WLAN and PAN
WLAN and PAN
WLAN and PAN
Introduction
• Fundamentals of WLANs
• IEEE 802.11
• Bluetooth
Wireless LAN and PAN
• WLAN Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), use an industry
standard known as 802.11. WLAN’s are typically used in confined
areas within an organization, such as a warehouse, factory or retail
store, and can be considered the wireless extension of the local area
network.
• ESS and IBSS appear identical to the logical link control (LLC)
An example of ESS
Service offered by IEEE 802.11 network
– Association: Knowing STA and giving address to it
– Reassociation: Established association is transferred
one AP to another on moving STA
– Diassociation: Termination of existing association
– Distribution: routing
– Integration: if send frames through non-802.11
– Authentication
– Deauthentication
– Privacy
– Data delivery
IEEE 802.11 Standard
• The IEEE 802.11 standard, was brought out in 1997.
• IEEE 802.11b [3], commercially known as Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity)
• The IEEE802.11 working group has challenge of connection
management, link reliability management, and power management:
none of which was a concern for other standards in IEEE 802.
• In addition, provision for security is to be introduced.
• MTs can operate in two modes:
– (i) infrastructure mode, in which MTs can communicate with one or more APs
which are connected to a WLAN, and
– (ii) ad hoc mode, in which MTs can communicate directly with each other
without using an AP
IEEE 802.11
• Physical Layer: Divided into two parts
– Physical medium dependent sublayer (PMD)
• Encoding, decoding and modulation
– Physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP)
• Abstracts functionality for MAC
• Offers service access point (SAP): 1 or 2Mbps
• Clear channel assessment (CCA): CSMA/CA
– 3 choices:
• Frequency Hoping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) in 2.4 GHz ISM band: with Gaussian
Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) 2 Level at 1 Mbps and GFSK 4 level at 2Mbps
• Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSFF) in ISM band: using differential binary
shift keying DBPSK for 1 Mbps and differential quadrature phase shift keying
(DQPSK) for 2 Mbps.
• Infrare: PPM (Pulse position modulation) for 1-2 Mbps
Basic MAC Layer Mechanisms
• Multiplex the transmission requests of various STAs
• MAC is used to access the channel
• Additionally, it offers support for roaming, authentication and power
conservation.
• Distributed Foundation Wireless Medium Access Control (DFWMAC)
– Distributed coordination function (DCF): The primary access method based on
CSMA/CA
– To avoid hidden terminal, RTS/CTS
– Point coordination function (PCF):Second method fot real time services
– Inter-Frame Spacing (IFS)
• SIFS
• PIFS
• DIFS
• EIFS
Inter Frame Spacing (IFS)
• Short inter-frame spacing (SIFS) is the shortest of all the IFSs and denotes
highest priority to access the medium.
– Used for short control messages such as acknowledgments and polling responses.
– The transmission of any packet should begin only after the channel is sensed to
be idle for a minimum time period of at least SIFS.
• PCF inter-frame spacing (PIFS) is the waiting time whose value lies
between SIFS and DIFS. This is used for real-time services.
• DCF inter-frame spacing (DIFS) is used by stations that are operating
under the DCF mode to transmit packets. This is for asynchronous data
transfer within the contention period.
• Extended inter-frame spacing (EIFS) is the longest of all the IFSs and
denotes the least priority to access the medium. EIFS is used for
resynchronization whenever physical layer detects incorrect MAC frame
reception.
CSMA/CA Mechanism
• CSMA/CD is not applicable
• IEEE 802.11 DCF and RTS-CTS
The Distributed Coordination
Function (DCF)
• conducts two forms of carrier sensing: physical (by listening to the
wireless shared medium) and virtual.
• Virtual carrier sensing uses the duration field which is included in the
header of RTS and CTS frames and used to set NAV (Network
Allocation Vector)
• Whenever NAV is zero, a station may transmit if the physical sensing
allows.
Back off mechanism
• If the medium is found idle for more than a DIFS period, then the
frame can be transmitted.
• Otherwise, the transmission is deferred and the station uses an
Exponential Random Backoff Mechanism by choosing a random
backoff interval from [0, CW], where CW is called contention
window.
• When the backoff counter reaches zero, the station attempts to
transmit its frame. If collision occurs with some other transmission,
the station doubles its CW, chooses a new backoff interval and tries
retransmission.
• CW size
– Unnecessary delay if too large
– Collision probability increase if too small
– Binary exponential backoff technique is used
CSMA/CA Mechanism
Collision Scenario after RTS/CTS
Overhead involved in RTS-CTS
• Non-negligible overhead
• If frame size > RTS_threshold, RTS-CTS is
activated, a four-way handshake (I.e. RTS-
CTS-DATA-ACK)
• If frame size < RTS_threshold, a two-way
handshake (DATA-ACK)
Fragmentation
• Decreasing frame error rate use shorter
framessplit user data packet into
fragments
• RTS/CTS carry duration for current
fragment and estimated time for next
fragment
• Medium reserved for successive frames
Other MAC Layer
Functionalities
• Point Coordination Function
– Guarantee on maximum access delay, minimum
transmission bandwidth and other QoS
– Centralized scheme, applicable only in
networks where AP (Point Coordinator) pool
nodes
– Superframe: contention free periods(CFP)
+contention period(CP)
Synchronization
• Timing synchronization function (TSF)
• Required for
– Power management
– PCF coordination
– Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) hopping
sequence synchronization
• Within a BSS
– Beacon frames transmitted by AP
– Contains time-stamp for adjusting clock
– Contains information for power optimization and
roaming
Power Management
• Always ready to receive consume more
power (as high as 100 mA)
• Must be switched off whenever carrier
sensing is not needed
• 2 states: sleep and awake
– Longer periods in sleep leads to low throughput
– Shorter periods in sleep leads to high power
consumption
Roaming
• Provide uninterrupted service when walk
around with a wireless station
• When poor quality of current link, start
scanning for another AP
– Active scanning: send a probe on each channel
and wait for response
– Passive scanning: listen medium to find other
networks
Other Issues
• Newer standards
– 802.11a/11b/g
– Trademark by Wireless Ethernet Compatibility
Alliance (WECA) as Wi-Fi
– 802.11e: time-sensitive applications,
voice/video
– 802.11f: inter-AP communication to handle
roaming
– 802.11i: advanced encryption for better privacy
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
• Data integrity
• Access control
• Confidentiality
• Vulnerable if more sophisticated
mechanisms are used to crack the key
Wi-Fi
• WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity. It is based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards and is
primarily a local area networking (LAN) technology designed to provide in-building b
roadband coverage.
• A vast majority of laptops shipped today have a built-in WiFi interface. WiFi interfaces are
now also being built into a variety of devices, including personal data assistants (PDAs),
cordless phones, cellular phones, cameras, and media players.
• Wi-Fi works by using radio waves operating at frequencies of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz to transmit
and receive data over the air.
• The range and quality of a wireless signal largely depends on the location and
environmental conditions that may or may not interfere with the signal.
• Below are rough estimates of maximum WiFi range, concluded from tests done on
Teltonika-Networks RUT routers:
• up to 100 meters in LoS (Line of Sight)
• up to 25 meters in buildings
IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi protocol summary 1
Maximum data
Protocol Frequency Channel Width MIMO rate
(theoretical)
20, 40, 80, Multi User (MU-
802.11ax 2.4 or 5GHz 2.4 Gbps1
160MHz MIMO)
20, 40, 80, Multi User (MU-
802.11ac wave2 5 GHz 1.73 Gbps2
160MHz MIMO)
Single User (SU-
802.11ac wave1 5 GHz 20, 40, 80MHz 866.7 Mbps2
MIMO)
Single User (SU-
802.11n 2.4 or 5 GHz 20, 40MHz 450 Mbps3
MIMO)
802.11g 2.4 GHz 20 MHz N/A 54 Mbps
802.11a 5 GHz 20 MHz N/A 54 Mbps
802.11b 2.4 GHz 20 MHz N/A 11 Mbps
Legacy 802.11 2.4 GHz 20 MHz N/A 2 Mbps
1
2 Spatial streams with 1024-QAM modulation.
2
2 Spatial streams with 256-QAM modulation.
3
3 Spatial streams with 64-QAM modulation.
IEEE Protocol
Evolution of Wi-Fi
Key Features
- The original Wi-Fi standard from 1997 operates in the 2.4 GHz band, providing up to 2 Mbps of speed.
802.11
- This formed the basis for Wi-Fi wireless networks.
- Released in 1999, it also operated at the 2.4 GHz band but incorporated modulation techniques
802.11b (Wi-Fi 1) like DSSS/CCK to reduce interference and achieve higher speeds of up to 11 Mbps.
- Enabled wireless usage at distances of 140m outdoors.
- Released in 2003, it allows speeds up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band through OFDM.
802.11g (Wi-Fi 3)
- Appealing to the mass market due to the lower cost of 2.4 GHz devices.
- Introduced in 2009, supporting 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.
802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) - Delivered up to 600 Mbps speeds using multiple channels and other features. Enabled replacement of
wired networks.
- Released in 2013, it supports 3.5 Gbps speeds with greater bandwidth, channels, and better modulation.
802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5)
- The first standard to use Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) allows multiple antennas on devices.
- Latest standard from 2021. The focus is on improving performance in dense deployments through
802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) mechanisms like multi-user and scheduling transmissions.
- It enhances video streaming and cloud access.
- is an upgraded version of WiFi 6, operates in the 6 GHz band, offering significant bandwidth for high
802.11ay (Wi-Fi 6E) speeds.
- Reduces interference with existing 2.4/5 GHz devices for a better experience.
- The next evolution under development is aiming for 4x faster speeds up to 40 Gbps.
P802.11be (Wi-Fi 7)
- Will support more devices efficiently with lower latency. Expected completion in 2024.
Evolution of Wi-Fi
• Future standards will also focus on new use cases like battery-free IoT devices using
ambient energy harvesting, extremely high throughput for AR/VR, and leveraging
AI/ML to improve Wi-Fi performance.
Components and Working Principles
of Wi-Fi
Components and Working Principles of Wi-Fi
• The working principle and key components involved in Wi-Fi communication are:
• Access point: This device creates the wireless network and broadcasts the network name or SSID.
– The access point hardware has a wireless transmitter, receiver, router and an ethernet port to connect to the
internet via a modem or LAN.
• Wireless device: The device like a smartphone has an inbuilt Wi-Fi antenna and transceiver. This allows the
device to detect wireless networks in the area and connect to them.
• Router: This connects the access point to the internet. Both access point and router functions can be in the same
hardware device.
• Frequency band: The Wi-Fi frequencies like 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz have multiple channels. Data transmission
happens on these channels avoiding interference.
• 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz: 2.4 GHz provides a longer range while 5 GHz can deliver faster speeds with less
interference.
– Wi-Fi routers typically transmit on both bands to utilise their complementary strengths and support
different types of devices and use cases.
– Older Wi-Fi standards relied more on 2.4 GHz while newer standards focus on 5 GHz for performance.
• Data transmission: When a wireless device connects to the network, radio waves transmit data on the wireless
channel.
– The data is encoded into binary format and then electromagnetic waves in the channel carry this data.
• Security encryption: To secure the wireless transmissions, data is encrypted using protocols like WPA2.
– Only authorised devices with the correct encryption passwords can connect and transmit data.
• Internet: The router connects the Wi-Fi network to the Internet. This allows the wireless devices to access the
internet via the access point. The modem connects the router to the ISP.
WiFi vs Cellular Networks
Parameters WiFi Cellular
Standards 802.11 protocols 3G, 4G, 5G standards
Frequency bands 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz 700 MHz to 2.5 GHz
Typical range <100 meters indoors Multiple km outdoors
Maximum speed 1-10 Gbps 10-100 Mbps
• There are 14 PHY and 35 MAC Primitives defined by the IEEE 802.15.4
standard. The LR-WPAN supports two types of devices called the Full Function
Device and the Reduced Function Device.
• Full Function Device(FFD) : It is a device which supports all the 49 primitives
supported by the technology. It acts as a PAN coordinator, a Coordinator, or just
as an end node (device). Also an FFD can function as a routing device in certain
network topologies where data transfer among FFD is allowed (EX: peer-to-peer
communication).
• Reduced Function Device(RFD) : It is a device with reduced functionality
which can only function as an end device or node. It can only communicate with
the coordinator. Their functionality is extremely low. So these devices are
intended for simple applications like a light switch, etc. They merely send
information to the coordinator at regular intervals about the status of the device it
is monitoring. It can only support a maximum of 38 primitives .
Network Topologies
A Low rate WPAN supports three different types of topologies
•Star Topology
•Peer-to-Peer Topology
•Cluster Tree/Mesh Topology
Star Topology
In the star topology, the PAN coordinator have the primary control. In this topology
devices monitor their application and report it to the coordinator. The Figure-01
shows star topology.
Network Topologies
Peer-to-Peer Topology
The peer-to peer topology has a PAN coordinator and any device can
communicate with any other device. This topology allows more complex
network formations. Figure-02 shows peer-to-peer topology.
Star Topology
In the star topology, the PAN coordinator have the primary control. In this topology
devices monitore their application and report it to the coordinator.The Figure-01
shows star topology.
ZigBee Architecture
Contention Access Period: It is the time duration in symbols during which the
devices can compete with each other to access the channel using CSMA-CA and
transmit the data.
Contention Free Period/Guaranteed Time Slots: Certain low-latency application
devices are given exclusive rights over the channel to start transmission directly.
There can as many as 7 slots assigned for GTS transmissions. These transmissions
start immediately after the contention access period.
Inactive Period: It is the time period during which the coordinator would not interact
with the PAN. Therefore, there will be no beacon transmissions. So the devices go to
sleep mode in this duration.
Superframe Duration: The total time duration of the CAP, CFP (GTS) and a
Beacon. The superframe duration doesn’t include the inactive period.
Beacon Interval: It is the time duration between two successive beacons.
The beacon and superframe orders can range from 1 to 15 inclusive but the
superframe order must be less than or equal to the beacon order. When the beacon and
superframe order are equal there is no inactive period between beacons, when the
superframe order is less than the beacon order there is an inactive period and setting
them both to 15 disables beacon mode.
2.5 Bluetooth
• Logically partitioned into 3 layers:
– Transport protocol group
• Radio layer
• Baseband layer
• Link manager layer
• Logical link control
• Adaptation layer
• Host controller interface
– Middleware protocol group
• RFCOMM, SDP, IrDA
– Application group
• Application profiles
Fig 2.7 Bluetooth protocol stack
本圖取自 "Ad Hoc Wireless Networks", by C. Siva Ram Murthy and B. S. Manoj, published by Prentice Hall, 2004
Radio (Physical) Layer
• GFSK
• 64Kbps voice channels and asynchronous
data channels with peak rate of 1Mbps
• Data channel: asymmetric or symmetric
• 79 channels, 79 hops
• Typical link range: up to 10 m, can be
extended to 100m by increasing power
Baseband Layer
• Piconet (Fig 2.8)
• 48-bit address
本圖取自 "Ad Hoc Wireless Networks", by C. Siva Ram Murthy and B. S. Manoj, published by Prentice Hall, 2004
Piconet
• Master + up to 7 active slaves
Fig 2.9 Operational States
本圖取自 "Ad Hoc Wireless Networks", by C. Siva Ram Murthy and B. S. Manoj, published by Prentice Hall, 2004
Fig 2.10 Transmission over a
channel
• ACL: asynchronous connectionless link
• SCO: synchronous connection oriented link
本圖取自 "Ad Hoc Wireless Networks", by C. Siva Ram Murthy and B. S. Manoj, published by Prentice Hall, 2004
Inquiry State
• A potential master sends inquiry packet on
inquiry hop sequence of frequencies
• A slave periodically enter inquiry scan state
and listen for inquiry packets
• When received, send response packet
containing hopping sequence and device
address
Page State
• Master estimate slave’s clock to determine hop
sequence, and send page message
• Slaves listen in page scan mode
• On receiving page message, slave enter page
response sub-state, send page response containing
its device access code (DAC)
• Master enter page response state (after receiving
slave’s response), inform slaves its clock and
address for determining hopping sequence and
synchronization
Scatternets and Issues
• Piconet may overlap both spatially and temporally
• Each piconet is characterized by a unique master
and hop independently
• As more piconets added, more probability of
collisions
• Device can participate in 2 or more piconets by
time sharing (as a slave in several piconets, but as
a master in only a single piconet)
• A group of piconets scatternet (Fig2.11)
本圖取自 "Ad Hoc Wireless Networks", by C. Siva Ram Murthy and B. S. Manoj, published by Prentice Hall, 2004
• Issues:
– Gateway nodes: bound back-and-forth, hard to
achieve full utilization
– Timing may miss:
Link Manager Protocol
• Power Management
– Active mode: active slaves are polled by master
– Sniff mode: master issues a command to slave to enter
sniff mode
– Hold mode: temporarily not support ACL packets,
performing scanning, paging, inquiring, or attending
another piconet
– Park mode: slave gives up its active member adress
• Security Management
• Minimal QoS support by allowing control over
parameters such delay and jitter
2.5.4 Bluetooth Profiles
• Promote interoperability among many
implementations of bluetooth protocol stack
• Provide a clear and transparent standard that can
be used to implement a specific user end function
• 4 categories
– Generic profiles
– Telephony profiles
– Networking profiles
– Serial and object exchange profiles