transmit a packet (if allowed by the new value of
cwnd)
3) When the next ACK arrives that acknowledges new data, set cwnd to
ssthresh (the value set in step 1). This should be the ACK of the 217
Wireless and Mobile retransmission from step 1, one round-trip time after the
Technology retranmission. Additionally, this ACK should acknowledge all the
intermediate segments sent between the lost packet and the receipt of
the third duplicate ACK. This step is congestion avoidance, since
we're slowing down to one-half the rate we were at when the packet
was lost.
The fast retransmit algorithm appeared in the 4.3BSD Reno release.

3. How it is shown in nam (network animator):


Here is some scenario to explain "fast retransmit" with a simulated
Internet environment. Look the retranmit time and cwnd & ssthres value
changes.
Environmental parameters: The bandwidth between node 0 & 1 and
between node 2 & 3 is 5Mb, and that between node 1 & 2 is just 0.5Mb.
Queue limit between node 1 & 2 is 5. Frame losses can be predictable.

Node 0 sends one packet to node 3.


cwnd = 1
ssthresh = 20

There are some loss of packets when cwnd=16 and ssthresh =20.
The sender gets to know that there was a collision when it receives third
duplicated ACK. By the time the cwnd and ssthresh values are..

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cwnd = 20.199 Mobile Transport Layer

ssthresh = 20

After receiving 3rd ACK, the sender retransmit that lost packet and change
cwnd and ssthresh values as follows.
cwnd = 10
ssthresh = 10
(Notice, ssthresh value is decreased half of cwnd before congestion. cwnd
was 20.199 )

The sender receives an ACK. As it is not a duplicated ACK nor the last
frame ACK the sender sent, the sender should wait till the time out.
cwnd = 10.10
ssthresh = 10

After timeout, the sender retransmit the last acknowledged packet.


cwnd = 1
ssthresh = 5

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

Then the sender increases its window size by 1 each time it gets the whole
ACKs for the previous packets untill cwnd value reaches ssthresh value.
Once cwnd value reaches ssthresh, it follows "congestion window
avoidance" algorithm. So, the sender increases its window size by 1/cwnd
whenever it receives ACK.
With nam-graph, we could see the whole traffic pattern.

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1st RED Circle: As you see, after 3rd duplicated ACK, the sender Mobile Transport Layer
retransmit the packet (which is indicated in red color).
2nd RED Circle: It is retransmitted because of timeout. And after then,
the sender increases its window size by 1.
The left most points mean the packets that the sender sends.
The followed right points mean ACKs of each packets.
The red points mean retransmitted packets.

12.1.6 What is the advantage of Fast Retransmit?


The Fast Retransmit mechanism is able to efficiently recover from packet
losses as long as no more than one packet is lost in the window. If more
than one packet is lost, then usually the retransmit timer for the second or
later expires, which triggers the more drastic step of resetting W back to
one packet.

12.1.7 What is a Fast Retransmit in networking?


In TCP/IP, fast retransmit and recovery (FRR) is a congestion control
algorithm that makes it possible to quickly recover lost data packets.
Without FRR, the TCP uses a timer that requires a retransmission timeout
if a packet is lost. No new or duplicate packets can be sent during the
timeout period

12.1.8 What causes TCP fast retransmission?


TCP Fast Retransmission - Occurs when the sender retransmits a packet
before the expiration of the acknowledgement timer. Senders receive some
packets which sequence number are bigger than the acknowledged
packets. Senders should Fast Retransmit upon receipt of 3 duplicate
ACKs.

12.2 FAST RECOVERY TRANSMISSION


12.2.1 What does fast recovery do?
Fast Recovery is the packet loss recovery technique. Recovery means
becoming inactive and not transmitting any new packet for some time.
When there is a packet loss detected, the TCP sender does 4 things:
Reduces the cwnd by 50%

12.2.2 Why TCP performs a fast recovery only after getting exactly 3
duplicate ACKs why not 2 or 1?
Since TCP does not know whether a duplicate ACK is caused by a lost
segment or just a reordering of segments, it waits for a small number of
duplicate ACKs to be received.

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Wireless and Mobile 12.2.3 What is the difference between Fast Retransmit and fast
Technology recovery?

With using only Fast Retransmit, the congestion window is dropped down
to 1 each time network congestion is detected. Thus, it takes an amount of
time to reach high link utilization as before. Fast Recovery, however,
alleviates this problem by removing the slow-start phase.

12.2.4 Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery:

In TCP/IP, fast retransmit and recovery (FRR) is a congestion control


algorithm that makes it possible to quickly recover lost data packets.
Without FRR, the TCP uses a timer that equires a retransmission timeout
if a packet is lost. No new or duplicate packets can be sent during the
timeout period. With FRR, if a receiver receives a data segment that is out
of order, it immediately sends a duplicate acknowledgement to the sender.
If the sender receives three duplicate acknowledgements, it assumes that
the data segment indicated by the acknowledgements is lost and
immediately retransmits the lost segment. With FRR, time is not lost
waiting for a timeout in order for retransmission to begin.

FRR works most efficiently when there are isolated packet losses. It does
not work efficiently when there are multiple data packet losses occurring
over a short period of time. The fast retransmit/fast recovery algorithm
was introduced in 4.3BSD Reno release and is described in RFC 2001 and
RFC 2581.

FRR also stands for false rejection rate, a term used in biometric security
systems.

12.2.5 Fast Recovery Technique For Loss Recovery in TCP:

When the RTO timer expires but an ACK is not received, the sender
confirms that the packet is lost due to congestion at intermediary devices.
Now sender has to tackle this congestion state carefully. Fast Recovery is
the packet loss recovery technique. Recovery means becoming inactive
and not transmitting any new packet for some time.

When there is a packet loss detected, the TCP sender does 4 things:

1. Reduces the cwnd by 50%.

2. Reduces the ssthresh value by 50% of cwnd.

3. Retransmit the lost packet.

4. Enters the Fast Recovery phase.

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Fast Recovery Phase: Mobile Transport Layer

This comprises of two parts:

1. The half window of silence

2. Maintain the inflight=cwnd until a new ACK arrives at the sender


side.

The half window of silence is the amount of time the sender becomes
silent(inactive) and waits for inflight to become equal to cwnd. Because
cwnd is reduced to its half when packet loss is detected. Before that
inflight was exactly equal to cwnd, but now inflight is approximately
double of cwnd value. So, the sender doesn‟t transmit any new packet
neither it increases its cwnd by 1 per ACK. The sender will keep on
getting DUP-ACK until the receiver receives the retransmitted packet.

After the inflight becomes equal to cwnd, the half window of silence ends
here, now also DUP-ACK will keep coming, so the sender doesn‟t
increase its cwnd but it will maintain an inflight value equal to cwnd.
When one DUP-ACK comes, the inflight becomes 1 less than the previous
value, so to maintain inflight=cwnd sender transmits one new packet into
the network. When finally the receiver gets the retransmitted packet and it
sends a new ACK to the sender, then the sender will come out of the Fast
Recovery phase and immediately enter the AIMD phase. The sender
comes out of the recovery phase because it has confirmed that the lost
packet is received by the receiver and thus the network is no longer
congested. But, it has to carefully increase the cwnd to avoid subsequent
congestion too early, thus entering AIMD hereafter.

Fast Recovery Technique:

Fast Recovery technique used in TCP Reno and TCPNewreno:

It faces a problem called “Half window of silence”. It leads to the under-


utilization of the available network resources. Because while the sender is
silent the network bandwidth is wasted. Another problem is that it stalls
the application, leading to frustration for the end-user. If the sender is not
sending the data then the receiver will have to wait, this results in delay in
data and a bad user experience. So, What is the solution?

One solution is to improve the estimation of „inflight‟ data by using SACK


(knowledge of gaps in receiver buffer). If the sender knows the updated
„inflight‟ value then the half window of silence will be over soon. Another
solution is the Rate halving technique (previously, default in Linux). One
more advanced solution is Proportional Rate Reduction (current default in
Linux and defined in RFC 6937).

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Wireless and Mobile Fast Recovery without SACK:
Technology

Fast Recovery without SACK

Before Fast Recovery:


cwnd = 10, inflight = 10

Initial stage when Fast Recovery begins:


cwnd = 5, ssthresh = 5, inflight = pipe = 10
The half window of silence until the pipe becomes equal to cwnd.
1. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=10-1=9
2. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=9-1=8
3. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=8-1=7
4. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=7-1=6
5. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=6-1=5. Now, cwnd=pipe,
silence breaks now.
6. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=5-1=4, pipe<cwnd, the sender
transmits a new packet, pipe=4+1=5
7. DUP-ACK arrives at the sender: pipe=5-1=4, pipe<cwnd, the sender
transmits a new packet, pipe=4+1=5
This continues, till retransmitted packet is ACKed by the receiver.
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Fast Recovery with SACK: Mobile Transport Layer

It suffers from burst transmissions. When the network is losing the


packets, the sender is sending a bunch of packets simultaneously which
affects the network badly.

Fast Recovery with SACK

Initial state:
pipe = 5 segments
cwnd= 5 segments
ssthresh = 5 segments
This is the case when half the window of silence is over and pipe=cwnd.
DUP-ACK arrives with SACK blocks, SACK block tells that 3 packets are
lost.
pip= 5-1-3= 1
pipe < cwnd
New packets need to be transmitted = cwnd-pipe
Now, the sender will send 4 new packets. This is called burst transmission.
Fast Retransmit/Fast Recovery Moving to a new foreign agent can cause
packet loss or time out at mobile hosts or corresponding hosts. TCP
concludes congestion and goes into slow start, although there is no
congestion. The mechanisms of fast recovery/fast retransmit in traditional
TCP a host can use after receiving duplicate acknowledgements, thus
concluding a packet loss without congestion. But the idea on Classical
TCP Fast retransmit/ Fast recovery is to artificially force the fast
retransmit behavior on the mobile host and correspondent host side. As
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Wireless and Mobile soon as the mobile host registers at a new foreign agent using mobile IP, it
Technology starts sending duplicated acknowledgements to correspondent hosts. The
proposal is to send three duplicates. This force the corresponding host to
go into fast retransmit mode and not to start slow start, i.e., the
correspondent host continues to send with the same rate it did before the
mobile host moved to another foreign agent.
12.2.6 How can fast recovery takes place in the congestion avoidance
phase?
A fast retransmit is sent, half of the current CWND is saved as ssthresh
and as new CWND, thus skipping slow start and going directly to the
congestion avoidance algorithm. The overall algorithm here is called fast
recovery. Slow start assumes that unacknowledged segments are due to
network congestion.

12.3 TRANSMISSION/TIME-OUT FREEZING


The MAC layer can inform the TCP layer of an upcoming loss of
connection or that the current interruption is not caused by congestion.
TCP can now stop sending and 'freezes' the current state of its congestion
window and further timers. Mobile hosts can be disconnected for a longer
time,no packet exchange possible, e.g., in a tunnel, disconnection due to
overloaded cells or mux. with higher priority traffic TCP disconnects after
time-out completely. MAC layer is often able to detect interruption in
advance MAC can inform TCP layer of upcoming loss of connection TCP
stops sending, but does not assume a congested link MAC layer signals
again if reconnected

12.3.1 Disadvantage:
TCP on mobile host has to be changed, mechanism depends on MAC
layer

12.3.2 Significance:
Scheme is independent of data

12.4 SELECTIVE RETRANSMISSION


12.4.1 What is selective retransmission explain?
When an RTP endpoint sends an NLP, a copy of the data portion of the
NLP is kept until the remote RTP endpoint acknowledges receipt of the
data. If NLPs are lost in the network, the data needs to be retransmitted by
the RTP endpoint.
HPR support uses a selective retransmission mechanism where data is not
retransmitted unless instructed to do so by the remote RTP endpoint.
Additionally, the remote RTP endpoint indicates which messages must be
retransmitted. This sophisticated approach has the following distinct
advantages over other algorithms:
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● Comparing selective retransmission to the “go back N” approach, Mobile Transport Layer
assume 10 messages are sent and messages 3 and 6 were lost in the
network. Using “go back N”, the remote node would indicate that the
next message it is expecting is message 3, which would cause the
sending node to retransmit messages 3–10 even though only two
messages were lost. With HPR selective retransmission, the remote
node would indicate that the next expected message is message 3, but
the remote node did receive messages 4–5 and 7–10, which have been
queued. This way, only messages 3 and 6 are retransmitted.
● When a node in the network is overloaded, data will be discarded and
lost. If retransmission is triggered by a timer popping in the sending
node, the same message would be sent over and over, which makes
the network congestion problem even worse. In HPR support, the
trigger for retransmission lies in the remote node, not the sending
node. If the sending node does not receive an acknowledgement, that
triggers a path switch rather than retransmission.
12.4.2 Comparision of different approaches for a “mobile” TCP
Approach Mechanism Advantages Disadvantages
Indirect TCP splits TCP isolation of loss of TCP
TCP connection into twowireless link, semantics, higher
connections simple latency at handover
Snooping “snoops” data and transparent for end problematic with
TCP acknowledgements, - toend connection, encryption, bad
local retransmission
MAC integration isolation of
possible wireless link
M-TCP splits TCP Maintains end-to- Bad isolation of
connection, chokes end semantics, wireless link,
sender via window handles long term processing
size and frequent overhead due to
disconnections bandwidth
management
Fast avoids slow-start simple and efficient mixed layers, not
retransmit/ after roaming transparent
fast
recovery
Transmissi freezes TCP state at independent of changes in TCP
on/ time- disconnect, content or required, MAC
out freezing resumes after encryption, works dependant
reconnection for longer
interrupts
Selective retransmit only lost very efficient slightly more
retransmiss data complex receiver
ion software, more
buffer needed
Transaction combine Efficient for certain changes in TCP
oriented connection applications required, not
TCP setup/release and transparent
data transmission

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology
12.5 SUMMARY
The idea behind fast retransmit is straightforward. Every time a packet
arrives out of order because the previous packet was lost or delayed, the
receiver sends an acknowledgment that is the same as the one sent the last
time. The subsequent transmissions of the same acknowledgment is called
a duplicate ACK. When the sender detects a duplicate ACK, it knows that
the receiver must have received a packet out of order, implying that the
earlier packet was lost or delayed. To detect reliably the packets that are
lost, the sender waits until it sees some number of duplicate ACKs before
retransmitting the missing packet. In practice, the sender waits until it has
seen three duplicate ACKs, then retransmits the packet without waiting for
its timer to expire.

12.6 UNIT AND QUESTIONS


1. What is the meaning of Fast Retransmit?
2. Why does Fast Retransmit help to improve the performance of TCP?
3. What triggers a fast retransmission?
4. Explain fast retransmit in TCP?
5. What is the advantage of Fast Retransmit?
6. What is a Fast Retransmit in networking?
7. What causes TCP fast retransmission?
8. What does fast recovery do?
9. Why TCP performs a fast recovery only after getting exactly 3
duplicate ACKs?
10. What is the difference between Fast Retransmit and fast recovery?
11. Discuss on Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery?
12. Explain Fast Recovery Technique For Loss Recovery in TCP
13. How can fast recovery takes place in the congestion avoidance phase?
14. What are the Disadvantage timeout freezing?
15. Discuss on the Significance of timeout freezing?
16. Compare different approaches for a “mobile” TCP?

12.7 REFERENCES
1. https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/definition/fast-
retransmit-and-recovery

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228
2. https://www.eventhelix.com/networking/tcp/tcp-fast-retransmit-and- Mobile Transport Layer
recovery-overview.pdf
3. https://andreybleme.com/2021-08-11/rfc-2001-tcp-slow-start-
congestion-avoidance-fast- retransmit-and-fast-recovery-algorithms-
summary/
4. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fast-retransmit-mechanism-of-
Tahoe_fig1_257517254
5.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2285832_TCP_and_Succe
ssive_Fast_Retransmits
6. https://medium.com/tcp-ip/tcp-fast-re-transmit-and-recovery-
d6ec031c9ca5
7. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:4867/FULLTEXT01.pdf
8.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.866.1603&
rep=rep1&type=pdf
9. https://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/atmf/ftp/atm96-1761.pdf

*****

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13
MOBILE TRANSPORT LAYER
Unit Structure
13.1 Transaction Oriented TCP
13.1.1 What is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?
13.1.2 How Transmission Control Protocol works?
13.1.3 TCP vs. UDP
13.1.4 What for TCP is used ?
13.1.5 Why TCP is important?
13.1.6 Location in the TCP/IP stack
13.1.7 TCP/IP vs. OSI model
13.1.8 What is transaction oriented TCP?
13.1.9 How does a transaction take place in TCP?
13.1.10 How is the state model used in T / TCP?
13.1.11 What do you need to know about T / TCP?
13.1.12 Advantage
13.1.13 Disadvantage
13.1.14 T/TCP: TCP for Transactions
13.2 TCP over 2.5 / 3G wireless Networks
13.2.1 Introduction
13.2.2 2.5G and 3G Link Characteristics
13.2.3 Example 2.5G and 3G Deployments
13.2.4 Configuration parameters to adapt TCP to wireless
environments
13.2.5 Optimization Mechanisms
13.2.6 Applications
13.2.7 Open Issues
13.3 Summary
13.4 Unit End Questions
13.5 References

13.1 TRANSACTION ORIENTED TCP


Transmission control protocol (TCP) by IETF is one of the most widely
used transport layer protocols in Internet. Much development and
deployment activity has centered around GPRS, UMTS and IMT-2000,
also referred to 2.5G/3G wireless networks.2.5 Generation (2.5G) and
Third Generation (3G) cellular wireless networks allow mobile Internet
access with bearers specifically designed for data communications.

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However, Internet protocols under-utilize wireless wide area network Mobile Transport Layer
(WWAN) link resources, mainly due to large round trip times (RTTs) and
request–reply protocol patterns. Web browsing is a popular service that
suffers significant performance degradation over 2.5G and 3G. Two main
approaches for improving web browsing performance over wireless links:
(i) using adequate end-to-end parameters and mechanisms and
(ii) interposing a performance enhancing proxy (PEP) between the
wireless and wired parts.

13.1.1 What is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?


Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a standard that defines how to
establish and maintain a network conversation by which applications can
exchange data. TCP works with the Internet Protocol (IP), which defines
how computers send packets of data to each other. Together, TCP and IP
are the basic rules that define the internet. The Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) defines TCP in the Request for Comment (RFC) standards
document number 793.

13.1.2 How Transmission Control Protocol works:


TCP is a connection-oriented protocol, which means a connection is
established and maintained until the applications at each end have finished
exchanging messages.

TCP performs the following actions:


● determines how to break application data into packets that networks
can deliver;
● sends packets to, and accepts packets from, the network layer;
● manages flow control;
● handles retransmission of dropped or garbled packets, as it's meant to
provide error-free data transmission; and
● Acknowledges all packets that arrive.
In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) communication model, TCP
covers parts of Layer 4, the transport layer, and parts of Layer 5, the
session layer. When a web server sends an HTML file to a client, it uses
the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to do so. The HTTP program layer
asks the TCP layer to set up the connection and send the file. The TCP
stack divides the file into data packets, numbers them and then forwards
them individually to the IP layer for delivery.
Although each packet in the transmission has the same source and
destination IP address, packets may be sent along multiple routes. The
TCP program layer in the client computer waits until all packets have
arrived. It then acknowledges those it receives and asks for the
retransmission of any it does not, based on missing packet numbers. The
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Wireless and Mobile TCP layer then assembles the packets into a file and delivers the file to the
Technology receiving application.

13.1.3 TCP vs. UDP:


This process of error detection, in which TCP retransmits and reorders
packets after they arrive, can introduce latency in a TCP stream. Highly
time-sensitive applications, such as voice over IP (VoIP), streaming video
and gaming, generally rely on a transport process such as User Datagram
Protocol (UDP), because it reduces latency and jitter by not reordering
packets or retransmitting missing data.
UDP is classified as a datagram protocol, or connectionless protocol,
because it has no way of detecting whether both applications have finished
their back-and-forth communication. Instead of correcting invalid data
packets, as TCP does, UDP discards those packets and defers to the
application layer for more detailed error detection.The header of a UDP
datagram contains far less information than a TCP segment header. The
UDP header also goes through much less processing at the transport layer
in the interest of reduced latency.

13.1.4 What forTCP is used ?


TCP is used for organizing data in a way that ensures the secure
transmission between the server and client. It guarantees the integrity of
data sent over the network, regardless of the amount. For this reason, it is
used to transmit data from other higher-level protocols that require all
transmitted data to arrive.

Examples of these protocols include the following:


● Secure Shell (SSH), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet: For peer-to-
peer file sharing, and, in Telnet's case, logging into another user's
computer to access a file.
● Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol (POP),
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP): For sending and receiving
email.
● HTTP: For web access.
These examples all exist at the application layer of the TCP/IP stack and
send data downwards to TCP on the transport layer.

13.1.5 Why TCP is important:


TCP is important because it establishes the rules and standard procedures
for the way information is communicated over the internet. It is the
foundation for the internet as it currently exists and ensures that data
transmission is carried out uniformly, regardless of the location, hardware
or software involved. TCP is flexible and highly scalable, meaning new
protocols can be introduced to it, and it will accommodate them. It is also
nonproprietary, meaning no one person or company owns it.
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13.1.6 Location in the TCP/IP stack: Mobile Transport Layer

The TCP/IP stack is a model that represents how data is organized and
exchanged over networks using the TCP/IP protocol. It depicts a series of
layers that represent the way data is handled and packaged by a series of
protocols as it makes its way from client to server and vice versa.
TCP exists in the transport layer with other protocols, such as UDP.
Protocols in this layer ensure the error free transmission of data to the
source, except for UDP because it has more limited error checking
capability.
Like the OSI model, the TCP/IP stack is a conceptual model for data
exchange standards. Data is repackaged at each layer based on its
functionality and transport protocols. Requests come down to the server
through the stack, starting at the application layer as data. From there, the
information is broken into packets of different types at each layer. The
data moves the following ways:
● from the application to the transport layer, where it is sorted into TCP
segments;
● to the internet layer where it becomes a datagram;
● to the network interface layer where it breaks apart again into bits and
frames; and
● as the server responds, it travels up through the stack to arrive at the
application layer as data.

13.1.7 TCP/IP vs. OSI model:


The main difference between the TCP/IP model and OSI model is the
level of specificity.
The OSI model is a more abstract representation of the way data is
exchanged, and not specific to any protocol. It is a framework for general
networking systems. The TCP/IP stack is more specific and comprises the
dominant set of protocols used to exchange data. The OSI model is
abstract and based more on functionality, while the TCP/IP stack is
concrete and protocol-based. Further, the OSI model has seven layers,
whereas the TCP/IP model has only four.

13.1.8 What is transaction oriented TCP?


TCP for Transactions (T/TCP) is a possible successor to both TCP and
UDP. It is a transaction-oriented protocol based on a minimum transfer of
segments, so it does not have the speed problems associated with TCP. By
building on TCP, it does not have the unreliability problems associated
with UDP.
T-TCP, which is also abbreviated as transaction oriented tcp can combine
packets for correction establishment and connection release with user data
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Wireless and Mobile packets. This can reduce the number of packets down to only two instead
Technology of seven.
● Assume an application running on the mobile host that sends a short
request to a server from time to time, which responds with a short
message
● Using TCP now requires several packets over the wireless link. First,
TCP uses a three-way handshake to establish the connection.
● At least one additional packet is usually needed for transmission of
the request, and requires three more packets to close the connection
via a three-way handshake.
● Above Figure shows an example for the overhead introduced by using
TCP
● Web services are based on HTTP which requires a reliable transport
system. Web services are based on HTTP which requires a reliable
transport system.
● In the internet, TCP is used for this purpose.
● Before a HTTP request can be transmitted the TCP connection has to
be established.
● T/TCP can combine packets for connection establishment and
connection release with user data packets.
● This reduces the number of packets down to two instead of seven.

13.1.9 How does a transaction take place in TCP?


● With TCP, the transaction is accomplished by connecting to the server
(3way handshake), requesting the file (GET file), then closing the
connection (sending a FIN segment). T/TCP operates by connecting
to the server, requesting the document and closing the connection all
in one segment (TAO). It is obvious that bandwidth has been saved.
● It is a transaction-oriented protocol based on a minimum transfer of
segments, so it does not have the speed problems associated with
TCP. By building on TCP, it does not have the unreliability problems
associated with UDP. With this in mind, RFC1379 was published in
November 1992.

13.1.10 How is the state model used in T / TCP?


● T/TCP uses the TCP state model for its timing and retransmission of
data, but introduces a new mechanism to allow the reduction in
packets. Even though three packets are sent using T/TCP, the data is
carried on the first two, thus allowing the applications to see the data
with the same speed as UDP.

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13.1.11 What do you need to know about T / TCP? Mobile Transport Layer

● T/TCP (Transactional Transmission Control Protocol) is a variant of


the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). It is an experimental TCP
extension for efficient transaction-oriented (request/response) service.
It was developed to fill the gap between TCP and UDP, by Bob
Braden in 1994. Its definition can be found in RFC 1644…

13.1.12 Advantage:
● Efficient for certain applications

13.1.13 Disadvantage:
● Changes in TCP required not transparent
● security problems

13.1.14 T/TCP: TCP for Transactions:


T/TCP is an experimental extension for the TCP protocol. It was designed
to address the need for a transaction-based transport protocol in the
TCP/IP stack. TCP and UDP are the current choices available for
transaction-based applications. TCP is reliable but inefficient for
transactions, whereas UDP is unreliable but highly efficient. T/TCP sits
between these two protocols, making it an alternative for certain
applications.
Currently, several flavours of UNIX support T/TCP. SunOS 4.1.3 (a
Berkeley-derived kernel) was the very first implementation of T/TCP, and
made available in September 1994. The next implementation was for
FreeBSD 2.0, released in March 1995. For my final-year project, I
implemented T/TCP for Linux at the University of Limerick in April
1998.
The TCP/IP reference model is a specification for a networking stack on a
computer. It exists to provide a common ground for network developers.
This allows easier interconnection of the different vendor-supplied
networks. The most popular implementations of the transport layer in the
reference model are Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), a connection-
oriented protocol, and User Datagram Protocol (UDP), a connectionless
protocol.
Both of these protocols have advantages and disadvantages. The two main
aspects of the protocols make them useful in different areas. Being a
connectionless protocol, UDP is unreliable but fast and useful for
applications, such as DNS (Domain Name System), where speed is
preferred over reliability. TCP, on the other hand is a reliable, connection-
oriented protocol. As a result, TCP is a slower protocol than UDP.
TCP for Transactions (T/TCP) is a possible successor to both TCP and
UDP. It is a transaction-oriented protocol based on a minimum transfer of
segments, so it does not have the speed problems associated with TCP. By
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Wireless and Mobile building on TCP, it does not have the unreliability problems associated
Technology with UDP. With this in mind, RFC1379 was published in November 1992.
It discussed the concepts involved in extending the TCP protocol to allow
for a transaction-oriented service. Some of the main points the RFC
discussed were bypassing the three-way handshake and shortening the
TIME-WAIT state from 240 seconds to 12 seconds. Eighteen months
later, RFC1644 was published, with the specification for Transaction TCP.
T/TCP cuts out much unnecessary handshaking and error detection done
by the current TCP protocol, and as a result, increases the speed of
connection and reduces the necessary bandwidth.
RFC955 lists some of the common characteristics of transaction
processing applications:
● Asymmetrical Model: the two end points take different roles; this is
a typical client-server role where the client requests the data and the
server responds.
● Short Duration: normally, a transaction runs for a short time span.
● Few Data Packets: each transaction is a request for a small piece of
information, rather than a large transfer of information both ways.
The growth of the Internet has put a strain on the bandwidth and speed of
networks. There are now more users than ever, and a more efficient form
of data transfer is needed. The absolute minimum number of packets
required in a transaction is two: one request followed by one response.
UDP is the one protocol in the TCP/IP protocol stack that allows this, but
the problem is the unreliability of the transmission. T/TCP has the
reliability of TCP and comes very close to realizing the 2-packet exchange
(three in fact). T/TCP uses the TCP state model for its timing and
retransmission of data, but introduces a new mechanism to allow the
reduction in packets.
Even though three packets are sent using T/TCP, the data is carried on the
first two, thus allowing the applications to see the data with the same
speed as UDP. The third packet is the acknowledgment to the server by
the client that it has received the data, which is how the TCP reliability is
incorporated.
Consider a DNS system, one where a client sends a request to a server and
expects a small amount of data in return. A diagram of the transaction can
be seen in Figure 1. This diagram is very similar to a UDP request with a
saving of 66% in packets transferred compared to TCP. Obviously, in
cases where a large amount of data is being transferred, there will be more
packets transmitted and thus a decrease in the percentage saved.
TCP Accelerated Open (TAO) is a mechanism introduced by T/TCP
designed to cut down on the number of packets needed to establish a
connection with a host. There are a number of new options that T/TCP
introduces. These options allow the establishment of a connection with a
host using the TAO. T/TCP uses a 32-bit incarnation number, called a
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connection count (CC). This option is carried in the options part of a Mobile Transport Layer
T/TCP segment. A distinct CC value is assigned to each direction of an
open connection. Incremental CC values are assigned to each connection
that a host establishes, either actively or passively.
The three-way handshake is bypassed using the CC value. Each server
host caches the last valid CC value it received from each different client
host. This CC value is sent with the initial SYN segment to the server. If
the initial CC value for a particular client host is larger than the
corresponding cached value, the property of the CC options (the
increasing numbers) ensures that the SYN segment is new and can be
accepted immediately. The TAO test fails if the CC option arriving in the
SYN segment is smaller than the last CC value received that was cached
by the host, or if a CCnew option is sent. The server then initiates a three-
way handshake in the normal TCP/IP fashion.
T/TCP can be beneficial to some of the applications that currently use
TCP or UDP. At the moment, many applications are transaction-based
rather than connection-based, but still have to rely on TCP, along with the
overhead. UDP is the other alternative, but not having time-outs and
retransmissions built into the protocol means the application programmers
have to supply the time-outs and reliability checking themselves. Since
T/TCP is transaction-based, there is no set-up and shutdown time, so the
data can be passed to the process with minimal delay.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is the method used by the World Wide Web
to access web pages. T/TCP can be used to reduce the number of packets
required. With TCP, the transaction is accomplished by connecting to the
server (three-way handshake), requesting the file (GET file), then closing
the connection (sending a FIN segment). T/TCP would operate by
connecting to the server, requesting the document and closing the
connection, all in one segment (TAO). It is obvious that bandwidth is
saved by this method.
Remote procedure calls (RPCs) also adhere to the transaction style
paradigm. A client sends a request to a server for the server to run a
function. The results of the function are then returned in the reply to the
client. There is only a tiny amount of data transferred with RPCs.
DNS. The Domain Name System is used to resolve host names into the IP
addresses that locate the host.
To resolve a domain name, the client sends a request with the IP address
or a host name to the server. The server responds with the host name or IP
address where appropriate. This protocol uses UDP. As a result of using
UDP, the process is fast, but not reliable. Furthermore, if the response by
the server exceeds 512 bytes of data, it sends the data back to the client
with the first 512 bytes and a truncated flag. The client has to resubmit the
request using TCP. The reason for this is there is no guarantee that the
receiving host will be able to reassemble an IP datagram exceeding 576
bytes. For safety, many protocols limit the user data to 512 bytes. T/TCP
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Wireless and Mobile is the perfect candidate for the DNS protocol. It can communicate at
Technology speeds approaching that of UDP, and it has the reliability of TCP.
In order to investigate the benefits of this implementation of T/TCP, it is
important to test its operation, and also to compare its operation to the
original TCP/IP operation. I performed these tests using the Linux 2.0.32
kernel with T/TCP modifications and FreeBSD version
The main memory drain in the implementation is in the routing table. In
Linux, for every computer with which the host comes into contact, an
entry for the foreign host is made in the routing table. This applies to both
a direct connection and to a multi-hop route. This routing table is accessed
through the rtable structure. The implementation of T/TCP adds two new
fields to this structure, CCrecv and CCsent. The entire size of this
structure is 56 bytes, which isn't a major memory hog on a small stand-
alone host. On a busy server, though, where the host communicates with
maybe thousands of other hosts an hour, it can be a major strain on
memory. Linux has a mechanism where a route no longer in use can be
removed from memory. A check is run periodically to clean out unused
routes and those that have been idle for a time.
The problem here is the routing table holds the TAO cache. So anytime a
route which contains the last CC value from a host is deleted, the local
host has to re-initiate the three-way handshake with a CCnew segment.
The benefits of leaving the routing entries up permanently are clear. The
most likely use would be in a situation where a host talks to only a certain
set of foreign hosts and denies access to unknown hosts. In this case, it is
advantageous to keep a permanent record in memory so the three-way
handshake can be bypassed more often.
The original protocol specification (RFC1644) labeled T/TCP as an
experimental protocol. Since the RFC was published, there hasn't been an
update to the protocol to fix some of the problems. From the previous
sections, the benefits over the original TCP protocol are obvious, but is it a
case of the disadvantages outweighing the advantages? One of the more
serious problems with T/TCP is that it opens up the host to certain Denial
of Service attacks. SYN flooding is the term given to a form of denial-of-
service attack where the attacker continually sends SYN packets to a host.
The host creates a sock structure for each SYN, thus reducing the number
of sock structures that can be made available to legitimate users. This may
eventually result in the host crashing when enough memory has been used.
SYN cookies were implemented in the Linux kernel to combat this attack.
SYN cookies cause problems with T/TCP, as there are no TCP options
sent in the cookie, and any data arriving in the initial SYN can't be used
immediately. The CC option in T/TCP does provide some protection on its
own, but it is not secure enough.
Another serious problem discovered during research was that attackers can
bypass rlogin authentication. An attacker creates a packet with a false IP
address in it, one that is known to the destination host. When the packet is
sent, the CC options allow the packet to be accepted immediately and the
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data passed on. The destination host then sends a SYNACK to the original Mobile Transport Layer
IP address. When this SYNACK arrives, the original host sends a reset, as
it is not in a SYN-SENT state. This happens too late, as the command will
already have been executed on the destination host. Any protocol that uses
an IP address as authentication is open to this sort of attack.
It should be noted, however, that the use of T/TCP in conjunction with
protocols such as HTTP have fewer security problems, due to the inability
to run any server commands with HTTP. RFC1644 also has a duplicate
transaction problem. This can be serious for applications that are non-
idempotent (repeat transactions are very undesirable). This error can occur
in T/TCP if a request is sent to a server and the server processes the
transaction, but before it sends back an acknowledgment, the process
crashes. The client side times out and retransmits the request; if the server
process recovers in time, it can repeat the same transaction. This problem
occurs because the data in a SYN can be immediately passed to the
process, rather than in TCP where the three-way handshake has to be
completed before data can be used. The use of two-phase commits and
transaction logging can eliminate this problem.
With the World Wide Web being the prime example of client-server
transaction processing today, this section will focus on the benefits of
T/TCP to the performance of the Web.Currently, the HTTP protocol sits in
the application layer of the TCP/IP reference model. It uses the TCP
protocol to carry out all its operations, UDP being too unreliable. Much
latency is involved in the transfer of information, i.e., the three-way
handshake and explicit shutdown exchanges.
In a survey of 2.6 million web documents searched by the Inktomi web
crawler search engine it was found that the mean document size on the
Web was 4.4KB, the median size was 2.0KB and the maximum size
encountered was 1.6MB. It is seen that the lower the segment size, the
better the performance of T/TCP over normal TCP/IP. With a mean
document size of 4.4KB, this results in an average savings of just over
55% in the number of packets. When taking the median size into account,
there is a savings of approximately 60%.
In this situation, a delta refers to the difference between two files. On
UNIX systems, the diff command can be used to generate the delta
between two files. Using the changed file and the delta, the original file
can be regenerated again and vice versa.In their testing, they not only used
delta encoding, they also compressed the delta generated to further reduce
the amount of information transferred. They discovered that by using the
vdelta delta generator and compression, they could achieve up to 83%
savings in the transmission of data. If this method was used with T/TCP,
there could be as much as a further 66% savings in packets transferred.
This is a total of 94% reduction in packet transfer.It should be noted,
however, that this is a best-case scenario. In this situation, the document
will already have been cached on both the server and the client side, and
the client and server will previously have completed the three-way
handshake in order to facilitate the TAO tests.
239
Wireless and Mobile Programming for T/TCP is slightly different using socket programming.
Technology As an example, the chain of system calls to implement a TCP client would
be as follows:
● socket: create a socket.
● connect: connect to the remote host.
● write: write data to the remote host.
● shutdown: close one side of the connection.

Whereas with T/TCP, the chain of commands would be:


● socket: create a socket.
● sendto: connect, send data and close connection. The sendto function
must be able to use a new flag MSG_EOF to indicate to the kernel
that it has no more data to send on this connection.
Programming under T/TCP is much like programming under UDP.

13.2 TCP OVER 2.5/3G WIRELESS NETWORKS.


13.2.1 Introduction:
TCP over 2.5G/3G wireless networks describes a profile for optimizing
TCP over wireless WANs such as GSM/GPRS, UMTS, or cdma2000. The
focus on 2.5G/3G for transport of internet data is important as already
more than 1 billion people use mobile phones and it is obvious that the
mobile phone systems will also be used to transport arbitrary internet data.

13.2.2 2.5G and 3G Link Characteristics:


Link layer characteristics of 2.5G/3G networks have significant effects
on TCP performance. In this section we present various aspects of link
characteristics unique to the 2.5G/3G networks.

Latency:
The latency of 2.5G/3G links is high mostly due to the extensive
processing required at the physical layer of those networks, e.g., for FEC
and interleaving, and due to transmission delays in the radio access
network (including link-level retransmissions). A typical RTT varies
between a few hundred milliseconds and one second. The associated radio
channels suffer from difficult propagation environments. Hence, powerful
but complex physical layer techniques need to be applied to provide high
capacity in a wide coverage area in a resource efficient way. Hopefully,
rapid improvements in all areas of wireless networks ranging from radio
layer techniques over signal processing to system architecture will
ultimately also lead to reduced delays in 3G wireless systems.

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Data Rates: Mobile Transport Layer

The main incentives for transition from 2G to 2.5G to 3G are the increase
in voice capacity and in data rates for the users. 2.5G systems have data
rates of 10-20 kbps in uplink and 10-40 kbps in downlink. Initial 3G
systems are expected to have bit rates around 64 kbps in uplink and 384
kbps in downlink. Considering the resulting bandwidth-delay product
(BDP) of around 1-5 KB for 2.5G and 8-50 KB for 3G, 2.5G links can be
considered LTNs and 3G links approach LFNs (Long Fat Networks as
exemplified by some satellite networks. Accordingly, interested readers
might find related and potentially relevant issues discussed in RFC 2488.
For good TCP performance both LFNs and LTNs require maintaining a
large enough window of outstanding data.
For LFNs, utilizing the available network bandwidth is of particular
concern. LTNs need a sufficiently large window for efficient loss
recovery. In particular, the fast retransmit algorithm cannot be triggered if
the window is less than four segments. This leads to a lengthy recovery
through retransmission timeouts. The Limited Transmit algorithm RFC
3042 helps avoid the deleterious effects of timeouts on connections with
small windows. Nevertheless, making full use of the SACK RFC 2018
information for loss recovery in both LFNs and LTNs may require twice
the window otherwise sufficient to utilize the available bandwidth.
Data rates are dynamic due to effects from other users and from mobility.
Arriving and departing users can reduce or increase the available
bandwidth in a cell. Increasing the distance from the base station
decreases the link bandwidth due to reduced link quality.
Finally, by simply moving into another cell the user can experience a
sudden change in available bandwidth. For example, if upon changing
cells a connection experiences a sudden increase in available bandwidth, it
can underutilize it, because during congestion avoidance TCP increases
the sending rate slowly. Changing from a fast to a slow cell normally is
handled well by TCP due to the self- clocking property. However, a
sudden increase in RTT in this case can cause a spurious TCP timeout . In
addition, a large TCP window used in the fast cell can create congestion
resulting in overbuffering in the slow cell.

Asymmetry:
2.5G/3G systems may run asymmetric uplink and downlink data rates. The
uplink data rate is limited by battery power consumption and complexity
limitations of mobile terminals. However, the asymmetry does not exceed
3-6 times, and can be tolerated by TCP without the need for techniques
like ACK congestion control or ACK filtering . Accordingly, this
document does not include recommendations meant for such highly
asymmetric networks.

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Wireless and Mobile Delay Spikes:
Technology
A delay spike is a sudden increase in the latency of the communication
path. 2.5G/3G links are likely to experience delay spikes exceeding the
typical RTT by several times due to the following reasons.
1. A long delay spike can occur during link layer recovery from a link
outage due to temporal loss of radio coverage, for example, while
driving into a tunnel or within an elevator.
2. During a handover the mobile terminal and the new base station must
exchange messages and perform some other time-consuming actions
before data can be transmitted in a new cell.
3. Many wide area wireless networks provide seamless mobility by
internally re-routing packets from the old to the new base station
which may cause extra delay.
4. Blocking by high-priority traffic may occur when an arriving circuit-
switched call or higher priority data temporarily preempts the radio
channel. This happens because most current terminals are not able to
handle a voice call and a data connection simultaneously and suspend
the data connection in this case.
5. Additionally, a scheduler in the radio network can suspend a low-
priority data transfer to give the radio channel to higher priority users.
Delay spikes can cause spurious TCP timeouts, unnecessary
retransmissions and a multiplicative decrease in the congestion window
size.

Packet Loss Due to Corruption:


Even in the face of a high probability of physical layer frame errors,
2.5G/3G systems have a low rate of packet losses thanks to link-level
retransmissions. In general, link layer ARQ and FEC can provide a packet
service with a negligibly small probability of undetected errors (failures of
the link CRC), and a low level of loss (non-delivery) for the upper layer
traffic, e.g., IP. The loss rate of IP packets is low due to the ARQ, but the
recovery at the link layer appears as delay jitter to the higher layers
lengthening the computed RTO value.

Intersystem Handovers:
In the initial phase of deployment, 3G systems will be used as a 'hot spot'
technology in high population areas, while 2.5G systems will provide
lower speed data service elsewhere. This creates an environment where a
mobile user can roam between 2.5G and 3G networks while keeping
ongoing TCP connections. The inter-system handover is likely to trigger a
high delay spike, and can result in data loss. Additional problems arise
because of context transfer, which is out of scope of this document, but is
being addressed elsewhere in the IETF in activities addressing seamless
mobility.
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Intersystem handovers can adversely affect ongoing TCP connections Mobile Transport Layer
since features may only be negotiated at connection establishment and
cannot be changed later. After an intersystem handover, the network
characteristics may be radically different, and, in fact, may be negatively
affected by the initial configuration. This point argues against premature
optimization by the TCP implementation.

Bandwidth Oscillation:
Given the limited RF spectrum, satisfying the high data rate needs of
2.5G/3G wireless systems requires dynamic resource sharing among
concurrent data users. Various scheduling mechanisms can be deployed in
order to maximize resource utilization. If multiple users wish to transfer
large amounts of data at the same time, the scheduler may have to
repeatedly allocate and de-allocate resources for each user.
Periodic allocation and release of high-speed channels is referred as
Bandwidth Oscillation. Bandwidth Oscillation effects such as spurious
retransmissions were identified elsewhere as factors that degrade
throughput. There are research studies which show that in some cases
Bandwidth Oscillation can be the single most important factor in reducing
throughput. For fixed TCP parameters the achievable throughput depends
on the pattern of resource allocation. When the frequency of resource
allocation and de-allocation is sufficiently high, there is no throughput
degradation. However, increasing the frequency of resource allocation/de-
allocation may come at the expense of increased signaling, and, therefore,
may not be desirable. Standards for 3G wireless technologies provide
mechanisms that can be used to combat the adverse effects of Bandwidth
Oscillation. It is the consensus of the PILC Working Group that the best
approach for avoiding adverse effects of Bandwidth Oscillation is proper
wireless sub-network design .

13.2.3 Example 2.5G and 3G Deployments


2.5G Technologies GPRS, HSCSD and CDMA2000 1XRTT:
High Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD) and General Packet Radio
Service (GPRS) are extensions of GSM providing high data rates for a
user. Both extensions were developed first by ETSI and later by 3GPP. In
GSM, a user is assigned one timeslot downlink and one uplink. HSCSD
allocates multiple timeslots to a user creating a fast circuit-switched link.
GPRS is based on packet-switched technology that allows efficient
sharing of radio resources among users and always-on capability. Several
terminals can share timeslots. A GPRS network uses an updated base
station subsystem of GSM as the access network; the GPRS core network
includes Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS
Support Nodes (GGSN). The RLC protocol operating between a base
station controller and a terminal provides ARQ capability over the radio
link. The Logical Link Control (LLC) protocol between the SGSN and
the terminal also has an ARQ capability utilized during handovers.

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Wireless and Mobile 3G Technology: W-CDMA:
Technology
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has selected Wideband
Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) as one of the global telecom
systems for the IMT-2000 3G mobile communications standard. W-
CDMA specifications are created in the 3rd Generation Partnership
Project (3GPP). The link layer characteristics of the 3G network which
have the largest effect on TCP performance over the link are error
controlling schemes such as layer two ARQ (L2 ARQ) and FEC (forward
error correction). W-CDMA uses RLC (Radio Link Control) , a Selective
Repeat and sliding window ARQ. RLC uses protocol data units (PDUs)
with a 16 bit RLC header. The size of the PDUs may vary. Typically,
336 bit PDUs are implemented .This is the unit for link layer
retransmission. The IP packet is fragmented into PDUs for transmission
by RLC.
In W-CDMA, one to twelve PDUs (RLC frames) constitute one FEC
frame, the actual size of which depends on link conditions and bandwidth
allocation. The FEC frame is the unit of interleaving. This accumulation
of PDUs for FEC adds part of the latency . For reliable transfer, RLC has
an acknowledged mode for PDU retransmission. RLC uses checkpoint
ARQ with "status report" type acknowledgments; the poll bit in the header
explicitly solicits the peer for a status report containing the sequence
number that the peer acknowledges. The use of the poll bit is controlled
by timers and by the size of available buffer space in RLC. Also, when
the peer detects a gap between sequence numbers in received frames, it
can issue a status report to invoke retransmission. RLC preserves the
order of packet delivery.
The maximum number of retransmissions is a configurable RLC
parameter that is specified by RRC (Radio Resource Controller) through
RLC connection initialization. The RRC can set the maximum number of
retransmissions (up to a maximum of 40). Therefore, RLC can be
described as an ARQ that can be configured for either HIGH-
PERSISTENCE or LOW-PERSISTENCE, not PERFECT-
PERSISTENCE, according to the terminology.
Since the RRC manages RLC connection state, Bandwidth Oscillation can
be eliminated by the RRC's keeping RF resource on an RLC connection
with data in its queue. This avoids resource de-allocation in the middle of
transferring data.

3G Technology:
CDMA2000 1X-EV: One of the Terrestrial Radio Interface standards for
3G wireless systems, proposed under the International Mobile
Telecommunications- 2000 umbrella, is cdma2000. It employs Multi-
Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology with a single-
carrier RF bandwidth of 1.25 MHz. cdma2000 evolved from IS-95, a 2G
standard based on CDMA technology. The first phase of cdma2000
utilizes a single carrier and is designed to double the voice capacity of
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existing CDMA (IS-95) networks and to support always-on data Mobile Transport Layer
transmission speeds of up to 316.8 kbps. As mentioned above, these
enhanced capabilities are delivered by cdma2000 1XRTT. 3G speeds of 2
Mbps are offered by cdma2000 1X-EV. At the physical layer, the
standard allows transmission in 5,10,20,40 or 80 ms time frames. Various
orthogonal (Walsh) codes are used for channel identification and to
achieve higher data rates.
Radio Link Protocol Type 3 (RLP) is used with a cdma2000 Traffic
Channel to support CDMA data services. RLP provides an octet stream
transport service and is unaware of higher layer framing. There are
several RLP frame formats. RLP frame formats with higher payload were
designed for higher data rates. Depending on the channel speed, one or
more RLP frames can be transmitted in a single physical layer frame.
RLP can substantially decrease the error rate exhibited by CDMA traffic
channels. When transferring data, RLP is a pure NAK- based finite
selective repeat protocol. The receiver does not acknowledge successfully
received data frames. If one or more RLP data frames are missing, the
receiving RLP makes several attempts (called NAK rounds) to recover
them by sending one or more NAK control frames to the transmitter.
Each NAK frame must be sent in a separate physical layer frame. When
RLP supplies the last NAK control frame of a particular NAK round, a
retransmission timer is set. If the missing frame is not received when the
timer expires, RLP may try another NAK round. RLP may not recover all
missing frames. If after all RLP rounds, a frame is still missing, RLP
supplies data with a missing frame to the higher layer protocols.
13.2.4 Configuration parameters to adapt TCP to wireless
environments:
Based on these characteristics following configuration parameters are
suggested to adapt TCP to wireless environments:
● Large windows: TCP should support large enough window sizes; A
larger initial window may increase performance particularly for short
transmissions. With the help of the windows scale option (RFC 1323)
and larger buffer sizes this can be accomplished
● Limited transmit: It is an extension of Fast Retransmission/Fast
Recovery and is particularly useful when small amounts of data are to
be transmitted
● Large MTU: The larger the MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) the
faster TCP increases the congestion window. large MTUs may be
used to increase performance. MTU path discovery should be used to
employ larger segment sizes instead of assuming the small default
MTU.
● Selective Acknowledgement (SACK): SACK allows the selective
retransmission of packets and is almost always beneficial compared to
the standard cumulative scheme.
245
Wireless and Mobile ● Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN): allows a receiver to inform
Technology a sender of congestion in the network by setting the ECN-Echo flag
on receiving an IP packet that has experienced congestion. This
mechanism makes it easier to distinguish packet loss due to
transmission errors from packet loss due to congestion
● Timestamp: With the help of timestamps higher delay spikes can be
tolerated by TCP without experiencing a spurious timeout. The effect
of bandwidth oscillation is also reduced.
● No header compression: Header compression is not compatible with
TCP options such as SACK or timestamps.

13.2.5 Optimization Mechanisms:


Large window size:
To utilize link capacity in full, a TCP sender has to send segments to "fill
the pipe". To achieve the maximum link efficiency for TCP, the advertised
receive window size needs to be equal to or greater than the BDP
(Bandwidth Delay Product) of the end-to-end path. The wireless link
capacity varies by specific technologies used. In 2.5G/3G wireless, the
link BDP tends to large. If the end-to-end path contains one or more
wireless link, the end-to-end BDP might be larger than the default value of
receive window size on many TCP implementations. The receiver must
advertise the appropriate receive window size based on the end-to-end
BDP.
The traditional TCP specification limits the window size to 64 KB. If the
link capacity is expected to be larger than 64 KB, the window scale option
must be applied. TCP over 2.5G/3G SHOULD support appropriate
window sizes based on the BDP of the end-to-end path. For better round
trip time estimates, timestamp option is recommended to be implemented
when supporting window size of 64 KB and more. TCP over 2.5G/3G
MAY support timestamp. If the window size is larger than or equal to
64KB, implementation SHOULD support timestamp option.
Large initial window: TCP controls its transmit rate using the congestion
window mechanism. Traditionally, the initial value of the window is one
segment. Because the delayed Ack mechanism is widely deployed, a TCP
sender should have an increased initial congestion window of two
segments. This effectively cancels the delayed Ack by sending two
segments at once in the very first slow start turn, that contributes to
avoiding the overhead in connection creation.
Furthermore, the increased initial window option is also effective,
especially for small data to be transmitted, which is commonly seen in
such an application as the Internet-enabled mobile wireless devices. For
large data transfer, on the other hand, the effect of this option is negligible.
Two segments of initial congestion window size is recommended and also
notes consideration on use of initial window size of more than two.
Although the increased initial congestion window is experimental status,
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there is no impact of use of it to the majority of the Internet if the gateway Mobile Transport Layer
architecture is deployed that terminates TCP connection between the
mobile node and the gateway.
Due to the fact that the delayed Ack mechanism is the standard and that
the increased initial window option is especially effective for the small
data transfer that is common for mobile wireless devices,
TCP over 2.5G/3G MUST use cwnd = 2. It MAY use cwnd > 2 if a
gateway is present.
MTU larger than default IP MTU: One of the link layer parameters is
MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit). In TCP, the slow start mechanism tries
to find an adequate rate for the link layer. The larger MTU allows TCP to
grow the congestion window faster, because the window is counted in unit
of segments, especially when the link condition is good. In contrast, under
a high BER (Bit Error Rate) situation, smaller MTU is better in terms of
the chance of successful transmission. With layer two ARQ, the upper
layer can enjoy larger MTU even in a relatively high BER condition. Due
to this tradeoff, TCP over 2.5G/3G SHOULD allow freedom for designers
to choose MTU from a small value (such as 576B) to a large value (up to
1500B).

Path MTU discovery:


Path MTU discovery allows a sender to determine the maximum end-to-
end transmission unit for a given routing path. [RFC1191] and [RFC1981]
describe the MTU discovery procedure for IPv4 and IPv6 respectively.
This allows TCP senders to employ larger segment sizes (without causing
fragmentation) instead of assuming the default MTU.
Using larger segment sizes allows for a faster increase in the congestion
window and a smaller ratio of header overhead to data. It should be noted
that larger MTUs increase the probability of error in a given segment and
also increase the packet transmission time.
TCP over 2.5G/3G implementations SHOULD implement Path MTU
Discovery. Path MTU Discovery requires intermediate routers to support
the generation of the necessary ICMP messages. [RFC1435] provides
recommendations that may be relevant for some router implementations.

Selective Acknowledgments:
The selective acknowledgment option (SACK) is effective when multiple
TCP segments are lost in a single TCP window . In particular, if the link
has a large BDP and a certain amount of packet loss rate, the ratio of
multiple segment losses grows high. In such cases, SACK performs better
than traditional and Reno TCP . TCP over 2.5G/3G MUST support SACK.

Explicit Congestion Notification:


Explicit Congestion Notification [RFC2481] allows a TCP receiver to
inform the sender of congestion in the network by setting the ECN-Echo
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Wireless and Mobile flag; a receiver will set this flag on receiving an IP packet marked with the
Technology CE bit. The TCP sender can then reduce its congestion window. The use
of ECN is believed to provide performance benefits [RFC2884]. TCP over
2.5G/3G MAY support ECN. [RFC2481] also places requirements on
intermediate routers (e.g. active queue management and setting of the CE
bit in the IP header to indicate congestion). Thus the use of ECN on the
TCP connections is dependent on the necessary support from the relevant
routers.

13.2.6 Applications:
i-mode:
Mobile terminal users want to enjoy the Internet experience on their
handset. This market is emerging and growing rapidly. A deployment
example is i-mode, a wireless Internet service. As of this writing, it is the
largest single wireless internet service in the world, with 19 million
subscribers in Japan.
The next version of i-mode that operates over W-CDMA will be launched
at the end of May 2001. It will deploy the profiled TCP that is described in
this document. The browser embedded in the handset will utilize the
higher speed of 3G infrastructure that can provide up to 384kbps packet
mode service. From the perspective of transport layer, the underlying W-
CDMA network can be viewed as a network with a relatively large BDP
and jitter. The loss rate of IP packets is low due to the ARQ, but the
recovery in the layer two appears as jitter to the higher layers.
The i-mode infrastructure directly conveys IP packets to the gateway for
accessing the Internet. In addition to the operation by the embedded
browser, the i-mode handset can be connected to a computer, a PDA and
the like as a wireless modem. In this mode, most of data communication
facilities can be controlled via AT modem commands. The W-CDMA
infrastructure, whose core network uses GPRS (General Packet Radio
Service), can be viewed as a large PPP link to GGSN (Gateway GPRS
Supporting Node). The other side of GGSN is connected to fixed networks
of ISPs using, for example, leased lines.

WAP:
The WAP Forum is an industry association that has developed standards
for wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile phones
and other wireless terminals. In order to address WAP functionalities for
high speed networks such as 2.5G and 3G networks and to aim at
convergence to the Internet standards, the WAP Forum has been
addressing adoption of TCP as its transport protocol, benefiting from
relevant documents and discussions within IETF and, in particular, its
PILC working group.
WAP Forum is about to release a new generation of specifications for
public review, subject to membership approval. These specifications may
include the profiled TCP that is described in this submission. The WAP
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248
forum specification profiling TCP is expected to be available for public Mobile Transport Layer
review in the March 2001 timeframe.

Ricochet MCDN Network:


Ricochet is a wide-area wireless packet data network. The architecture for
the Ricochet system is the MicroCellular Data Network (MCDN). This
architecture has seven physical components:
1) wireless modems or subscriber devices;
2) a cluster of MicroCells;
3) Wired Access Points;
4) a nation-wide wired backbone;
5) a Name Service;
6) a Network Management System;
7) and gateways.
The MCDN system architecture is based on a mesh of MicroCells
deployed throughout a metropolitan area following the part 15.247 FCC
rules and regulations for the ISM band.
After radios have acquired each other, they register with the Name
Service. The registration process allows the Name Service to store the
information required to route from the Name Server to the registering
entity. The Name Server can construct a route between the two devices
and return an MCDN path with enough information to allow packets to be
routed between the two entities. Each device appends the MCDN path to
any packet it wishes to route through the network.
The customer's radio modem typically appears as a standard AT
command-based modem. The modem sends a LookUp packet to the Name
Service asking for the MCDN path to the logical name, typically an
MCDN gateway to the Internet or an intranet. The user's device then
continues to negotiate a PPP connection so that it can be assigned an IP
address, an IP router, and a DNS server and become a full-fledged
communicating member of the global Internet. When the user's computing
device is attempting to negotiate PPP to connect to the network, the radio
modem establishes a virtual connection, analogous to TCP, to the MCDN
gateway, which ensures that all of the packets from the user's computing
device get routed to the Internet via the MCDN gateway. The Wired
Access Point places the wireless packets onto a high bandwidth wired
backbone and route them to a central collection point, the Network
Interface Facility (NIF.) The user's device then appears to the rest of the
Internet as if it is physically located at the PPP termination point.

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Wireless and Mobile 13.2.7 Open Issues:
Technology
Other ideas to enhance the performance of TCP over the 2.5G/3G
networks may include the use of T/TCP, ROHC for TCP, Active Queue
Management, Eifel Algorithm and so on. We have been interested in
T/TCP because the Web browsing on a smart phone tends to require short
TCP connection duration and small amount of data transfer. The pattern of
such use is more transactional rather than streaming. Because T/TCP is
regarded as being weak for attacks and not widely deployed, we did not
recommend T/TCP in this document.
In this document, RFC2414 is treated as an experimental status. RFC2414
is now up for reconsideration to become a proposed standard. Should it get
approved as a proposed standard, we can drop the restriction that
CWND=3 or 4 may only be used with gateway. There are some fairly
recent results on using a larger initial cwnd in our web server.

13.3 SUMMARY
Analysis of T/TCP shows that it benefits small, transaction-oriented
transfers more than large-scale information transfers. Aspects of
transactions can be seen in such cases as the World Wide Web, Remote
Procedure Calls and DNS. These applications can benefit from the use of
T/TCP in efficiency and speed. T/TCP reduces on average both the
numbers of segments involved in a transaction and the time taken to
complete the transaction. As T/TCP is still an experimental protocol, there
are problems that need to be addressed. Security problems encountered
include the vulnerability to SYN flood attacks and rlogin authentication
bypassing. Operational problems include the possibility of duplicate
transactions occurring. Problems that occur less frequently would be the
wrapping of the CC values on high-speed connections, thus opening up a
destination host to accepting segments on the wrong connection.
Many people recognize the need for a protocol that favors transaction-
style processing and are willing to accept T/TCP as the answer. Security
considerations lead to the conclusion that T/TCP would be more useful in
a controlled environment, one where there is little danger from a would-be
attacker who can exploit the weaknesses of the standard. Examples of
enclosed environments would be company intranets and networks
protected by firewalls. With many companies seeing the Web as the future
of doing business, internal and external, a system employing T/TCP and
some of the improvements to HTTP, such as compression and delta
encoding, would result in a dramatic improvement in speed within a
company intranet.
Where programmers are willing to accept T/TCP as a solution to their
applications, only minor modifications are needed for the application to
become T/TCP-aware. For client-side programming, it involves the
elimination of the connect and shutdown function calls, which can be
replaced by adding the MSG_EOF flag to the sendto command. Server-

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250
side modifications involve simply adding the MSG_EOF flag to the send Mobile Transport Layer
function.

13.5 UNIT END QUESTIONS


1. What is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?
2. How Transmission Control Protocol works?
3. Discuss on TCP vs. UDP
4. What for TCP is used ?
5. Why TCP is important?
6. Discuss about Location in the TCP/IP stack
7. Explain TCP/IP vs. OSI model
8. What is transaction oriented TCP?
9. How does a transaction take place in TCP?
10. How is the state model used in T / TCP?
11. What do you need to know about T / TCP?
12. What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of T/TCP
13. Elaborate T/TCP: TCP for Transactions
14. Explain 2.5G and 3G Link Characteristics
15. Specify Examples of 2.5G and 3G Deployments
16. What are the Configuration parameters to adapt TCP to wireless
environments
17. Discuss on Optimization Mechanisms
18. What are the Applications of 2.5G and 3G

13.4 REFERENCES
 https://www.linuxjournal.com/article

 https://ids-water.com/2020/10/14/what-is-transaction-oriented-tcp/

 https://www.slideshare.net/amardeepsingh1902/transaction-tcp-
28115566

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T/TCP

 https://linuxgazette.net/issue47/stacey.html

 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1644
251
Wireless and Mobile  https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3075
Technology
 https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-
article/icii/2001/00983568/12OmNzkMlRu

 https://snscourseware.org/snsctnew/files/1584119310.pdf

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3935820_TCP_over_25G_a
nd_3G_ wireless_networks

 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/983568

 https://www.academia.edu/22263767/TCP_over_Second_2_5G_and_
Third_3G_Generation_Wireless_Networks

*****

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MODULE VII

14
APPLICATION LAYER
Unit Structure
14.0 Objective
14.1 Introduction
14.2 WAP Wireless Application Protocol
14.2.1 Significance of WAP
14.2.2 Working model of WAP
14.3 WAP Architecture
14.3.1 Advantages of WAP
14.3.2 Disadvantages of WAP
14.3.3 Applications of WAP
14.4 Location based technology
14.4.1 How does location technology track your movements?
14.4.2 Examples of technologies used to track location
14.4.3 Applications of location-based services
14.5 WAP Gateway
14.6 User Agent Profile
14.6.1 Catching mode
14.7 Wireless Bearers for WAP
14.8 Summary
14.9 Unit End Questions

14.0 OBJECTIVE
This chapter will able you to understand the following concept:
● WAP (Wireless Application Protocol
● Working of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP Mode
● WAP architecture
● Advantages of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
● Disadvantages of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
● Applications of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
● Location-based technology with its applications
● WAP user agent profile
● Catching mode
● Wireless bearers for WAP
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Wireless and Mobile
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14.1 INTRODUCTION
The below figure justify the overall operations perform on WAP
architecture, the WAP protocols and components gets compares with the
architecture of the typical internet architecture which is using the world
wide web. The comparison made mislead not all components and
protocols are shown at the same layer. For a better consistency reasons
they are with the existing specification, which shown in below figure. The
bearer services are used as basis for transmission of data which can be
formed. The further integrated services are specifying by the WAP as it
does not specify bearer services and it uses existing data services.
Examples like message services, such as short message service (SMS) of
GSM, circuit-switched data, such as high-speed circuit switched data
(HSCSD) in GSM, or packet switched data, such as general packet radio
service (GPRS) in GSM. There are many bearers are there like, CDPD, IS-
136, PHS. There is no special interface present between the bearer service
and the next higher layer, the transport layer with its wireless datagram
protocol (WDP) and the additional wireless control message protocol
(WCMP), as it adopted these protocol with bearer specification.

14.2 WIRELASS APPLICATION PROTOCOL (WAP)


Wireless Application Protocol or WAP is a programming model which
work on the principles of the WWW which will work like an application
environment and set of communication protocols. Its design is follow the
hierarchical structure as similar with the TCP/IP protocol. The features
used in wireless Application Protocol or WAP in Mobile Computing:
 It is developed on the basis of De-Facto standard or a protocol and
designed for micro-browsers which enables the mobile devices to
interact, exchange and transmit information over the Internet.
 World wideweb concept is used in WAP and the backend is also
functioning 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.
 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.
 After 1998, the WAP model is accepted as a wireless protocol which
is globally capable for working on multiple wireless technologies
such as mobile, printers, pagers, etc.
 In 2002, the WAP forum is merged with the Open Mobile Alliance
which is created by the joint efforts of the various members of the
WAP Forum, and the industry and formed an alliance known as Open
Mobile Alliance (OMA).

254
14.2.1 Significance: Application Layer

● Interoperable: Different vendors and providers are work together


with allowing different terminals and software communicate with
networks.
● Scalable: The number of customer and their needs are scalable with
the protocols and services provided them.
● Efficient: Provision of QoS suited to the characteristics of the
wireless and mobile networks;
● Reliable: for deployment the provision of a consistent and predictable
platform.
● Secure: The user data should be secure and preservation of the
integrity of user data, also protection of devices and services.

14.2.2 Working of Wireless Application Protocol or WAP Model:


 The main 3 levels of WAP model are known as Client, Gateway and
Origin Server.
 While using a mobile user wants to see any particular website through
the browser the site which he inserts or the url which he inserts to
view that is encoded and the request sent via a network to a WAP
gateway using WAP protocol.
 The request which get from the WAP gateway is encoded and then
forwarded in the form of a conventional HTTP URL request over the
Internet.
 When the web server accepts request, it processes the request just as
normal request and sends the response back to the mobile device
through WAP gateway.
 The final response of the WML file can be seen in the browser of the
mobile users.

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Wireless and Mobile
Technology

14.3 WAP ARCHITECTURE

1. Application Layer:
In this layer the Wireless Application Environment (WAE) is involved,
mobile device specifications, and content development programming
languages, i.e., WML.

Wireless Application Environment (WAE):


The technology used in WAE is a combination of Mobile Telephony and
World Wide Web technologies. Its deal with the interoperable
environment that allows service providers and operators to build different
kinds of useful applications and services that can reach a lot of different
wireless platforms. WAE is also deals with the micro-browser
environment which contains the parts like:
*WML (Wireless Markup Language): similar type of HTML language.
WML is an XML application.
*WMLScript: WML script is a scripting language which works like
JAVAScript. To run WML script The code must be first compiled and

256
then run, and WML doesn’t contain WMLScript, just references to Application Layer
WMLScript URLs.
*WTA, WTAI (Wireless Telephony Aplication): programming
interfaces and telephony services.
*Content Formats: Images, calendar information, phone book records
and more in well-defined data formats.

2. Session Layer:
WSP Wireless Session Protocol is involved in session layer. It’s always
deals with or responsible for fast connection suspension and reconnection.

Wireless Session Protocol (WSP):


This layer always works with mainly two session services; connection
session and connectionless session. When the user doesn’t need reliability
of message to send to the receiver The connectionless session is a thin
layer that WAE uses. Whereas in connection session the connection mode
is responsible for making the session between a wireless client and the
WAP Gateway to make a successful communication. In this session the
connection nodes will take care of communication interrupts and
capability negotiation. As and when it is needed it can be suspended and
resumed. The working of WSP is similar with the HTTP in internet.

Significance:
● Session management: the long lived connection establishment is
done through the WSP sessions between a client and server. Sessions
can be released at any time. In the mobile application the suspending
and resuming a session are important task.
● Capability negotiation: the client and server is mutually agreed upon
a common level of protocol functionality during session
establishment. Such service like parameter change, outstanding
request process, protocol options, SDU size.
● Content encoding: the binary encoding service is the major feature
provided by the WSP for the content transfer.

3. Transaction Layer:
As the implies this layer is responsible for transmitting the message or
doing the transaction with the support of TCP/IP protocol. This layer is
consisting of Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP) and runs on top of
UDP (User Datagram Protocol).

Wireless Transaction Protocol (WTP):


For a mobile client we need light-weight transaction-oriented protocol that
is given by the WTP. The It runs on top of a datagram service and operates
both on non-secure and secure wireless datagram networks and provides

257
Wireless and Mobile asynchronous transactions, three classes of transaction service, and more.
Technology The equivalent of WTP in the Internet environment is HTTP.

4. Security Layer:
When the data is transmitted over a network Wireless Transaction Layer
Security (WTLS) is responsible for data integrity, privacy and
authentication.

Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS):


The WAP transport protocol is used with the WTLS which is based on the
industry-standard TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol, and have
maximum use of narrow-band communication channels. The best features
are given with this layer is authentication, privacy, data integrity and
more. Two terminal communication can be secure with the WTLS
protocol, for example authentication of electronic business card exchange.
TLS’ equivalent in the Internet environment is TLS, formerly known as
SSL

5. Transport Layer:
Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP) is involved in this layer. It gives a
consistent data format to higher layers of the WAP protocol stack.

Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP):


The further integrated services are specifying by the WAP as it does not
specify bearer services and it uses existing data services. Examples like
message services, such as short message service (SMS) of GSM, circuit-
switched data, such as high-speed circuit switched data (HSCSD) in GSM,
or packet switched data, such as general packet radio service (GPRS) in
GSM. There are many bearers are there like, CDPD, IS-136, PHS. There
is no special interface present between the bearer service and the next
higher layer, the transport layer with its wireless datagram protocol
(WDP) and the additional wireless control message protocol (WCMP), as
it adopted these protocol with bearer specification.

6. Network Layer:
The WAP protocol suite is designed to operate over a variety of bearer
services, like SMS, CDMA, CSD and more. Each bearer offers its own
level of quality of service with respect to delays, throughput and error rate.
The WAP protocol suite is of course designed to tolerate or compensate
for these differing levels of service.

14.3.1 Advantages of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)


 WAP is a very fast-paced technology.
 It is available as open-source technology and completely free of cost.
 multiple platforms support by this.

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 Network independent in nature. Application Layer

 Higher controlling options are providing by WAP.


 It is implemented near to Internet model.
 To send/receive real-time data the WAP is used.
 Nowadays, WAP is used in most modern mobile phones and devices.

14.3.2 Disadvantages of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP):


 The connection speed in WAP is slow, and there is limited availability
also.
 In some areas, the ability to connect to the Internet is very sparse, and
in some other areas, Internet access is entirely unavailable.
 It is less secured.
 WAP provides a small User interface (UI).

14.3.3 Applications of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)


 WAP facilitates you to access the Internet from your mobile devices.
 You can play games on mobile devices over wireless devices.
 It facilitates you to access E-mails over the mobile Internet.
 Mobile hand-sets can be used to access timesheets and fill expenses
claims.
 Online mobile banking is very popular nowadays.
 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.

14.4 LOCATION BASED TECHNOLOGY


As we know the new feature check in in Facebook this feature user can get
his or her location with using the geodata in mobile phone this service is
called as Location-based services (LBS) which provide information,
entertainment, or security. This feature allows consumers to check in at
restaurants, coffee shops, stores, concerts, and other places or events.
Businesses often offer a reward – prizes, coupons or discounts – to people
who check in at their locations. Google Maps, Foursquare, Yelp and
Facebook check-ins all use location-based services.
Location-based services use a GPS technology to track a person in
smartphone if the user has allowed access. With this technology the
person’s identity and geographic locations.

259
Wireless and Mobile Mobile devices are mainly used Location-based technology, but it can be
Technology applied to any device able to provide a location, including desktop PCs.

14.4.1 How does location technology track your movements?


Several mechanisms are available in market which is inside a typical
mobile device can provide location information. The technologies are used
in mobile phones are GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi.
A mobile device communicates with other devices and hubs – such as
satellites, routers and towers – to function. Because the mobile device
pings off multiple communication hubs, its precise location can be
triangulated.
14.4.2 Examples of technologies used to track location:

The following are the most precise location-tracking services.

GPS:

The Global Positioning System is an array of satellites that exist solely to


help find items across the planet. Any device with a GPS receiver
(including most smartphones) can ping these satellites. This capability lets
the device communicate with at least four satellites. The satellites compare
the signal delay to pinpoint where the signal originated.

This process lets your phone know precisely where you are and provide
turn-by-turn navigation. A widespread business use for GPS technology is
GPS fleet tracking software, which businesses use to remotely keep tabs
on their company vehicles and their drivers’ performance.

Wi-Fi:

Wi-Fi is working on IP address to track a location. A device only connects


to one Wi-Fi network at a time, eliminating the possibility of triangulation.
In a network a physical IP address allows to find the information and send
information across the internet infrastructure accurately. The phone
connected over wifi with the help of IP address and allow location services
to know your current address.

Cellular technology:

Cellular tracking is much similar with the GPS. Here the mobile is
connected to cellular tower instead of connecting to satellites. you’ll
usually be in the range of at least two towers, enough for the system to use
triangulation to find your location.

QR codes:

It is main of the service provided by the wifi Quick-response (QR)


tracking which is similar to Wi-Fi in principle. The information is
available with the QR code when anyone scan QR code. When the QR

260
code is established, its physical location can be recorded. That location Application Layer
can then be tagged anytime the code is scanned.

RFID:

RFID tracking is working on static location. It is a combination many


tracking methods. When user log the RFID it scans user’s location when it
pings off other networks the scanner is activated, it tags its location when
it records the access. With this process user can identify the location of the
device accessing the scanner.

14.4.3 Applications of location-based services:

● Store locators: the nearest store location can be find by the customer.

● Proximity-based marketing: the local area companies marketing can


be done through this.

● Travel information: A location-based service is used to access the


information about the weather as well as real-time information, such
as traffic updates to a smartphone so the user can plan accordingly.

● Roadside assistance: in many cases of road accident the roadside


assistance companies provide an app provide exact location of the
user that allows them to track

● Mobile workforce management: to track a location of the worker


this technology is used where the employer can know the workers are
where.

● Fraud prevention: the exact location of the user will know by the
authorize agency hence the fraud can be preventing by the Location-
based service.

Examples of location-based service apps:

Following are some LBS apps which are used by many people

1. Uber, Ola ride app:

While booking a ride in such type of application it takes the usaer’s


location from their GPS service. Here putting of address is not necessary
as it very annoying to manually enter your address. When you book a ride
it also gives a travelling distance as well as the fare of travelling and time
also it indicates. The application also give the driver location and user
location is also share to driver hence pickup service done very fast.

2. CHALO BST app:

In this application GPRS is established in the bus, when the bus is running
the GPRS is calculating the distance and track where the bus is. The
expected arrival time of bus is shows in the application.
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Wireless and Mobile 3. Carrot Weather:
Technology
This is the weather indicating app. The nearby sources are calculating the
present forecast. Carrot Weather uses location-based services and APIs.
When you open the Carrot Weather app on your phone, it collates weather
data from several sources into a forecast unique to your exact location.

4. Pokemon Go:

In Pokemon Go application it is also working on mobile location base


service where it will tell you where the set of pokemon is and Everywhere
you go, you’ll find a different set of Pokemon to catch. It gives the details
of pokemon based on your location.

14.5 WAP GATEWAY


(Wireless Application Protocol gateway) it is responsible for the decodes
and encodes requests and responses between the smartphone browsers and
the Internet. The WAP request is encoded from the microbrowser and the
same request is sends the HTTP requests to the Internet or to a local
application server. The handset microbrowser returniong the data got from
WML and HDML.

The WAP gateway is act as server to access request. The server gets data
from the requested web site by HTTP and coverts it into an encrypted
form that goes out to the client endpoint.

WML, a Wireless or WAP Protocol Stack determines how data are sent
between the gateway and the user’s device. This type of networking
provides a more capable environment for Internet use as the Internet
grows and expands.

The WAP Gateway is a device which is responsible for translating the


TCP/IP protocols into different WAP protocols and vice versa. It is able to
translate HTML to WML. The WAP Gateway is also work as proxy
server, hence it acts both as server and client. And make the requests on
behalf of other clients. The HTML pages can be access by HTTP and it
resides between WAP clients and web servers to process a request. In this
communication the clients and servers have no direct connection, which is
the main problem of WAP technology. For instance, the gateway will lie
behind a firewall, that is, the same as the web servers, but there is no
firewall that protects the area between the WAP client and the gateway.
There are solutions where the gateway is an origin server.

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Application Layer

A WAP Gateway
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Wireless and Mobile
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14.6 USER AGENT PROFILE
The schema for WAP User Agent Profiles consists of description blocks
for the following key components:
HardwarePlatform: the terminal device is a collection hardware and
software and some of properties that adequately describe. This description
includes, model number, display size, the type of device, , input and
output methods, etc.
SoftwarePlatform: the software platform consist a collection of
attributes associated with the operating environment of the device. The
information includes things like operating system software, video and
audio encoders supported by the device, and user s preference on
language.
BrowserUA: HTML browser is default browser that uses a set of
applications.
NetworkCharacteristics: the information related to the network is
considered under this scenario and the network-related infrastructure and
environment such as bearer information can also specify.
WapCharacteristics: A set of attributes pertaining to WAP capabilities
supported on the device. This includes details on the capabilities and
characteristics related to the WML Browser, WTA [WTA], etc.

14.6.1 Caching mode:


Caching can reduce the bandwidth demand in a mobile computing terrain.
still, due to battery power limitations, a wireless mobile computer may
frequently be forced to operate in a snooze (or indeed completely
disconnected) mode. As a result, the mobile computer may miss some
cache nullification reports broadcast by a SERVER, forcing it to discard
the entire cache contents after waking up. In this scenario we use an
energy-effective cache nullification system, called GCORE (Grouping
with COld update- set REtention), that allows a mobile computer to
operate in a disconnected mode to save the battery while still retaining
utmost of the caching benefits after a reconnection. We present an
effective perpetration of GCORE and conduct simulations to estimate its
hiding effectiveness. The results show that GCORE can mainly ameliorate
mobile hiding by reducing the communication bandwidth( or energy
consumption) for query processing
While a WSP session is established (whether active or suspended), the
WAP gateway caches all Profile and Profile- Diff heads associated with
that session. A third party host may issue a request for this CPI to, for
case, induce content that will latterly be pushed to the customer device.
The request is initiated from the third- party host and delivered to a Push
Protocol Gateway (PPG). This specification defines neither a protocol for
issuing this request nor a means for addressing the requested information.
still, it's anticipated that similar requests will generally be made to the
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WAP gateway using HTTP, as suggested by (WAP- PAP). Upon entering Application Layer
the profile request, the gateway accesses the cached Profile and Profile-
Diff heads and resolves them to form a complete CPI profile. It responds
to the CPI request with the resolved profile ( a CC/ PP document) using a
MIME type of textbook/ xml.
It's important to note that the WAP gateway has deficient information
about the current CPI. In particular, the gateway isn't apprehensive of any
request-specific profile information that the customer would have handed
to the requesting third- party garçon. also, the WAP gateway cannot
incorporate trait information from Profile- Diff heads that would have
been added by intermediate delegates through which the request would
have passed had it began at the customer device. Eventually, if the WSP
session is presently suspended, also the gateway may be caching out- of-
date profile information.

14.7 WIRELESS BEARERS FOR WAP


The above one defines properties for conformant User Agent Profiles,
which are structured according to the CC/PP note [CC/PP], and
correspondingly use RDF XML serialization syntax. This section defines a
set of single-byte tokens corresponding to the attribute names and values
of the RDF serialization syntax. These tokens are distributed among three
code pages. Code page zero (0) defines tokens for RDF serialization
attributes. User agents or applications other than the browser may define
additional attribute code pages for their own properties. Each user agent or
application that wants to define properties for use in the user agent profile
MUST first define a component to hold its properties. The name of the
component MUST be globally unique. Each such user agent component is
considered to have a unique namespace, so that, for example, the property
BackgroundColor for User Agent A is a property distinct from the
property BackgroundColor for User Agent B. In addition, each user agent
or application SHOULD define a series of token table code pages
containing the properties from its component. If it chooses to define code
pages, then it SHOULD define at least two: one in the "Tag" space and
one in the "Attribute" space. The property names SHOULD be inserted
into each page. Any wellknown values for the properties should be
inserted into the "Attribute" page. Additional pages may be required if the
component contains a large number of properties. A default user agent has
been defined as part of the schema: the browser.

14.8 SUMMARY
The problem with WAP is supposedly the WAP Gateway. Since you want
to have access to data on the Internet and the fact that the WAP protocol
suite isn’t directly compatible to TCP/ IP, HTML and so on, you have to
convert it nearly. That’s where the data security is low, and that’s where it
could be altered due to crimes in hard and software. In numerous WAP
services, getting the rearmost information is essential. That means that
caching data on the gateway might be good for speed, but really not in the

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Wireless and Mobile case where the data has been streamlined and the old data that's cached is
Technology transferred anyway. Another problem that presumably will grow in the
nearest future is traffic in the gateway because of all the data reused
(encryption, decryption and so on). These are some goods on the end- to-
end geste of a WAP network. Allowing about this and facing the fact that
the computers of moment are snappily getting lower, briskly and less
energy consuming, it’s not far down to suppose that with the new IPv6,
the coming generation of mobile network, and the small handheld
computers, like for case the Cassiopeia 105 by Casio, WAP should enough
soon grow obsolete. Right now WAP works enough well compared to
browsing the internet with a Windows CE computer, since the bandwidth
on the GSM net is so small, but the difference is really not that emotional,
the services and operations not that numerous, and the clientele not that
big. WAP is still to decelerate to sluice any media, let alone present it in a
meaningful way. Hopefully in the coming many times we will see if WAP
is strong enough to survive alongside handheld computers supporting
HTTP and HTML, and a briskly mobile net.

14.9 UNIT AND QUESTIONS


1. What is WAP? Explain its significance
2. Demonstrate the Working of Wireless Application Protocol
3. Explain WAP architecture with neat diagram
4. State and explain Advantages of Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP)
5. State and Explain Disadvantages of Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP)
6. List the Applications of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
7. Write a note on
1. Location-based technology with its applications
2. Catching mode
3. WAP user agent profile
4. WAP user agent profile

*****

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15
APPLICATION LAYER
Unit Structure
15.0 Objective
15.1 Introduction
15.1.1WML scripts advantages
15.1.2 WML characteristics
15.2 WML script operator
15.2.1 WML script operator
15.2.2 WML Script Control Statements
15.2.3 WML Scripts Comments
15.3 WML Script Standard Libraries
15.3.1 How to Call a Function in the WML Script Standard Libraries
15.3.2 WML script compiler
15.4 WML script data types
15.5 WML script functions
15.5.1 Calling a Function Located in the Same WMLScript File
15.5.2 Calling a Function Located in a Different WMLScript File
15.6 Distinguish between token base and non-token base algorithm
15.6.1 Applications
15.6.2 WTA logical architecture
15.7 Summary
15.8 Unit End Questions

15.0 OBJECTIVE
This chapter will able you to understand the following concept
● WML scripts with its advantages
● WML Script Operators
● WML Script Control Statements & WML Scripts Comments
● WML Scripts Standard Libraries
● WML Script Functions
● WML Script Compilers
● WML Script Data Types
● WTA

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15.1 INTRODUCTION
WML Scripts:
WML (Wireless Markup Language), is also called as HDML (Handheld
Devices Markup Languages), which is a language that allows to show the
text of Web pages are presented on mobile telephones and personal digital
assistants (PDAs) through wireless access. Several vendors are proposed
and utilise a WML which is part of the Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) and it sends to the standards bodies. The Wireless Application
Protocol works with the help of standard data link protocols, like Global
System for Mobile communication, Time Division Multiple Access and
code-division multiple access which provides a complete communication
network programs are comparable to and supportive of the Internet set of
protocols.
The free royalty is the characteristics provided by WML. All the
specifications of the WML are available at website named Phone.com's. as
per the Phone.com, a WML is used by any programmer who has the
working knowledge of HTML, common gateway interface, and Structured
Query Language to used presentation layer using WML. HTML pages can
be convert into WML pages through a filter program and can be written or
may be available from a vendor.

15.1.1 Advantages:
1. Because of its User interface WML is much more preferred than the
HTML.
2. WMLScript (Wireless Markup Language Script) is the client-side
scripting language of WML (Wireless Markup Language).
3. A scripting language and programming language are similar in nature,
except it’s lighter weight.
4. WMLScript, can also use by the wireless device to do processing and
computation. Which can reduce the number of requests and responses
to/from the server.
5. WML Script is very similar to Java Script. WML Script components
have almost similar meaning as they have in Java Script

15.1.2 WML Characteristics:


1. WML Script Case Sensitivity:
The WML Script language is case-sensitive language. Hence you should
be very careful while using functions or variable in WML script.

2. Whitespaces in WML Script:


While using WML script except string literals, and ignores extra
whitespaces like spaces, tabs, and newlines.
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3. WML Script Statement Termination by Semicolons: Application Layer

In WML script the statement is terminated by using a semicolon.

15.2 WML SCRIPT OPERATORS


15.2.1 WML Script Operators:
● Arithmetic Operators
● Comparison Operators
● Logical (or Relational) Operators
● Assignment Operators
● Conditional (or ternary) Operators

WML Script Arithmetic Operators:


WML Script arithmetic operators are used to perform various types of
math operations like Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division,
Finding Remainders
z = 1 + 2;
z has the value 3.
z = 5 - 3;
z has the value 2.
z = 2 * 3;
z has the value 6.
There are two operators, / and div which can be used for division. Both the
operation’s results are different as / operator gives the result in float type
whereas div operator gives the result in integer type. Following WML
Script gives illustration about the difference between them:
x = 3 / 2;
y = 3 div 2;
After execution, x has the floating-point value 1.5 while y has the integral
value 1.
The remainder can be find out by the % operator.
x = 3 % 2;
y = 20 % 2;
z = 20 % 3;
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Wireless and Mobile After execution, x has the value 1, y has the value 0 and z has the value 2.
Technology
15.2.2 WML Script Control Statements:

Statement Description
if-else Conditional branching
for Making self-incremented fixed iteration loop
while Making variable iteration loop
break Terminates a loop
continue Quit the current iteration of a loop

WML Script Conditional Statements:


When the program is running the decision making can be done through
Conditional statements to run a script smoothly. If any specific condition
occurs with conditional statements, you can specify different actions to be
done.
if Statement
If statement has Boolean value if the statement executed is true it return
the value if the statement executed is false it returns the default value or it
gets out of the program.WMLScript's if statement uses the following
syntax.
if (condition)
{
WMLScript statement(s)
}
[else
{
WMLScript statement(s)
}]

while Statement:
In WMLScript's while statement is used to repeat the execution of a block
of statements when a condition is true. It has the following syntax:
while (condition)
{
WMLScript statement(s)
}
The loop will continue until and unless the statement(s) enclosed in the
curly brackets {} will be executed true. The loop stops when condition
evaluates to false or invalid. while statement example:
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var counter = 0; Application Layer
var result = 0;

while (counter < 10)


{
result += 2;
counter++;
}

for loop:
The for loop is executed repeatedly as long as a condition is satisfied. If
you know the number of times the loop is executed, then you can specify
that number in the loop. Syntax
for ([expression1]; [expression2]; [expression3])
{
WMLScript statement(s)
}
The following WML Script example shows how to use the for statement to
execute a block of code 10 times:
var result = 0;
for (var counter=0; counter<10; counter++)
{
result += 2;
}

Break statement:
To quit the loop, the break statement is used. It must be put inside while
loops or for loops. The following WML Script example gives
demonstration of break statement:
var result = 0;
for (var counter=0; counter<10; counter++)
{
break;
result += 2;
}

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Wireless and Mobile continue Statement:
Technology
The continue statement is used to quit the current iteration of a loop in
WML Script. The next iteration will be started if the loop's conditional
expression evaluates to true. The continue statement must be put inside
while loops or for loops. The following script gives demonstration of
using continue statement:
var result1 = 0;
var result2 = 0;
for (var counter=0; counter<10; counter++)
{
result1 += 2;
continue;
result2 += 2;
}

15.2.3 WML Scripts Comments:


The comments in WML scripts are categorized into two types
● Single-line comment: To add a single-line comment, begin a line of
text with the // characters.
● Multi-line comment:To add a multi-line comment, enclose the text
within /* and */.
The following WML Script example gives demonstration of the use of
comments −
// This is a single-line comment.
/* This is a multi-line comment. */
/* A multi-line comment can be placed on a single line. */

15.3 WML SCRIPTS STANDARD LIBRARIES


There are six standard libraries available in WML script
1. Lang: all the language related functions are includes in Lang library
in WMLScript language.
Example Function − abs(), abort(), characterSet(), float(), isFloat(),
isInt(), max(), isMax(), min(), minInt(), maxInt(), parseFloat(),
parseInt(), random(), seed()
2 Float: the Float library contains floating functions that are help us
perform floating-point arithmetic operations.

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Example Function: sqrt(), round(), pow(), ceil(), floor(), int(), Application Layer
maxFloat(), minFloat()
3 String: The manipulation of the String is done through functions
provided by string library.
Example Function − length(), charAt(), find(), replace(), trim(),
compare(), format(), isEmpty(), squeeze(), toString(), elementAt(),
elements(), insertAt(), removeAt(), replaceAt()
4 URL: The manipulation of the URL’s is done through functions
provided by URL library.
Example Function − getPath(), getReferer(), getHost(), getBase(),
escapeString(), isValid(), loadString(), resolve(), unescapeString(),
getFragment()
5 WMLBrowser: The WMLBrowser library provides a group of
functions to control the WML browser or to get information from it.
Example Function: go(), prev(), next(), getCurrentCard(), refresh(),
getVar(), setVar()
6. Dialogs: user interface function involved in Dialogs library with user
can interact with the application.
Example Function − prompt(), confirm(), alert()

15.3.1 How to Call a Function in the WML Script Standard Libraries:


This is the simplest way to call a function in the WML Script through
standard libraries as you can call your own function, except that you have
to add the library name and a dot character before the function name.
syntax:
library_name.function_name(parameter1, parameter2...);
Example:
function findSquareRoot(number)
{
return Float.sqrt(number);
}
Going Forwards / Backwards to WML Cards: go() and prev()
Functions
To move forward and backword respectively he go() function and the
prev() function of the WMLBrowser standard library are used.
Syntax: WMLBrowser.go(url);

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Wireless and Mobile For example:
Technology
WMLBrowser.go("wmlscript_tutorial.wml");
The go () function have the url as parameter, whereas prev() function does
not take any parameters.
WMLBrowser.prev();
If the program is working fine Both go () and prev() return an empty string
otherwise the function return an invalid value.

Clearing Variables and URL History:


1. newContext() Function:
The URL history and the data stored in the WML browser are cleared
from the history with the help of newContext() function. this function
generally does not take any parameters.
WMLBrowser.newContext();
If the function newContext() call successfully then its returns an empty
string, otherwise it returns an invalid value.
Example:
extern function example_func1()
{
WMLBrowser.newContext();
WMLBrowser.prev();
}

2. getCurrentCard() Function:
the current card's URL address can be get through getCurrentCard()
function. if the URL base of the current WML file and the current WML
Script file are the same then the URL returned will be in the relative form,
otherwise the URL returned will be in the absolute form.
If there is no current card, then getCurrentCard() returns invalid.
Example:
extern function func1()
{
var url_str = WMLBrowser.getCurrentCard();
}
Getting and Setting WML Variable Values: getVar() and setVar()
Functions
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The frequently using function getVar() and setVar() functions to write a Application Layer
script code in the WML Script standard library. The value is taken from
the user with the help of getVar() function of a WML variable and the
setVar() function helps us set the value of a WML variable.
Syntax: getVar():
WMLBrowser.getVar(variable_name);
This is the syntax of setVar():
WMLBrowser.setVar(variable_name, value);
The setVar() function is used to set the value to the WML variable
variable_name. setVar() and the function returns true if everything runs
successfully, whereas returns false if value cannot be assigned to
variable_name, and it return invalid if variable_name or value is of the
wrong syntax

Example:
function example_func()
{
WMLBrowser.setVar("message", "Welcome to our WMLScript
tutorial.");
var message = WMLBrowser.getVar("message");
}

15.3.2 WML script compiler:


WML scripts need the basic WML compiler to compile the code. It uses
the WML source to compiles into WML bytecode read for transmission to
a WAP device. It is quite basic and has a lot of limitations, but things it
can compile and decompiled by wmld and vice versa.
To compile a WML Script file using the Nokia Mobile Internet Toolkit,
follow the steps below:
1. Run the Nokia Mobile Internet Toolkit
2. Click "File -> Open"
3. In the dialog box, choose the WMLScript file you want to compile
and click the "Open" button
4. Click the "Compile" button in the bottom left-hand corner
If there is no compile-time error, the compiled file (ends with the
extension ".wmlsc") will be saved and placed in the same directory as the
original plain-text file.

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Wireless and Mobile
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15.4 WML SCRIPTS DATA TYPES
WML script and Java scripts are similar in nature as they are weakly
typed. As it is having only one type of variable, which is var. but
WMLScript variables are carefully handled with five primitive data
types.as we know a variable are used to store a value of any of the five
primitive data types.

1. Boolean. A Boolean value can be true or false.


Examples:
var variable1 = true;
var variable2 = false;
2. Integer. WML Script uses 32-bit integers with two's complement. This
means an integer value can be in the range from -232/2 to 232/2-1, i.e. -
2147483648 to 2147483647.
Examples:
var variable1 = 10000;
var variable2 = -10000;
3. Float: WML Script uses 32-bit single precision format to represent
floating-point numbers. The maximum value supported is
3.40282347E+38. The smallest positive nonzero value supported is
1.17549435E-38. mobile devices do not support floating-point numbers.
Examples:
var variable1 = 11.11;
var variable2 = -11.11;
4. String: A string contains some characters.
Example:
var variable = "WMLScript Tutorial";
5. Invalid. This is used to indicate that a variable is invalid.
Example:
var variable = invalid;
Sometimes the result of an operation is of the invalid type. This means
errors have occurred during the operation. One example is the divide-by-
zero error:
var variable = 100 / 0;

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15.5 WML SCRIPTS FUNCTIONS Application Layer

The user-defined specified functions are declared in a separate file with


the extension.wmls. Functions declaration can be done like this
function name (parameters) {
control statements;
return var;
}

15.5.1 Calling a Function Located in the Same WMLScript File:


If the function is in the same WML script it can be directly call in
WMLScript file for that which function do you need to call mentioned just
name of that function.
(Suppose the definitions of main_function(), wmlscript_function1() and
wmlscript_function2() are located in the same file.)
function main_function()
{
...
wmlscript_function1();
wmlscript_function2(arg1, arg2);
...
}
In the above WMLScript example, wmlscript_function1() and
wmlscript_function2() are called from main_function().
Example:
function wmlscript_function1()
{
...
}
function wmlscript_function2(arg1, arg2)
{
...
}
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Wireless and Mobile function main_function()
Technology
{
...
wmlscript_variable1 = wmlscript_function1();
wmlscript_variable2 = wmlscript_function(arg1, arg2);
...
}

15.5.2 Calling a Function Located in a Different WMLScript File:


Whenever you want to call a function located in a different WMLScript
file, you have to declare that WMLScript file at the very beginning of your
code using the "use url" statement, which has the following form:
use url identifying_name "url_of_the_wmlscript_file";
identifying_name is a name you associated to the external WMLScript
file. This name will be used to refer to the external WMLScript file.
url_of_the_wmlscript_file is the URL of the external WMLScript file. The
URL can be in absolute or relative form.
After you have declared the external WMLScript file, you can call a
function located in that file by:
identifying_name#function_name(argument1, argument2...)
Now let's see an example that can help you understand what we are talking
about better. Let's say the wmlscript_1.wmls file contains the following
function wmlscript_function():
extern function wmlscript_function()
{
return "Welcome to our WMLScript tutorial";
}
Now we want to call wmlscript_function() in the main_function() function
of another WMLScript file (wmlscript_2.wmls) that is located in the same
directory as wmlscript_1.wmls. To do this, we can write something like
this:
use url Script1 "wmlscript_1.wmls";
function main_function()
{

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... Application Layer

wmlscript_variable = Script1#wmlscript_function();
...
}
Since both files wmlscript_1.wmls and wmlscript_2.wmls are located in
the same directory, we just need to use the file name as the URL in the
"use url" statement.
Notice that the function definition of wmlscript_function() starts with the
extern keyword. The extern keyword is required here. It specifies that
wmlscript_function() is allowed to be called from outside
wmlscript_1.wmls.

15.6 WIRELESS TELEPHONY APPLICATION


WTA
The most common wireless technologies use radio. With radio waves
distances can be short, such as a few meters for television or as far as
thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio
communications. It encompasses various types of fixed, mobile, and
portable applications, including two-way radios, cellular telephones,
personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless networking. Other
examples of applications of radio wireless technology include GPS units,
garage door openers, wireless computer mice, keyboards and headsets,
headphones, radio receivers, satellite television, broadcast television and
cordless telephones. Somewhat less common methods of achieving
wireless communications include the use of other electromagnetic wireless
technologies, such as light, magnetic, or electric fields or the use of sound.
Light, colors, AM and FM radio, and electronic devices make use of the
electromagnetic spectrum. The frequencies of the radio spectrum that are
available for use for communication are treated as a public resource and
are regulated by national organizations such as the Federal
Communications Commission in the USA, or Ofcom in the United
Kingdom. This determines which frequency ranges can be used for what
purpose and by whom. In the absence of such control or alternative
arrangements such as a privatized electromagnetic spectrum, chaos might
result if, for example, airlines didn't have specific frequencies to work
under and an amateur radio operator were interfering with the pilot's
ability to land an aircraft. Wireless communication spans the spectrum
from 9 kHz to 300 GHz.

15.6.1 Applications:
To connect portable computing with the wireless local area network over
the Internet WIFI is used. Standardized as IEEE 802.11 a,b,g,n, Wi-Fi
approaches speeds of some types of wired Ethernet. Wi-Fi can be
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Wireless and Mobile available in wide range because of its feature of de facto standard.and it is
Technology easily access in private homes, within offices, and at public hotspots.
Cellular data service offers coverage within a range of 10-15 miles from
the nearest cell site. Speeds have increased as technologies have evolved,
from earlier technologies such as GSM, CDMA and GPRS, to 3G
networks such as W-CDMA, EDGE or CDMA2000.
Wherever the other wireless connections are unavailable at that time
Mobile Satellite Communications may be used, like in largely rural
areasor remote locations. Satellite communications are especially
important for transportation, aviation, maritime and military use
Wireless Sensor Networks are responsible for sensing noise, interference,
and activity in data collection networks. This allows us to detect relevant
quantities, monitor and collect data, formulate meaningful user displays,
and to perform decision-making functions.

15.6.2 WTA logical architecture:


The mobile and its network is connected via Wat server and then the client
is connected to do the communication, other telephone networks uses
WAP gateway to establish the connection.
A WML user agent running on the client is.
The client may have voice and data connections over the network.
Other origin servers can be connected via the WAP gateway.

15.7 SUMMARY
WML (Wireless Markup Language), is also called as HDML (Handheld
Devices Markup Languages), which is a language that allows to show the
text of Web pages are presented on mobile telephones and personal digital
280
280
assistants (PDAs) through wireless access. Several. There are three script Application Layer
operators logical, comparative, airthmatic. When the program is running
the decision making can be done through Conditional statements to run a
script smoothly. If any specific condition occurs with conditional
statements, you can specify different actions to be done. Some conditional
statements like If else, for loop, break, continue, while loop, do while.
There are six standard libraries available in WML script. To move forward
and backword respectively he go() function and the prev() function of the
WMLBrowser standard library are used. The user-defined specified
functions are declared in a separate file with the extension.wmls. The most
common wireless technologies use radio. With radio waves distances can
be short, such as a few meters for television or as far as thousands or even
millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications.

15.8 UNIT AND EXERCISE


1. What are the different types of WML Script Operators being
available?
2. Explain WML Script Control Statements & WML Scripts Comments
3. What is WML Scripts Standard Libraries? Explain with some
example
4. How many WML Script Functions are there? Explain with brief.
5. What are WML Script Compilers?
6. WML Script Data Types
7. Write a note on WTA
8. Explain WML scripts with its advantages

*****

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