Wireless Networks

The terms Wireless and Mobile get tossed quite

frequently in any discussion of Wireless Communication

or Wireless Technology.
Wireless Communication is simply a medium.
Wireless Communication is about the tools used to
communicate from one device to another.
As subscribers to such technology, one needs to find the
best type of wireless services that suits his needs.

Guidelines for Wireless Protocols

Unlimited roaming and range:
The location of the user with the portable device is

irrelevant. No matter how far or how near a user is from

the base provider, data can still be sent and received.
Guarantee of Delivery:
All messages and data is guaranteed to be delivered

regardless of where a user is located or the users status.

Even if the portable device is turned off, when it is turned
on again, the user will see a new message.

Dependability of Delivery:
All messages are guaranteed of accurate and full

transmission.
Notification:
Notifies the user that there is data that has been sent and

needs to be looked at.

 Connectivity Options:
Send and receiver are given a wide range of options not

only in hardware for the portable device, but also are given
options in receiving messages (choosing a type of
connection for instance).
Millions of Users:
Ability to engage millions of users.

Priority Alerts:
Able to distinguish between messages and data that are of

higher importance than others. Able to control high-priority

data traffic and do so correctly and rapidly.
Communication:
The ability to communicate between one user to another

through one portable device to another where each

portable device holds reliable and user-friendly software
applications.

 Host Reconfiguration:
The ability to reconfigure when changing environments.
For example, Person A is carrying a Palm Pilot that uses

Bluetooth.
Person A enters the office where there is an entire Bluetooth
network set-up and Person As Palm Pilot configures to the
settings of the office network.
The end of the day comes, and Person A starts driving home.
Person A gets home and walks inside where Person As home is
set up with an entirely different Bluetooth network.
Person A brings the Palm Pilot out and the Palm Pilot
automatically reconfigures itself to the settings of the Bluetooth
network in Person As home.
Therefore, whether the Palm Pilot works in one environment and
can detect when it has been moved to another environment and
can set itself up wherever it is located.

 Host Mobility:
One host contains its settings on a network its IP

address, Subnet Mask, Gateway Address, and so on.

Now this one host decides to move somewhere else, this
means that the host will have to change its settings all over
again, but has to let others know that it has moved.
Flexible mobility allows the host to come and go as it
pleases and not even needing to alert others of its move.
Communication with the host is still possible even if it has
moved.
Dynamic Encapsulation:
The need to register a mobile host with its base agent,

perhaps using a login and logout request and alerts of

activation and inactivation.
This will prevent forged logins and having ones precious
date to be re-routed somewhere it should not be.

 WWW Model Diagram:

The World Wide Web Model follows a three-layer protocol.
Referring to the diagram, the WAP model follows the World Wide

Web model in that there is an Origin Server, a Proxy, and a

Gateway.
The Origin Server serves as the main web server where one
would find CGI scripts and other sorts of scripts.
The Origin Server also holds content that Clients will want to
view.
The Proxy serves as an application that connects from the Origin
Server to the Gateway.
The Proxy sends and receives content to the Gateway.
The Gateway is another server that acts as an origin server
between the client and the origin server.
Most clients would not be able to tell if they are in contact with
the Gateway service.
The Gateway serves as a protection for the Origin Server.
Not all World Wide Web Models have Gateways however; but
most do.

 The WAP Model has a similar set-up as the World Wide

Web Model.
There is also an Origin Server with a Gateway.
Again the Origin Server contains content and scripts,
while the Gateway acts as a server to the Clients.
The Gateway uses the proxy.
In the WAP Model, the Client, for example, could be a
mobile phone.
The Client makes a request in WML or in HDML
depending on the device and request, and the Gateway
will encode the request to the Origin Server and once
the Origin Server responds with information to send, it
sends the data back through the Gateway, where the
Gateway will encode the information again, and send it

 HTML vs. HDML vs. WML:

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the language that is used to

translate data to a web browser to be viewed by a user.

Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) is used to incorporate
handheld or portable device applications such as a micro browser.
Wireless Markup Language (WML) is a language derived from HTML
that is used with WAP to incorporate WAP features.
How to incorporate WAP:
Here is an example: We have a user that uses a WAP-compliant

mobile phone.
That is, his phone has WAP features on it such as a small email
application and a mini browser.
He decided to view something on his mini browser, thus requesting to
see data.
The request is passed to the WAP Gateway of his mobile service
network, where their servers retrieve the information in standard HTML
format or perhaps even in WML if the server can make the translation
through a filter in the WAP Gateway.
One the request is sent through the WAP Gateway, the WAP Gateway

 The network interface card provides the interface

between the computer device and the wireless network

infrastructure.
The NIC fits inside the computer device, but external
network adaptors are available that plug in and remain
outside the computer device.

 Wireless network standards define how a wireless NIC

operates. For example, a wireless LAN NIC might

implement the IEEE 802.11b standard. In this case, the
wireless NIC will only be able to interface with a wireless
network infrastructure that complies with the 802.11b
standard.

 Industry-Standard Architecture (ISA)

Extended Industry-Standard Architecture (ISA)
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
The PCI bus is the most popular interface for PCs today and boasts

high performance.
Intel originally developed and released PCI in 1993, and it satisfies the
needs of the recent generations of PCs for multimedia and graphics.
PCI cards were the first to popularize "plug-and-play" technology, which
makes it easy to install the NIC.
PCI circuitry can recognize compatible PCI cards and work with the
computer's operating system to set the configurations for each card.
PC Card
The PC Card was developed in the early 1990s by the Personal

Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA).

The PC Card is a credit-card-sized device that provides extended
memory, modems, connectivity to external devices, as well as wireless
LAN capabilities to small computer devices such as laptops and PDAs.
In fact, they are the most widely available NICs available.
They are more popular than ISA or PCI cards because of use in a
growing number of laptops and PDAs.

 The infrastructure of a wireless network interconnects

wireless users and end systems.

The infrastructure might consist of base stations, access
controllers, application connectivity software, and a
distribution system.
An access point, for instance, represents a generic base
station for a wireless LAN.
Residential gateways and routers are more advanced forms
of base stations that enable additional network functions.
The gateway might have functions, such as access control
and application connectivity, that better serve distributed,
public networks.
A base station might support point-to-point or point-tomultipoint communications.
Point-to-point systems enable communications signals to flow
from one particular base station or computer device directly

 In the absence of adequate security, quality of service

(QoS), and roaming mechanisms in wireless network

standards, companies offer access-control solutions to
strengthen wireless systems.
The key component to these solutions is an access
controller, which is typically hardware that resides on the
wired portion of the network between the access points
and the protected side of the network.
Access controllers provide centralized intelligence
behind the access points to regulate traffic between the
open wireless network and important resources.
In some cases, the access point contains the access
control function.

 Authentication
Most access controllers have a built-in database for authenticating
users; however, some offer external interfaces to authentication servers
such as Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) and
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
For smaller, private networks, an internal database might suffice. For
enterprise solutions, however, external and centralized authentication
servers provide better results.
Encryption
Some access controllers provide encryption of data from the client to the
server and back, using such common methods such as IPSec.
This provides added protection beyond what the native wireless network
standard provides. Some of these features, however, are also part of
web browsers.
Subnet Roaming
In order to support roaming from one network to another, access
controllers provide roaming across subnets without needing to reauthenticate with the system.
As a result, users can continue utilizing their network applications
without interruption as they roam about a facility.
This feature is especially useful for larger installations where access to
the network for specific users will span multiple subnets.

 Bandwidth Management
Because users share bandwidth in a wireless network, it's important
to have a mechanism to ensure specific users don't hog the
bandwidth.
Access controllers provide this form of bandwidth management
through the assignment of user profiles based on required QoS
levels.
A profile specifies the types of services, such as web browsing, email, and video streaming, as well as performance limits.
For example, an unsubscribed visitor attempting to utilize a public
wireless LAN could classify as fitting a "visitor" profile, which might
only allow access to information related to the local hotspot.
A subscriber, however, could have a different role that allows him to
have a broadband Internet connection.

 The IEEE 802.3 standard is the basis for Ethernet and

specifies the use of the carrier sense multiple access

(CSMA) protocol to provide access to a shared medium,
such as twisted-pair wiring, coaxial cable, and optical
fiber.
CSMA is the predominant medium access standard in
use today by both wired and wireless networks.
CSMA enables sharing of a common medium by
allowing only one NIC to transmit information at any
particular time.

 IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers) have

drafted certain standards for wireless equipments and each

equipment needs to support one of them or multiples of them
so that they can inter operate with wireless equipments made
by other vendors. The different standards are:
IEEE 802.11 b This was a very early standard and supports
a maximum throughput of 11 Mbps and operates in the 2.4
Ghz spectrum
IEEE 802.11 a This is a more recent standard supporting a
maximum throughput of 54 Mbps and operates in the 5 Ghz
spectrum
IEEE 802.11 g This is the most common standard
supporting a maximum throughput of 54 Mbps and operates
in the 2.4 Ghz spectrum Almost every laptop and access
point should support this.
IEEE 802.11 n This is the latest standard supporting a
maximum throughput of 300 Mbps now and operates in both

 Wireless Medium
The wireless medium (WM) is used for the actual transfer

of information between the entities of a WLANthat is, air

and space.
Various types of data can be encoded into a type of
electromagnetic disturbance called radio waves.
These radio waves are then transmitted over the air (our
medium) to their destination, where they are decoded back
into useful data.
Wireless Station
Any device that implements the IEEE 802.11 standard is

called a wireless station (STA).

Wireless STAs are not very useful by themselves; they
need other wireless or wired devices to send information to
and receive information from in order to make them useful.

 Access Point
The access point (AP) is a type of STA. Specifically, it helps

link wireless stations to the wired stations or resources, or it

may simply be used for connecting wireless STAs to one
another.
Basic Service Set
The basic service set (BSS) is a logical entity in a WLAN.
The BSS can also be viewed as a type of WLAN topology.

BSSs come in two official types: independent BSS and

infrastructure BSS.
A third, but unofficial, topology type exists, called a
wireless distribution system (WDS).
Its unofficial because it is not officially sanctioned or
described in the 802.11 specification, and neither is it
sanctioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance special interest group.

 Infrastructure BSS Infrastructure BSS, frequently

referred to simply as a BSS, makes use of an AP.

Most WLANs operate in this mode.
The STAs that participate in the infrastructure BSS do
not communicate directly with each other; all
communications go through the AP.
The IEEE 802.11 standard defines the BSS as a set of
stations (STAs) that have successfully synchronized
amongst themselves using the appropriate functions.
These functions are called primitives in the 802.11
technical jargon.

 The PHY layer for IEEE

802.11 specifies the

wireless signaling
techniques used for
transmitting and receiving
information over the
airwaves.

Frequency-hopping
spread
spectrum (FHSS)

This signaling (modulation) technique specifies use in

the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM)
frequency band.
The specific frequency range is 2.4022.480 GHz.
FHSS works by making the signals hop (or jump
from one to another) through the allowed frequency
channels in a predetermined sequence. For example, a
predetermined sequence can be as simple as saying
that
every 5 seconds the system will hop to a new channel
within the ISM frequency ranges.
FHSS is one of the modulation techniques used in
early
WLAN implementations and is rarely used today. It
supports data rates of 12 Mbit/s.

Direct-sequence spread This signaling (modulation) technique specifies use in

spectrum (DSSS)
the 2.4 GHz ISM band.
The specific frequency range is 2.4002.497 GHz.
Systems implementing this PHY can support 1 Mbit/s
and 2 Mbit/s data rates.

High rate direct

sequence
spread spectrum
(HR/DSSS)

An extension or enhancement of the DSSS PHY. It

also
operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency bands.
Systems implementing this PHY can provide data
rates
of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbit/s.

Orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing
(OFDM)

Specifies use in the 5 GHz Unlicensed National

Information Infrastructure (UNII) frequency bands and
the 2.4 GHz ISM bands. Most of the recent IEEE 802.11
standards implement this PHY and its variants.
Compared to the other PHYs, OFDM generally
supports higher data rates. Systems implementing this
PHY can support 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 54 Mbit/s
data rates.

Extended rate
PHY (ERP)

The ERP PHY specification is actually several PHY

specifications in one. It provides extensions to the
existing PHY specifications, such as DSSS and OFDM.
The extensions are intended to enhance backward
compatibility
and coexistence with existing PHYs. It
operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

ERP-DSSS Provides support for systems that need to

implement the ERP PHY but also need to be
backwardcompatible
with DSSS PHY.
ERP-OFDM Implements the OFDM PHY purely for
operation, in the 2.4 GHz band. Systems implementing
this PHY can support 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and
54 Mbit/s data rates.
DSSS-OFDM Provides a mixed mode (or hybrid)
operation for DSSS and OFDM systems. Older DSSS
systems can interpret parts of the communication (such
as the header) and the newer OFDM-based systems can
interpret the header and the actual data payload parts
of the communication.