1.

BASIC OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
(Abesamis, Elezar & Gahol ,Cristal Jane)

Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, words, writings,

images and sounds or information of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic
systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication
participants includes the use of technology. It is transmitted either electrically over physical
media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are often
divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. Since the
Latin term communicatio is considered the social process of information exchange, the term,
telecommunications, is often used in its plural form because it involves many different
technologies.

Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons,
smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs. Other examples of
pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats,
lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. 20th and 21st century technologies for long-distance
communication usually involve electrical and electromagnetic technologies, such as telegraph,
telephone, and teleprinter, networks, radio, microwave transmission, fiber optics, and
communications satellites.

A revolution in wireless communication began in the first decade of the 20th century with
the pioneering developments in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909. Other notable pioneering inventors and developers in the field of
electrical and electronic telecommunications include Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse
(inventors of the telegraph), Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone), Edwin
Armstrong and Lee de Forest (inventors of radio), as well as Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie
Baird and Philo Farnsworth (some of the inventors of television).

The word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele (τηλε), meaning
distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted
from the French, because its written use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer and
novelist Édouard Estaunié. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th
century. It comes from Old French comunicacion (14c., Modern French communication), from
Latin communicationem (nominative communicatio), noun of action from past participle stem of
communicare "to share, divide out; communicate, impart, inform; join, unite, participate in,"
literally "to make common," from communis".
History

Beacons and pigeons

Homing pigeons have occasionally been used throughout history by different cultures.
Pigeon post had Persian roots, and was later used by the Romans to aid their military. Frontinus
said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also
conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons.
In the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in
1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a pigeon service to fly stock prices between Aachen and
Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed.

In the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of
relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could only pass a single bit of
information, so the meaning of the message such as "the enemy has been sighted" had to be
agreed upon in advance. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, when
a beacon chain relayed a signal from Plymouth to London.

In 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system
(or semaphore line) between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for
skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres (six to nineteen
miles). As a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was
abandoned in 1880.

Telegraph and telephone

Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the electric telegraph
in 1837. On July 25, 1837 the first commercial electrical telegraph was demonstrated by William
Fothergill Cooke, an English inventor, and Charles Wheastone, an English scientist. Both
inventors viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph"
not as a new device.

Samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he

unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837. His code was an important advance over
Wheatstone's signaling method. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully
completed on 27 July 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time.

The conventional telephone was invented independently by Alexander Bell and Elisha
Gray in 1876. Antonio Meucci invented the first device that allowed the electrical transmission
of voice over a line in 1849. However Meucci's device was of little practical value because it
relied upon the electrophonic effect and thus required users to place the receiver in their mouth to
"hear" what was being said. The first commercial telephone services were set-up in 1878 and
1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London.

Radio and television

Starting in 1894, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began developing a wireless

communication using the then newly discovered phenomenon of radio waves, showing by 1901
that they could be transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the start of wireless telegraphy
by radio. Voice and music were demonstrated in 1900 and 1906, but had little success. World
War I accelerated the development of radio for military communications. After the war,
commercial radio AM broadcasting began in the 1920s and became an important mass medium
for entertainment and news. World War II again accelerated development of radio for the
wartime purposes of aircraft and land communication, radio navigation and radar. Development
of stereo FM broadcasting of radio took place from the 1930s on-wards in the United States and
displaced AM as the dominant commercial standard by the 1960s, and by the 1970s in the United
Kingdom.

On 25 March 1925, John Logie Baird was able to demonstrate the transmission of
moving pictures at the London department store Selfridges. Baird's device relied upon the
Nipkow disk and thus became known as the mechanical television. It formed the basis of
experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning 30 September
1929. However, for most of the twentieth century televisions depended upon the cathode ray tube
invented by Karl Braun. The first version of such a television to show promise was produced by
Philo Farnsworth and demonstrated to his family on 7 September 1927. After World War II, the
experiments in television that had been interrupted were resumed, and it also became an
important home entertainment broadcast medium.

Computers and the Internet

On 11 September 1940, George Stibitz transmitted problems for his Complex Number
Calculator in New York using a teletype, and received the computed results back at Dartmouth
College in New Hampshire. This configuration of a centralized computer (mainframe) with
remote dumb terminals remained popular well into the 1970s. However, already in the 1960s,
researchers started to investigate packet switching, a technology that sends a message in portions
to its destination asynchronously without passing it through a centralized mainframe. A four-
node network emerged on 5 December 1969, constituting the beginnings of the ARPANET,
which by 1981 had grown to 213 nodes. ARPANET eventually merged with other networks to
form the Internet. While Internet development was a focus of the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) who published a series of Request for Comment documents, other networking
advancement occurred in industrial laboratories, such as the local area network (LAN)
developments of Ethernet (1983) and the token ring protocol (1984).

Key concepts

Modern telecommunication is founded on a series of key concepts that experienced

progressive

development and refinement in a period of well over a century.

Basic elements

Telecommunication technologies may primarily be divided into wired and wireless

methods. Overall though, a basic telecommunication system consists of three main parts that are
always present in some form or another:

 A transmitter that takes information and converts it to a signal.

 A transmission medium, also called the physical channel that carries the signal. An
example of this is the "free space channel".
 A receiver that takes the signal from the channel and converts it back into usable
information for the recipient.
For example, in a radio broadcasting station the station's large power amplifier is the
transmitter; and the broadcasting antenna is the interface between the power amplifier and the
"free space channel". The free space channel is the transmission medium; and the receiver's
antenna is the interface between the free space channel and the receiver. Next, the radio receiver
is the destination of the radio signal, and this is where it is converted from electricity to sound for
people to listen to.

Sometimes, telecommunication systems are "duplex" (two-way systems) with a single

box of electronics working as both the transmitter and a receiver, or a transceiver. For example, a
cellular telephone is a transceiver. The transmission electronics and the receiver electronics
within a transceiver are actually quite independent of each other. This can be readily explained
by the fact that radio transmitters contain power amplifiers that operate with electrical powers
measured in watts or kilowatts, but radio receivers deal with radio powers that are measured in
the microwatts or nanowatts. Hence, transceivers have to be carefully designed and built to
isolate their high-power circuitry and their low-power circuitry from each other, as to not cause
interference.

Telecommunication over fixed lines is called point-to-point communication because it is

between one transmitter and one receiver. Telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called
broadcast communication because it is between one powerful transmitter and numerous low-
power but sensitive radio receivers.

Telecommunications in which multiple transmitters and multiple receivers have been

designed to cooperate and to share the same physical channel are called multiplex systems. The
sharing of physical channels using multiplexing often gives very large reductions in costs.
Multiplexed systems are laid out in telecommunication networks, and the multiplexed signals are
switched at nodes through to the correct destination terminal receiver.

Analog versus digital communications

Communications signals can be sent either by analog signals or digital signals. There are
analog communication systems and digital communication systems. For an analog signal, the
signal is varied continuously with respect to the information. In a digital signal, the information
is encoded as a set of discrete values (for example, a set of ones and zeros). During the
propagation and reception, the information contained in analog signals will inevitably be
degraded by undesirable physical noise. (The output of a transmitter is noise-free for all practical
purposes.) Commonly, the noise in a communication system can be expressed as adding or
subtracting from the desirable signal in a completely random way. This form of noise is called
additive noise, with the understanding that the noise can be negative or positive at different
instants of time. Noise that is not additive noise is a much more difficult situation to describe or
analyze, and these other kinds of noise will be omitted here.

On the other hand, unless the additive noise disturbance exceeds a certain threshold, the
information contained in digital signals will remain intact. Their resistance to noise represents a
key advantage of digital signals over analog signals.

Telecommunication networks

A telecommunications network is a collection of transmitters, receivers, and

communications channels that send messages to one another. Some digital communications
networks contain one or more routers that work together to transmit information to the correct
user. An analog communications network consists of one or more switches that establish a
connection between two or more users. For both types of network, repeaters may be necessary to
amplify or recreate the signal when it is being transmitted over long distances. This is to combat
attenuation that can render the signal indistinguishable from the noise. Another advantage of
digital systems over analog is that their output is easier to store in memory, i.e. two voltage states
(high and low) are easier to store than a continuous range of states.
Communication channels

The term "channel" has two different meanings. In one meaning, a channel is the physical
medium that carries a signal between the transmitter and the receiver. Examples of this include
the atmosphere for sound communications, glass optical fibers for some kinds of optical
communications, coaxial cables for communications by way of the voltages and electric currents
in them, and free space for communications using visible light, infrared waves, ultraviolet light,
and radio waves. Coaxial cable types are classified by RG type or "radio guide", terminology
derived from World War II. The various RG designations are used to classify the specific signal
transmission applications. This last channel is called the "free space channel". The sending of
radio waves from one place to another has nothing to do with the presence or absence of an
atmosphere between the two. Radio waves travel through a perfect vacuum just as easily as they
travel through air, fog, clouds, or any other kind of gas.

The other meaning of the term "channel" in telecommunications is seen in the phrase
communications channel, which is a subdivision of a transmission medium so that it can be used
to send multiple streams of information simultaneously. For example, one radio station can
broadcast radio waves into free space at frequencies in the neighborhood of 94.5 MHz
(megahertz) while another radio station can simultaneously broadcast radio waves at frequencies
in the neighborhood of 96.1 MHz. Each radio station would transmit radio waves over a
frequency bandwidth of about 180 kHz (kilohertz), centered at frequencies such as the above,
which are called the "carrier frequencies". Each station in this example is separated from its
adjacent stations by 200 kHz, and the difference between 200 kHz and 180 kHz (20 kHz) is an
engineering allowance for the imperfections in the communication system.

In the example above, the "free space channel" has been divided into communications
channels according to frequencies, and each channel is assigned a separate frequency bandwidth
in which to broadcast radio waves. This system of dividing the medium into channels according
to frequency is called "frequency-division multiplexing". Another term for the same concept is
"wavelength-division multiplexing", which is more commonly used in optical communications
when multiple transmitters share the same physical medium.

Another way of dividing a communications medium into channels is to allocate each

sender a recurring segment of time (a "time slot", for example, 20 milliseconds out of each
second), and to allow each sender to send messages only within its own time slot. This method of
dividing the medium into communication channels is called "time-division multiplexing"
(TDM), and is used in optical fiber communication. Some radio communication systems use
TDM within an allocated FDM channel. Hence, these systems use a hybrid of TDM and FDM.

Modulation
The shaping of a signal to convey information is known as modulation. Modulation can
be used to represent a digital message as an analog waveform. This is commonly called "keying"
– a term derived from the older use of Morse Code in telecommunications – and several keying
techniques exist (these include phase-shift keying, frequency-shift keying, and amplitude-shift
keying). The "Bluetooth" system, for example, uses phase-shift keying to exchange information
between various devices. In addition, there are combinations of phase-shift keying and
amplitude-shift keying which is called (in the jargon of the field) "quadrature amplitude
modulation" (QAM) that are used in high-capacity digital radio communication systems.

Modulation can also be used to transmit the information of low-frequency analog signals
at higher frequencies. This is helpful because low-frequency analog signals cannot be effectively
transmitted over free space. Hence the information from a low-frequency analog signal must be
impressed into a higher-frequency signal (known as the "carrier wave") before transmission.
There are several different modulation schemes available to achieve this [two of the most basic
being amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM)]. An example of this process
is a disc jockey's voice being impressed into a 96 MHz carrier wave using frequency modulation
(the voice would then be received on a radio as the channel "96 FM"). In addition, modulation
has the advantage that it may use frequency division multiplexing (FDM).

2. Development in Telecommunication
(Labor, Krishna Louise L.)

Telecommunication is defined as the science and technology of communication over a

distance. The ability to convey information quickly, accurately, and efficiently has always been
one of the main focuses driving human innovation. From prehistoric man with their signal fires
to the smartphone-wielding high-powered executives of today, communication still remains a
key for survival and success. The history of telecommunication illustrates this never-ending push
for progress as it steadily parallels human growth, becoming more widespread and efficient as
the development of modern civilization unfolds.

Prehistoric Era: Fires, beacons, smoke signals, communication drums, horns: Man's first
attempts at distance communication were extremely limited. Prehistoric man relied on fire and
smoke signals as well as drum messages to encode information over a limited geographic area as
they attempted to contact neighboring clans. These signals also needed to have very simple, pre-
decided meanings like "safe" or "danger" or "victory" or could be used as a form of alarm system
in order to alert prehistoric clans to predators or invading clans.
History of Communication

6th century BCE: Mail: Cyrus the Great was a Persian emperor at the height of Persia's power
in the 6th century BCE. The empire was so vast that Cyrus couldn't easily communicate from
one end to the other: He is credited as having established the first postal system in the history of
the world. Other ancient powers like Egypt, Rome, and China eventually built their own postal
systems later on.
5th century BCE: Pigeon post: Persia and Syria are credited with establishing the first pigeon
messaging system around the 5th century BCE due to the discovery that pigeons have an
uncanny ability to find their way back to their nests regardless of the distance. Travelers would
bring doves and pigeons along with them, attach messages to them and release them to fly back
home. Later on, pigeons would be used by Romans to report the outcomes of sporting events and
by Egyptians for military communications.

4th century BCE: Hydraulic semaphore: In the 4th century BCE, the hydraulic semaphore
was designed in ancient Greece as a method of communication, and it was vital during the first
Punic War. Very much like early smoke signals or beacons, it involved a network of identical
containers on separate hills, each with a vertical rod floated in it. These rods would have
predetermined codes inscribed at various intervals. Someone who wished to communicate would
signal another with a torch; they would synchronize and then simultaneously open their spigots
and drain the water until it was at the desired code. This system also had the same limitations as
smoke signals - the messages had to be pre-determined prior to sending them.

Circa 490 BCE: Heliographs (shield signals): The heliograph or shield signal was first
documented during the famous Greek battle of Marathon that took place in 490 BCE. A
heliograph involves the shining of the sun on a polished object like a shield or mirror.
Interestingly enough, in this instance, the signal given was not really understood, since its
meaning had not been clearly agreed upon prior to it being used.

15th century CE: Maritime flag semaphore: The ability to communicate between ships was
very difficult before the 15th century. At that time, flag semaphore, a special code involving the
positions of two hand-held flags, was introduced. Each position and motion represented a letter
or number. This made it very easy for fleets to communicate.
1672: First experimental acoustic (mechanical) telephone: Robert Hooke is first credited with
creating an acoustic telephone in 1672. Hooke discovered that sound could be transmitted over
wire or string into an attached earpiece or mouthpiece. At the time, it's not clear that he was
aware of the implications of this discovery, as his notes point toward his desire to use this device
to make music.

1790: Semaphore lines (optical telegraphs): Using the maritime flag semaphore as a starting
point, the Chappe brothers, two French inventors, created the first optical telegraph system in
1790. The optical telegraph was a system of pendulums set up somewhere high like on a tower or
the top of a town clock. The telegraph would swing its mechanical arms around and sign
messages from one tower to the next. It was the first telecommunications system in Europe.

1838: Electrical telegraph: Samuel B. Morse had been working on the idea of a recording
telegraph with friends Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale. They discovered that when connecting two
model telegraphs together and running electricity through a wire, you could send messages by
holding or releasing the buttons in a series of intervals. This became known as Morse code and
lay the foundation for modern land-line phones.

1858: First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable: At this point, most of Britain and the United States
had telegraph stations and were able to regularly communicate within their own countries, but a
man named Cyrus Field from New York wanted to lay the first transatlantic telephone cable to
connect England and the United States by telegraph. This project, though it was met with many
setbacks, was finally completed in August of 1858.

1867: Signal lamps: In 1867, the first dots and dashes were flashed by signal lamps at sea. The
idea was that of British Admiral Phillip Colomb, who took the design of signal lamp inventor
Arthur C.W. Aldis and implemented this method of communication as well as his own code in
order for the ships in his fleet to easily communicate. This code was similar to Morse code, but
eventually, Morse code became more widely used.

1876: Telephones: The year 1876 was a big one for Alexander Graham Bell. Having come to the
U.S. as a teacher for the deaf, he had been trying to figure out a way to transmit speech
electronically. Despite little support from his friends, he successfully invented the telephone in
March of 1876.

1877: Acoustic phonograph: Inventor Thomas Alva Edison made incredible strides in sound
recording and transmission when he completed the first acoustic phonograph in August of 1877.
He had been trying to improve and finalize the model for the telephone when he realized that by
attaching a needle to the phonograph diaphragm and a tin-foil cylinder on which the needle could
record spoken words, he could record and play back sounds.

1880: Telephony via light-beam photophones: In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell took the
money he'd received for successfully creating the telephone, set up a lab and got to work
improving his invention. The fruit of his labor was the photophone, a device capable of
transmitting sound in a beam of light. In essence, Bell had made the first wireless call in history!

1893: Wireless telegraphy: Nikolai Tesla was the first to successfully transmit radio waves
wirelessly through a transmitter in 1893. He patented his work, which was lucky because shortly
after that, Guglielmo Marconi, another inventor, alleged that Tesla had copied his work. During
the legal battle that ensued, this was found to be untrue. Tesla continued to experiment with
wireless transmission and attempted to create a more efficient light bulb.

3. LAN & WLAN

(Santos, Vanessa Angel &. Miranda, Marinille A)

3.1 LAN or Local Area Networks

A local-area network (LAN) is a computer network that spans a relatively small area.
Most often, a LAN is confined to a single room, building or group of buildings, however, one
LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves.
A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN). The difference
between a LAN and WAN is that the wide-area network spans a relatively large geographical
area. Typically, a WAN consists of two or more local-area networks (LANs) and are often
connected through public networks.

3.1.1 Nodes on a Local Area Networks (LAN)

Most LANs connect workstations and personal computers. Each node (individual
computer) in a LAN has its own CPU with which it executes programs, but it also is able to
access data and devices anywhere on the LAN. This means that many users can share expensive
devices, such as laser printers, as well as data. Users can also use the LAN to communicate with
each other, by sending email or engaging in chat sessions.

LANs are capable of transmitting data at very fast rates, much faster than data can be transmitted
over a telephone line; but the distances are limited and there is also a limit on the number of
computers that can be attached to a single LAN.

3.1.2 Types of Local Area Networks (LANs)

There are many different types of LANs, with Ethernets being the most common for PCs. Most
Apple Macintosh networks are based on Apple's AppleTalk network system, which is built into
Macintosh computers. The following characteristics differentiate one LAN from another:

Topology: The geometric arrangement of devices on the network. For example, devices can be
arranged in a ring or in a straight line.

Protocols: The rules and encoding specifications for sending data. The protocols also determine
whether the network uses a peer-to-peer or client/server architecture.

Media: Devices can be connected by twisted-pair wire, coaxial cables, or fiber optic cables.
Some networks do without connecting media altogether, communicating instead via radio waves.

3.2 WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)

3.2.1 Introduction

A wireless local area network (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more
devices using wireless communication within a limited area such as a home, school, computer
laboratory, or office building. This gives users the ability to move around within a local coverage
area and yet still be connected to the network. Through a gateway, a WLAN can also provide a
connection to the wider Internet.
Most modern WLANs are based on IEEE 802.11standards and are marketed under the Wi-Fi
brand name.

The most common deployments are WLAN for local intranets within company buildings and as
a flexible wireless deployment in private homes. Many alternative deployments for WLAN have
appeared, but the most common of these are WLAN for public Internet access (hotspots).

3.2.2 In the beginning

In 1970, the University of Hawaii developed the first wireless network to wirelessly
communicate data among the Hawaiian Islands. However, it wasn’t until 1991 that the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (which I will describe in more detail next week)
began to discuss standardizing WLAN technologies. In 1997, the IEEE ratified the
original 802.11 standard—the “802.11” technology term simply refers to Wi-Fi.

In 1999 wireless was introduced to the general public as a “nice to have” with the 802.11 a and
b ratifications. These standards had very low speeds (up to 54 Mbps & 11Mbps respectively) but
it was ok, because there were no handheld mobile phones that utilized Wi-Fi and very few
laptops.

By 2003, however, some mobile devices that utilized Wi-Fi were coming out and portable
laptops were becoming more standard for both business and personal use. That is
when 802.11g was ratified— delivering up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz space. As we moved
closer to today, in 2007, the birth of the smartphone really came about and along with it came the
ratification of 802.11n.

The “n” standard brought about faster processing speeds of up to 450 Mbps for Wi-Fi and it
supported both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz devices. Today, smart devices are robust enough to replace
specialized, more expensive laptop technologies so wireless has had to catch up.

3.2.3 Advantages of WLAN

What are the concrete benefits of WLAN over wired networks? While the most obvious is
mobility, there are advantages also in building and maintaining a wireless network. Let us look at
the benefits more closely:

 Mobility
Mobility is a significant advantage of WLANs. User can access shared resources without looking
for a place to plug in, anywhere in the organization. A wireless network allows users to be truly
mobile as long as the mobile terminal is under the network coverage area.
  Range of coverage

The distance over which RF and IR waves can communicate depends on product design
(including transmitted power and receiver design) and the propagation path, especially in indoor
environments. Interactions with typical building objects, such as walls, metal, and even people,
can affect the propagation of energy, and thus also the range and coverage of the system. IR is
blocked by solid objects, which provides additional limitations. Most wireless LAN systems use
RF, because radio waves can penetrate many indoor walls and surfaces. The range of a typical
WLAN node is about 100 m. Coverage can be extended, and true freedom of mobility achieved
via roaming. This means using access points to cover an area in such a way that their coverages
overlap each other. Thereby the user can wander around and move from the coverage area of one
access point to another without even knowing he has, and at the same time seamlessy maintain
the connection between his node and an access point.

 Ease of use
WLAN is easy to use and the users need very little new information to take advantage of
WLANs. Because the WLAN is transparent to a user's network operating system, applications
work in the same way as they do in wired LANs.
 Installation Speed, Simplicity and Flexibility
Installation of a WLAN system can be fast and easy and can eliminate the need to pull cable
through walls and ceilings. Furthermore, wireless LAN enables networks to be set up where
wires might be impossible to install

 Scalability
Wireless networks can be designed to be extremely simple or complex. Wireless networks can
support large numbers of nodes and large physical areas by adding access points to extend
coverage.

 Cost
Finally, the cost of installing and maintaining a WLAN is on average lower than the cost of
installing and maintaining a traditional wired LAN, for two reasons. First, WLAN eliminates the
direct costs of cabling and the labor associated with installing and repairing it. Second, because
WLANs simplify moving, additions, and changes, the indirect costs of user downtime and
administrative overhead are reduced.

3.2.4 Disadvantages of WLAN

 Security
Wireless networks are much more susceptible to unauthorized use. If you set up a wireless
network, be sure to include maximum security. You should always enable WEP (Wired
Equivalent Privacy) or WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), which will improve security and help to
prevent virtual intruders and freeloaders.
 Interference
Because wireless networks use radio signals and similar techniques for transmission, they are
susceptible to interference from lights and electronic devices.
Inconsistent connections: How many times have you hears “Wait a minute, I just lost my
connection?” Because of the interference caused by electrical devices and/or items blocking the
path of transmission, wireless connections are not nearly as stable as those through a dedicated
cable.

 Power consumption
The wireless transmitter in a laptop requires a significant amount of power; therefore, the battery
life of laptops can be adversely impacted. If you are planning a laptop project, be sure to have
power plugs and/or additional batteries available.
 Speed
The transmission speed of wireless networks is improving; however, faster options (such as
gigabit Ethernet) are available via cables. In addition, if set up a wireless network at home, and
you are connecting to the Internet via a DSL modem (at perhaps 3 Mbps), your wireless access to
the Internet will have a maximum of 3 Mbps connection speed.

3.2.5 Types of WLAN

The IEEE 802.11 has two basic modes of operation: infrastructure and ad hoc mode.
In ad hoc mode, mobile units transmit directly peer-to-peer. In infrastructure mode, mobile units
communicate through an access point that serves as a bridge to other networks (such
as Internet or LAN.

Since wireless communication uses a more open medium for communication in

comparison to wired LANs, the 802.11 designers also included encryption mechanisms: Wired
Equivalent Privacy (WEP, now insecure), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA, WPA2), to secure
wireless computer networks. Many access points will also offer Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a quick
(but now insecure) method of joining a new device to an encrypted network.

1. Infrastructure
Most Wi-Fi networks are deployed in infrastructure mode.

In infrastructure mode, a base station acts as a wireless access point hub, and nodes communicate
through the hub. The hub usually, but not always, has a wired or fiber network connection, and
may have permanent wireless connections to other nodes.

Wireless access points are usually fixed, and provide service to their client nodes within range.

Wireless clients, such as laptops, smartphones etc. connect to the access point to join the
network.

Sometimes a network will have a multiple access points, with the same 'SSID' and security
arrangement. In that case connecting to any access point on that network joins the client to the
network. In that case, the client software will try to choose the access point to try to give the best
service, such as the access point with the strongest signal.

2. Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-Peer or ad hoc wireless LAN

An ad hoc network (not the same as a WiFi Direct network is a network where stations
communicate only peer to peer (P2P). There is no base and no one gives permission to talk. This
is accomplished using the Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS).

A WiFi Direct network is another type of network where stations communicate peer to peer.

In a Wi-Fi P2P group, the group owner operates as an access point and all other devices are
clients. There are two main methods to establish a group owner in the Wi-Fi Direct group. In one
approach, the user sets up a P2P group owner manually. This method is also known as
Autonomous Group Owner (autonomous GO). In the second method, also called negotiation-
based group creation, two devices compete based on the group owner intent value. The device
with higher intent value becomes a group owner and the second device becomes a client. Group
owner intent value can depend on whether the wireless device performs a cross-connection
between an infrastructure WLAN service and a P2P group, remaining power in the wireless
device, whether the wireless device is already a group owner in another group and/or a received
signal strength of the first wireless device.

A peer-to-peer network allows wireless devices to directly communicate with each other.
Wireless devices within range of each other can discover and communicate directly without
involving central access points. This method is typically used by two computers so that they can
connect to each other to form a network. This can basically occur in devices within a closed
range.

If a signal strength meter is used in this situation, it may not read the strength accurately and can
be misleading, because it registers the strength of the strongest signal, which may be the closest
computer.
Hidden node problem: Devices A and C are both communicating with B, but are unaware of each
other

IEEE 802.11 defines the physical layer (PHY) and MAC (Media Access Control) layers based
on CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance). The 802.11
specification includes provisions designed to minimize collisions, because two mobile units may
both be in range of a common access point, but out of range of each other.

3. Bridge
A bridge can be used to connect networks, typically of different types. A wireless Ethernet bridge
allows the connection of devices on a wired Ethernet network to a wireless network. The bridge
acts as the connection point to the Wireless LAN.

4. Wireless distribution system

A Wireless Distribution System enables the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE
802.11 network. It allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points
without the need for a wired backbone to link them, as is traditionally required. The notable
advantage of DS over other solutions is that it preserves the MAC addresses of client packets
across links between access points.

An access point can be either a main, relay or remote base station. A main base station is
typically connected to the wired Ethernet. A relay base station relays data between remote base
stations, wireless clients or other relay stations to either a main or another relay base station. A
remote base station accepts connections from wireless clients and passes them to relay or main
stations. Connections between "clients" are made using MAC addresses rather than by specifying
IP assignments.

All base stations in a Wireless Distribution System must be configured to use the same radio
channel, and share WEP keys or WPA keys if they are used. They can be configured to different
service set identifiers. WDS also requires that every base station be configured to forward to
others in the system as mentioned above.

WDS may also be referred to as repeater mode because it appears to bridge and accept wireless
clients at the same time (unlike traditional bridging). Throughput in this method is halved for all
clients connected wirelessly.When it is difficult to connect all of the access points in a network
by wires, it is also possible to put up access points as repeaters.

3.2.6 Practical Use of Wlan

Wireless LANs have many applications in the real world. They are frequently used to
enhance a wired network, not to completely replace them. The following describes some of the
applications that are made possible through the power and flexibility of wireless LAN
technology.

Healthcare

Doctors and nurses equipped with laptops or PDAs have faster access to patient data.
Furthermore, in an emergency situation they can communicate with other departments within the
hospital by using WLAN in order to provide quick diagnostics. This is an area where WLAN is
allready relatively widely used. As in a majority of cases, WLAN is used to enhance an allready
existing wired network.

Conducting everyday business

In business, people can work productively with customers or suppliers in meeting rooms - there
is no need to leave the room to check if important emails have arrived or print big files. Instead
you can send them from one laptop to another. Senior executives in meetings can make quicker
decisions because they have access to real-time information.

Network managers in older buildings

Network managers in older buildings, such as schools, hospitals, and warehouses, find WLANs
to be a most cost-effective infrastructure solution. When building a new network or expanding
the old in-house network, few if any cables need be drawn thru the walls and ceilings.

Network managers in dynamic environments

Network managers in dynamic environments minimize the cost of moves, network extensions,
and other changes by eliminating the cost of cabling and installation. The mobile nature of
WLAN allows the building and testing of a new network before moving to mission-critical
surroundings.
Education
Connectivity to the University Network for collaborative class activities Ability to access
research sources without requiring a hard point

3.2.7 Developments

Emerging Developments

Fundamental breakthroughs in information theory, which first emerged during the time of
the early development of wireless LANs, have now reached a level of maturity and Proceedings
of the Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference and Exhibition (DATE’05) 1530-
1591/05 $ 20.00 IEEE acceptance that is allowing them to drive the quest for higher spectral
efficiencies and data rates. So called “MIMO”, or multiple-input, multiple-output antenna
technology allows spectral efficiencies and hence data rates which were heretofore unreachable.
The future 802.11n standard is certain to incorporate this technology, and efficiencies up to 15
bps/Hz are likely to be specified at the highest rate modes which maintains the historical trend of
fivefold increases with each new standard. MIMO technology will provide benefits beyond only
enhanced data rate. Through the availability of spatial diversity provided by multiple antennas,
the range of a wireless LAN network in a fading multipath environment is extended several-fold
relative to a conventional signal antenna or SISO system. Other likely enhancements in the
802.11n standard will also increase the range of wireless networks, such as the use of LDPC
codes. Even closed loop, transmit side beamforming may be specified in order to improve rate
and reach. Another important development in wireless LAN technology is the emergence of
mesh networking. Mesh networks have the potential to dramatically increase the area served by a
wireless network. Mesh networks even have the potential, with sufficiently intelligent routing
algorithms, to boost overall spectral efficiencies attained by selecting multiple hops over high
capacity links rather than single hops over low capacity links.

Future Developments

One possible avenue of future development in wireless LAN technology is in the area of
“cooperative diversity.” Cooperative diversity can be viewed as somewhat of a cross between
MIMO techniques and mesh networking. In a cooperative diversity scheme, redundancy in
transmission is achieved in a manner analogous with diversity transmission in MIMO. However,
the redundant transmission is realized via the cooperation of third party devices rather than solely
from the originating device. In a cooperative diversity scheme, third parties which can
successfully decode an on-going exchange will effectively regenerate and relay, with appropriate
coding, the original transmission in order to improve the effective link quality between the
intended parties.
 4.1 THE INTERNET

(Tanasas, Erika Fae & Tan, Jessa M.)

4.1. What is the Internet?

The Internet is a worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that use the
TCP/IP set of network protocols to reach billions of users. The Internet began as a U.S
Department of Defense network to link scientists and university professors around the world.

A network of networks, today, the Internet serves as a global data communications

system that links millions of private, public, academic and business networks via an international
telecommunications backbone that consists of various electronic and optical networking
technologies.

Decentralized by design, no one owns the Internet and it has no central governing
authority. As a creation of the Defense Department for sharing research data, this lack of
centralization was intentional to make it less vulnerable to wartime or terrorist attacks.

The terms "Internet" and "World Wide Web" are often used interchangeably; however, the
Internet and World Wide Web are not one and the same.

The Internet is a vast hardware and software infrastructure that enables computer
interconnectivity. The Web, on the other hand, is a massive hypermedia database - a myriad
collection of documents and other resources interconnected by hyperlinks. Imagine the World
Wide Web as the platform which allows one to navigate the Internet with the use of a browser
such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Follow the Internet Timeline below to see how the Internet has evolved over the years
and take a glance at what lies ahead in the future as the Internet continues to change the world
we live in.

4.2 Internet Timeline

1957 – USSR launches Sputnik into space. In response, the USA creates the Advanced Research Projects
Agency (ARPA) with the mission of becoming the leading force in science and new technologies.
1962 – J.C.R. Licklider of MIT proposes the concept of a “Galactic Network.” For the first time ideas about
a global network of computers are introduced. J.C.R. Licklider is later chosen to head ARPA's research
efforts.

1962 - Paul Baran, a member of the RAND Corporation, determines a way for the Air Force to control
bombers and missiles in case of a nuclear event. His results call for a decentralized network comprised of
packet switches.

1968 - ARPA contracts out work to BBN. BBN is called upon to build the first switch.

1969 – RPANET created - BBN creates the first switched network by linking four different nodes in
California and Utah; one at the University of Utah, one at the University of California at Santa Barbara,
one at Stanford and one at the University of California at Los Angeles.

1972 - Ray Tomlinson working for BBN creates the first program devoted to email.

1972 - ARPA officially changes its name to DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

1972 - Network Control Protocol is introduced to allow computers running on the same network to
communicate with each other.

1973 - Vinton Cerf working from Stanford and Bob Kahn from DARPA begin work developing TCP/IP to
allow computers on different networks to communicate with each other.

1974 - Kahn and Cerf refer to the system as the Internet for the first time.

1976 - Ethernet is developed by Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe.

1976 – SATNET, a satellite program is developed to link the United States and Europe. Satellites are
owned by a consortium of nations, thereby expanding the reach of the Internet beyond the USA.

1976 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, sends out an email on 26 March from the Royal
Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern.

1976 - AT& T Bell Labs develops UUCP and UNIX.

1979 - USENET, the first news group network is developed by Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis and Steve Bellovin.

1979 - IBM introduces BITNET to work on emails and listserv systems.

1981 - The National Science Foundation releases CSNET 56 to allow computers to network without being
connected to the government networks.

1983 - Internet Activities Board released.

1983 - TCP/IP becomes the standard for internet protocol.

1983 - Domain Name System introduced to allow domain names to automatically be assigned an IP
number.

1984 - MCI creates T1 lines to allow for faster transportation of information over the internet.

1984- The number of Hosts breaks 1,000

1985- 100 years to the day of the last spike being driven on the Canadian Pacific Railway, the last
Canadian university was connected to NetNorth in a one year effort to have coast-to-coast connectivity

1987 - The new network CREN forms.

1987- The number of hosts breaks 10,000

1988 - Traffic rises and plans are to find a new replacement for the T1 lines.

1989- The Number of hosts breaks 100 000

1989- Arpanet ceases to exist

1990 - Advanced Network & Services (ANS) forms to research new ways to make internet speeds even
faster. The group develops the T3 line and installs in on a number of networks.

1990 - A hypertext system is created and implemented by Tim Berners-Lee while working for CERN.

1990- The first search engine is created by McGill University, called the Archie Search Engine

1991- U.S green-light for commercial enterprise to take place on the Internet

1991 - The National Science Foundation (NSF) creates the National Research and Education Network
(NREN).

1991 - CERN releases the World Wide Web publicly on August 6th, 1991

1992 – The Internet Society (ISOC) is chartered

1992- Number of hosts breaks 1,000,000

1993 - InterNIC released to provide general services, a database and internet directory.

1993- The first web browser, Mosaic (created by NCSA), is released. Mosaic later becomes the Netscape
browser which was the most popular browser in the mid 1990's.

1994 - New networks added frequently.

1994 - First internet ordering system created by Pizza Hut.

1994 - First internet bank opened: First Virtual.

1995 - NSF contracts out their access to four internet providers.

1995 - NSF sells domains for a $50 annual fee.

1995 – Netscape goes public with 3rd largest ever NASDAQ IPO share value

1995- Registration of domains is no longer free.

1996- The WWW browser wars are waged mainly between Microsoft and Netscape. New versions are
released quarterly with the aid of internet users eager to test new (beta) versions.

1996 – Internet2 project is initiated by 34 universities

1996 - Internet Service Providers begin appearing such as Sprint and MCI.

1996 - Nokia releases first cell phone with internet access.

1997- (Arin) is established to handle administration and registration of IP numbers, now handled by
Network Solutions (IinterNic)

1998- Netscape releases source code for Navigator.

1998-Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) created to be able to oversee a
number of Internet-related tasks

1999 - A wireless technology called 802.11b, more commonly referred to as Wi-Fi, is standardized.

2000- The dot com bubble bursts, numerically, on March 10, 2000, when the technology heavy NASDAQ
composite index peaked at 5,048.62

2001 - Blackberry releases first internet cell phone in the United States.

2001 – The spread of P2P file sharing across the Internet

2002 -Internet2 now has 200 university, 60 corporate and 40 affiliate members

2003- The French Ministry of Culture bans the use of the word "e-mail" by government ministries, and
adopts the use of the more French sounding "courriel"

2004 – The Term Web 2.0 rises in popularity when O'Reilly and MediaLive host the first Web 2.0
conference.

2004- Mydoom, the fastest ever spreading email computer worm is released. Estimated 1 in 12 emails
are infected.

2005- Estonia offers Internet Voting nationally for local elections

2005-Youtube launches

2006- There are an estimated 92 million websites online

2006 – Zimbabwe's internet access is almost completely cut off after international satellite
communications provider Intelsat cuts service for non-payment

2006- Internet2 announced a partnership with Level 3 Communications to launch a brand new
nationwide network, boosting its capacity from 10Gbps to 100Gbps

2007- Internet2 officially retires Abilene and now refers to its new, higher capacity network as the
Internet2 Network

2008- Google index reaches 1 Trillion URLs

2008 – NASA successfully tests the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet.
Using software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, dozens of space images are transmitted
to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about more than 32 million kilometers from Earth

2009 – ICANN gains autonomy from the U.S government

2010- Facebook announces in February that it has 400 million active users.

2010 – The U.S House of Representatives passes the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (H.R. 4061)

2012 - A major online protest shook up U.S. Congressional support for two anti-Web piracy bills - the
Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate. Many in the tech industry are
concerned that the bills will give media companies too much power to shut down websites.

4.3 The Influence and Impact Of The Internet

The influence of the Internet on society is almost impossible to summarize properly

because it is so all-encompassing. Though much of the world, unfortunately, still does not have
Internet access, the influence that it has had on the lives of people living in developed countries
with readily available Internet access is great and affects just about every aspect of life.

To look at it in the most general of terms, the Internet has definitely made many aspects
of modern life much more convenient. From paying bills and buying clothes to researching and
learning new things, from keeping in contact with people to meeting new people, all of these
things have become much more convenient thanks to the Internet.

Things that seemed like science fiction only a couple of decades ago such as paying your
bills from your mobile phone or accessing your music library anywhere are commonplace today
thanks to the Internet. The concept of cloud computing and having all of your files with you at all
times, even when you are miles away from your computer, is another aspect of the Internet that
gives people great convenience and mobility that were unimaginable before it. For example,
opening up and working on a Microsoft Word file located on your home computer can be done
from anywhere, as long as you have Internet access, thanks to programs like Dropbox and
Google Drive or a remote desktop access program or application.

Communication has also been made easier with the Internet opening up easier ways to
not only keep in touch with the people you know, but to meet new people and network as well.
The Internet and programs like Skype have made the international phone industry almost
obsolete by providing everyone with Internet access the ability to talk to people all around the
world for free instead of paying to talk via landlines. Social networking sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn have also contributed to a social revolution that allows people to
share their lives and everyday actions and thoughts with millions.

The Internet has also turned into big business and has created a completely new
marketplace that did not exist before it. There are many people today that make a living off the
Internet, and some of the biggest corporations in the world like Google, Yahoo and EBay have
the Internet to thank for their success. Business practices have also changed drastically thanks to
the Internet. Off-shoring and outsourcing have become industry standards thanks to the Internet
allowing people to work together from different parts of the world remotely without having to be
in the same office or even city to cooperate effectively.

All this only scratches the surface when talking about the Internet’s impact on the world
today, and to say that it has greatly influenced changes in modern society would still be an
understatement.

4.4 The Future: Internet2 and Next Generation Networks

The public Internet was not initially designed to handle massive quantities of data
flowing through millions of networks. In response to this problem, experimental national
research networks (NRN's), such as Internet2 and NGI (Next Generation Internet), are
developing high speed, next generation networks.

In the United States, Internet2 is the foremost non for profit advanced networking
consortium led by over 200 universities in cooperation with 70 leading corporations, 50
international partners and 45 nonprofit and government agencies. The Internet2 community is
actively engaged in developing and testing new network technologies that are critical to the
future progress of the Internet.

Internet2 operates the Internet2 Network, a next-generation hybrid optical and packet
network that furnishes a 100Gbps network backbone, providing the U.S research and education
community with a nationwide dynamic, robust and cost-effective network that satisfies their
bandwidth intensive requirements. Although this private network does not replace the Internet, it
does provide an environment in which cutting edge technologies can be developed that may
eventually migrate to the public Internet.

Internet2 research groups are developing and implementing new technologies such as
Ipv6, multicasting and quality of service (QoS) that will enable revolutionary Internet
applications.

New quality of service (QoS) technologies, for instance, would allow the Internet to
provide different levels of service, depending on the type of data being transmitted. Different
types of data packets could receive different levels of priority as they travel over a network. For
example, packets for an application such as videoconferencing, which require simultaneous
delivery, would be assigned higher priority than e-mail messages. However, advocates of net
neutrality argue that data discrimination could lead to a tiered service model being imposed on
the Internet by telecom companies that would undermine Internet freedoms.

More than just a faster web, these new technologies will enable completely new advanced
applications for distributed computation, digital libraries, virtual laboratories, distance learning
and tele-immersion.

As next generation Internet development continues to push the boundaries of what's

possible, the existing Internet is also being enhanced to provide higher transmission speeds,
increased security and different levels of service.
 REFERENCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunication

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0710/0710.4818.pdf

https://www.netlab.tkk.fi/opetus/s38118/s00/tyot/25/page4.shtml

https://www.netlab.tkk.fi/opetus/s38118/s00/tyot/25/page5.shtml

https://technologytobusiness.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/wireless-lans-advantages-and-
disadvantages/

https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/L/local_area_network_LAN.html

CCNA,CCNP by Todd Lammle, CCNA Practical Studies Guide by Gary Heap, LynnMaynes –
2002, fcit.usf.edu